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known. this election marks the largest senate gains for a president's party in a first midterm election since at least president kennedy's in 1962. there have been only four midterm elections since 1934 in which a president's party has gained even a single senate seat. as of now we picked up, it looks like, three, could be four, perhaps it could be two. but we picked up a lot. and most likely the number will be three. you people probably know that better than i do at this point because you've looked at the more recent numbers. 55 is the largest number of republican senators in the last 100 years. in the last 80 years a sitting president's party has only gained a cumulative total of
eight senate seats, averaging one per decade. so if we picked up two, three or four, that's a big percentage of that number, so in the lastle -- last 80 years you think of that. in president's midterm election he lost six senate seats including in the deep blue state of massachusetts. republicans captured at least four senate seats held by democrat incumbents and these are tremendously talented, hard-working people that did this. indiana, north dakota, florida, missouri, we also won two open senate seats in tennessee. i want to congratulate our great champion who did such a great
job in tennessee, marsha. and in utah, and arizona is looking very good. really very good. she's done a terrific job. that was a tough race and she's done a fantastic job. in each of these open seats democrats recruited very strong candidates with substantial fund-raising and media support. we were getting bombarded with money on the other side. in the house republicans dramatically outperformed historical precedents and overcame a historic number of retirements. the most house republican retirements in 88 years, 43 house republicans retired. now, i will say this, in many cases they were chairmen of committees and they left because any weren't chairmen because the republicans have a rule for six years and what that does is wonderful in one way, it lets
people come through the system and become chairmen and in another drives people out. when they are a chairman you don't want to go and you're a big deal and all of a sudden you're not doing that anymore so they leave. we had a lot of them leave. i guess you can flip a coin as to which system is better, the democrats do the other. some of their folks have been on those committees for a long time as chairmen. in 2010 president obama's first midterm, he lost 63 seats. by contrast as of the most current count, it looks like around 27 house seats or something and we'll figure that out pretty soon. we also had a slew of historic wins in the governors' races. the governors' races were incredible. again, it's very well funded, talented and skilled. democratic candidates and people that worked very, very hard, respectfully, for those candidates like oprah winfrey
who i like, i don't know if she likes me anymore but that's okay. she used to. but she worked very hard in georgia, very, very hard. and if you look at them, four governors' races crucial to 2020 and the presidential race, florida, iowa, ohio and georgia. the big ones. florida, iowa, ohio and georgia. can't get much more important than that. they were incredible. they were actually incredible campaigns too. incredible. as of right now, republicans will control the majority of governorships across the country including three great women who worked very hard, governors of alabama, south dakota and iowa. they worked very, very hard and they're very talented. by expanding our senate
majority, the voters have also clearly rebuked the senate democrats for their handling of the kavanaugh hearings, that was a factor, i think, maybe a very big factor the way that was handled, i think, was tremendous energy was given to the republican party by the way they treated then judge kavanaugh, now justice kavanaugh. and expressed their support for confirming more great pro-constitution judges. candidates who embraced our message of low taxes, low regulations, low crime, strong borders and great judges excelled last night. they excelled. they really -- i mean, we have a list of people that were fantastic and i'm just going to point them out. mike bost, rodney davis, andy
barr was fantastic. i went to kentucky. for the most part i didn't campaign for the house, but i did actually make a special trip for andy barr because he was in a very tough race in kentucky and he won. that was a very tough race. the polls were all showing that he was down and down substantially and he won and that one i did do, pete stauber of minnesota. great guy, he's new and ran a fantastic race. on the other hand they decided to -- let's stay away. they did very poorly. i'm not sure that i should be happy or sad but i feel just fine about it. carlos carbelo, mike coffman, too bad, mike. mia love, i saw mia love, she'd call me all the time to help her
with a hostage situation, being held hostage in venezuela but mia love gave me no love and she lost. too bad. sorry about that, mia. and barbara comstock was another one, i mean i think she could have won that race, but she didn't want to have any embrace. for that i don't blame her, but she lost substantially lost. peter roskam didn't want the embrace. eric paulsen didn't want the embrace and in new jersey i think he could have done well but didn't work out too good, bob hugin i feel badly because i think that could have been won, john faso decided not to embrace whether it's me or what we stand
for, but what we stand for meant a lot to most people and we've had tremendous support and tremendous support in the republican party among the biggest support in the history of the party. i've actually heard at 93%, it's a record but i won't say that because who knows. but we've had tremendous support. america is booming like never before, doing fantastic. we have larry kudlow here and he said the numbers are as good as he's ever seen numbers at any time for our country, but he's a young man so he hasn't seen that many numbers. where is larry? you're a young man, right, larry, and you haven't been doing this too long but they're as good as you've ever seen, and we may have -- if you have a question for larry, we'll do that but i want to send my warmest appreciation and regards
to majority leader mitch mcconnell. we really worked very well together. we have been working very well together. we actually have a great relationship. people just don't understand that, which is fine. and also to perhaps looks like i would think speaker nancy pelosi and i give her a lot of credit. she works very hard and she's worked long and hard. i give her a great deal of credit for what she's done and what she's accomplished. hopefully we can all work together next year to continue delivering for the american people including on economic growth, infrastructure, trade, lowering the cost of prescription drug, these are some of the things that the democrats do want to work on and i really believe we'll be able to do that i think we'll have a lot of reason to do it and i will say just as a matter of business, i spoke with some successful people last night, we
were watching the returns so if the republicans won and let's say we held on by two or one or three, it would have been very hard having that many republicans to ever even get support among republicans because there will always be one or two or three people that for a good reason or bad reason or grandstanding, we have that too, you've seen that, you've seen that, plenty of grandstanding but for certain reasons that many people, you're always going to have a couple that won't do it. so that puts us at a very bad position. in other words, had we kept -- and this is no -- i'm saying this for a very basic reason, it's common sense, it puts us in a tough position, we win by one or two or three and you'll have one or two or three or four or five say, look, we're not going to go along with that and we wouldn't even be able to get it in many cases out of the republicans' hands before we sent it on to the senate and now
we have a much easier path because the democrats will come to us with a plan for infrastructure, a plan for health care, a plan for whatever they are looking at and we'll negotiate. you know it's been very hard in the senate because we need essentially ten votes from democrats and we don't get those because the democrats do really stick together well. i don't agree with them on a lot of policy but i agree with them on sticking together. they stick together great so we. >> into the senate. we don't have the ten votes, and what happens? it doesn't get passed. even if it gets out of the house it doesn't get passed so under the new concept of what we're doing, i say come on, let me see what you have. they want to do things. you know, i keep hearing about investigations, fatigue, like
from the time almost from the time i announced i was going to rung, they've been giving us this investigation fatigue. it's been a long time. they got nothing, zero. you know why? because there is nothing but they can play that game but we can play it better because we have a thing called the united states senate and a lot of very questionable things were done between leaks of classified information and many other elements that should not have taken place and all you're going to do is end up in back and forth and back and forth and two years is going to go up and we won't have done a thing. i really think and i really respected what nancy said last night about bipartisanship and getting together and uniting. she used the word uniting and she used the bipartisanship statement which is so important because that's what we should be
doing. so we can look at us, they can look at us. then we can look at them and it'll go back and forth and it'll probably be very good for me politically. i could see it being extremely good politically because i think i'm better at that game than they are actually, but we'll find out. i mean, you know, we'll find out or we can work together. you can't do them simultaneous, by the way, oh, you can them. no, you can't. if they're doing that we're not doing the other just so you understand. so we won't be doing that, but now what happens is we send it to the senate and we'll get 100% democrat support and some republican support and if it's good i really believe we have republicans that will help with the approval process and they will really help with the approval process. so it really could be a beautiful bipartisan type of situation. if we won by one or two or three or four or five, that wouldn't happen and the closer it is, the
worse it is. this way they'll come to me. we'll negotiate. maybe we'll make a deal. maybe we won't. that's possible, but we have a lot of things in common on infrastructure. we want to do something on health care. they want to do something on health care. there are a lot of great things we can do together and now we'll set it up and get the democrats and we'll get the republicans or some of the republicans and i'll make sure that we send something up that the republicans can support and they're going to want to make sure they send up something that the democrats can support. so our great country is booming like never before and we're thriving on every single level, both in terms of economic and military strength, in terms of development and in terms of gdp. we're doing unbelievably. i will tell you our trade deals are coming along fantastically. the usmca and south korea is finished. usmca has gotten rave reviews.
we're not going to lose companies to other countries anymore. they're not going to do that because they have a tremendous economic incentive meaning it's prohibitive for them to do that, so it's not going to be like nafta which is one of the worst deals i've ever seen although we've made some other pretty bad ones too. now is the time for members of both parties to join together, put partisanship aside and keep the american economic miracle going strong. it is a miracle. we're doing so well and i've said it at a lot of rally, some of you have probably heard it so much you don't want to hear it again but when people come to my office, presidents, prime minister, they all congratulate me, almost the first thing on what we've done economically because it is really amazing. and our steel industry is back. our aluminum industry is starting to do really well. these are industries that were dead. our miners are working again.
we must all work together to protect our military. we have to do that. to support our law enforcement, secure our borders and advance really great position including environmental policy. we want crystal clean water, we want beautiful perfect air. air and water has to be perfect. at the same time we don't want to put ourselves at a disadvantage to other countries who are very competitive with us and who don't abide by the rules at all. we don't want to hurt other jobs. we don't want to hurt our factories. we don't want companies leaving. we want to be totally competitive and we are and right now we have just about the cleanest air, the cleanest water we've ever had and it's always going to be that way. we insist on it. so environmental is very important to me and with that i'll take a few questions if you'd like. whoa. i didn't know what happened. all right.
go ahead, jon. that was a lot of hands shooting up so quickly. there's a lot to talk about. >> mr. president, you talked at length just now about bipartisanship, the presumed speaker of the house nancy pelosi talked about it last night. i'm sure that's encouraging for the american people, but do you really believe given what the relationship has been like between this white house and the democratic party that that will happen? >> i think there's a good chance, john. i think there's a very good chance. >> will you have to compromise on certain issues to the point where it could hurt you in 2020 and do you expect that when the democrats take over the chairmanship of all these important committees you're going to get hit with a blizzard of subpoenas from the russian investigation to your cell phone use to your tax returns? >> then you're going to -- if that happen, then we're going to do the same thing and government comes to a halt and i would blame them because they now are going to be coming up with
policy. they're the majority in the house. i expect that they will come up with some fantastic ideas that i can support on the environment, on so many different things including prescription drug prices, which we've made a big dent in already, including some of the thing that is we're working on for the vets. we've gotten choices approved -- but there are a lot of other elements we want. there are many things we can get along on that we agree with them and they agree with us. i would like to see bipartisanship. i'd like to see unity and i think we have a very good chance -- maybe not on everything but i think we have a very good chance of seeing that. go ahead. >> one question on the lame duck, sir, and one on your cabinet. you toyed with the idea during the campaign of a shutdown before the midterms in order to secure border wall funding. are you prepared to go on a shutdown strategy during the lame duck since this might be
your last, best chance? >> not necessarily. >> to secure that? >> look, i speak to democrats all the time. they agree that a wall is necessary. a wall is necessary and as you know we're building the wall. we started but we should build it at one time. >> you want much more money and you want it much sooner. >> we need the money to bill the whole wall. now we have the military. now we have other elements of a wall that are pretty nasty to be honest with you, but it's nevertheless, it's pretty hard to get through it but, no, i'd like to see the wall. many of the people that will be dealing with, you know, in 2006 they approved the wall essentially. it was's very strong border fence but it was the same thing. and they all approved it. they all agreed. i have statements from every one of them saying we need the wall. they sound like me. but we do need it because we have people coming and i'm not just talking about the caravans. we have people coming through our border that you physically can't put that many people. it's a 2,000-mile stretch. you can't put that many people
along that stretch to guard it. and even if you did tremendous fight wog ensue. so we need the wall. many democrats know we need the wall and we'll just have to see what happens. i mean we'll be fighting for it. they have done everything in their power to make sure -- i got the military 700 million and 716 billion. the wall is a tiny, tiny fraction of the cost of that but their whole agenda has been to try not giving me anything for the wall. i really believe politically they're hurting themselves. i actually think politically that's a good thing but -- >> no shutdown snare yee. >> i can't commit but it's possible. >> can you give us clarity, sir, on your thinking currently now after the midterms about your attorney general and your deputy attorney general, do they have long-term term security? >> i'd rather answer that at a little bit different time. we're looking at a lot of different things including cabinet i'm very happy with most
of my cabinet. we're looking at different people for different pentagon, you know, it's very common after the midterms. i didn't want to do anything before the midterms but i will tell you that for the most part i'm extremely happy with my cabinet. i think mike pompeo has fit in so beautifully and has done -- >> your interior secretary? >> we're looking at that and i do want to study whatever is being said. >> is he in jeopardy. >> i think he's doing an excellent job but we will take a look at that and we'll probably have an idea about that in about a week. >> thank you, mr. president. >> thank you. wow. this is -- go ahead. he gave me a fair interview the other day so i might as well let him. >> picking up there, you told me the other day you are an open book, so -- >> i think i am an open book. >> so point blank, democrats go after your tax returns, will you try to block that or will you allow them to have it?
>> look, as i've told you they're under out did. they're extremely complex. people wouldn't understand them. they're done by among the biggest and best law firms in the country, same thing with the accounting firms. the accountants are very, very large power firm from the standpoint of respect, highly respected. big firm. a great law firm or you know it very well. they do these things, they put them in. but people don't understand tax returns. now, i did do a filing of over 100 page, i believe, which is in the offices and when people went and saw that filing and saw the magnitude of it, they were very disappointed and they saw the detail, you'd get far more from that and i guess we filed that now three times but you get far more from that than you could ever from a tax return but when you're under audit and i'm continuous out did because there are so many companies and it is a very big company, far bigger
thank you would even understand, but it's a great company, but it's big and it's complex and it's probably feet high. it's a very complex instrument and i think that people wouldn't understand it but if i were finished with the audit, i would have an open mind to it. i would say that but i don't want to do it during the audit and really no lawyer even from the other side, they say, often, not always but when you're under audit you don't subject it to that. you get it done and then you release it. so when that happens, if that happens, i would certainly have an open mind to it. >> so that means if the audit is still on, you will not turn over the tax returns or you're going to fight to block it. >> nobody would. nobody turns over a return when it's under audit. >> go ahead. >> i was tempted to ask you why you like oprah so much but i think i'll go on to the question that -- >> why do i like oprah?
what kind of a question is that? >> i'm just asking. >> a comedian here. i do like oprah, by the way, she was a person i knew well. came to my place in palm beach often and i have a lot of respect for her. unfortunately, she didn't do the trick. >> the real question is, you just said from this podium that -- are you offering a my way or highway scenario to the democrats, you're saying -- >> negotiation. not at all. >> if they start investigating you, that you can play that game and investigate them. >> better than them. >> can you compartmentalize that and still continue to work with them for the benefit of the rest of the country or are you -- or are all bets off. >> no, if they do that then all it is is a war-like posture. >> so wait a minute then the follow up -- >> you heard my answer. go ahead. >> well, since it's jim, i'll let it go. >> thank you, mr. president.
i want to challenge you on one of the statements that you made in the tail end of the campaign in the midterms. >> here we go. >> that, well, that this caravan was an invasion. >> i consider it to be -- >> it was not an invasion. ateman a group of migrants moving up from central america towards the border with the u.s. -- >> thank you for telling me that. i appreciate it. >> why did you characterize it as such and -- >> because i consider it an invasion. you and i have a difference of opinion. >> but do you think that you demonized immigrants in this elections to try to keep them -- >> i want them to come into the country but they have to come in legally. they have to come in, jim, through a process. i want it to be a process -- >> you are campaign had ang ad showing migrants climbing over walls. >> they weren't actors.
do you think they were actors? they weren't actors. they didn't come from hollywood. these were people -- this was an actual, you know, it happened a few days ago and -- there are. >> they're hundreds of miles away. that's not an invasion. >> honestly i think you should let me run the country, you run cnn and if you did it well, your ratings would be much higher. >> are you worried -- >> that's enough. that's enough. >> that's enough. >> excuse me, that's enough. >> i had one other question if i may ask on the russia investigation. are you concerned that you may have -- >> i'm not concerned about anything with the russian investigation because it's a hoax. that's enough. put down the mike. >> mr. president, are you worried about indictments coming down in this investigation? mr. president -- >> i'll tell you what, cnn should be ashamed of itself having you working for them. you are a rude, terrible person. you shouldn't be working for cnn. go ahead.
>> i think that's -- >> you're a very rude person. the way you treat sarah huckabee is horrible. you shouldn't treat people that way. >> go ahead, peter. >> in jim's defense i traveled with him and watched him. he is a dill dent -igent -- >> i'm not a big fan of yours. >> you repeatedly over the course of -- >> just sit down, please. >> pipe bombs -- >> when you report fake news which cnn does a lot, you are the enemy of the people. go ahead. >> mr. president, over the course of -- over the course of the last several days of the campaign, sir, sir, at the end of the campaign you repeatedly said americans need to fear democrats. you said democrats would unleash a wave of violent crime that endangers families everywhere. >> because they're weak on crime. excuse me. >> why are -- >> what, are you trying to be him? >> let me tell you, very simple. because they're very weak on
crime. because they have often suggested members and people within the democrat party at a high level have suggested getting rid of i.c.e., getting rid of law enforcement, that's not going to happen, okay. we want to be strong on the borders. we want to be strong on law enforcement. and i want to cherish i.c.e. because i.c.e. does a fantastic job. what they do for us is so -- really it's so unrecognized how good a job they do. so we want to take care of them and we want to hold them very close because they do a good job. >> but the question to be clear -- >> thank you very much. sit down. >> the question -- but you didn't answer my question. simply the question is why are you pitting americans against one another, sir? >> i'm not. >> is that how you view citizens of this country. >> i tell you what, we won a lot of elections last night. we did very well last night and -- >> in many ways -- >> i think it's going to have a very positive impact. i watched nbc this morning. they didn't report it exactly correctly but that's, you know, very, very -- that's the fact
with nbc, nothing i can do about that. but i want this country to have protection. we want security in our country. i want security, peter. i mean, you maybe don't think it's so important and i think when you don't have it, you are, indeed, unleashing crime. i teal that. >> you said you would scene an executive order on birthright citizenship. are you still going to -- >> you ask me that question later. >> go ahead. sure. >> thank you, mr. president. the investigation by the special counsel, robert mueller, has been going on since last spring. it's been over a year -- >> it's been a long time. >> it's been over your head, over republicans' heads. is this an opportunity for you, mr. president, to end that investigation? would you consider removing mr. mueller from his position? >> i could have ended it they time i wanted. i didn't. and there was no collusion. there was no anything. i didn't. they went after hackers in
moscow. i don't know about that they went after people with tax problems from years ago. they went after people with loans and other things, nothing to do with my campaign. this is an investigation where many, many millions of dollars has been spent and there's no collusion. it was supposed to be on collusion. there's no collusion and i think it's very bad for our country. i will tell you, i think it's a shame and a poll came out today, by the way from nbc or at least i saw it on nbc where a majority of the people do not agree with the mueller investigation or it wasn't approved -- they have approval and disapproval and it had a much higher diggs approval. it should end because it's very bad for our country. >> so if -- >> i'm not just talking about the tremendous expense. and the other thing is they should look at the other side also. they only look at one side.
they're not looking at all of the things that came up during this investigation. they don't do that. they should also get people that could be fair, not 13 or 14 or 17 i call them the angry democrats. they are angry people and it's a very unfair thing for this country. it's a very, very -- forget about unfair to me. it's very bad for our country. >> so, mr. president, if it's unfair -- >> please. >> if it's unfair to the country and it's costing millions of dollars, why don't you just -- >> think him the mike please. i've answered the question. take it. well, i'll give you -- i will give you voter suppression. you just have -- sit down, please. sit down. i didn't call you. i didn't call you. i didn't call you. i'll give you voter suppression, take a look at the cnn polls how inaccurate they were. that's called voter suppression. go ahead, please. >> thanks you, mr. president. >> in georgia? >> i'm not responding. i'm responding to -- excuse me, i'm not responding to
you. i'm talking to this gentleman. will you please sit down? excuse me. would you please sit down. please, go ahead. >> thank you, mr. president. now that the house of representatives -- >> very hostile. such a hostile media. it's so sad. you ask me -- no, you rudely interrupted him. you rudely interrupted him. go ahead. >> thank you, mr. president. do your demands remain the same to the united states congress on immigration in exchange for a daca fix, in exchange for amnesty for 1.7 million are you willing to change any of those demands you gave to congress early. >> i think we could do something having to do with daca and what really happened with daca, we could have done some pretty good work on daca but a judge ruled that daca was okay. had the judge not ruled that way i think we would have made a deal. once the judge ruled that way, the democrats didn't want to talk anymore. so it'll -- we'll see how it works out at the supreme court. >> do you still -- >> go ahead.
>> take a question from the international -- >> from where? go ahead. go ahead. >> mr. president -- >> go ahead. which group? where do you want me to take a question from? >> thank you. >> either one. either one. or both. are you together? go ahead. >> we're not together. mr. president, how do you respond to critics who say that your message on the campaign towards minorities have been polarizing. >> i don't think it has been at all. >> is the election of two muslim women, one is veiled to the house. is this a rebuke of this message -- >> i -- >> is it a rebuke of the message. do you think it's more reflective of multicultural america? >> well, that question -- i can only say this, you look at the employment and unemployment numbers for african-americans, for asian-american, for hispanic americans they're at an historic high.
a poll came out recently where my numbers with hispanics and with african-americans are the highest, the best they've ever been. that took place two or three days ago, the poll. i have the best numbers with african-american and hispan hispanic-american that i've ever had before. i can say this, you look at median income, you look at all of the employment and unemployment numbers, they're doing the best they've ever done and it reflects -- it really is reflective in the poll. >> mr. president, i'm from brooklyn so you'll understand me. my question is on health care. how is it possible to keep premiums down and cover pre-existing conditions without the individual mandate to fund it? >> well, first of all, what we're doing and if you look at the department of labor also secretary separately -- the secretary and what they've done they've come up with incredible health care plans causing great
competition and driving the prices right down, but we are getting rid of the individual mandate because it was very unfair to a lot of people but at the same time we're covering the people that need it. but the individual mandate was a disaster because people that couldn't necessarily afford it were having to pay for the privilege of not having to pay for health care and it was bad health care at that. so we are working many plans with health care and creating tremendous competition. we had obamacare repealed and replaced. unfortunately, one person changed his mind at the last moment and we had no democrat support. i have to say that we didn't have one vote. we would have repealed it, replaced it. we would have had a large-scale very good health care plan. now we're doing it a different way. we're doing it a different way. but getting rid of the individual mandate is a very, very popular thing and a very important thing and people very much appreciate it. go ahead.
that's enough. >> you went through the results and obviously studied them late last night. what lesson did you learn most from look at those results? was there one thing as you kind of reviewed them that you'll change your strategy not just for congress but kind of going forward. >> i think the results that i've learned and may be confirmed, i think people like me. i think people like the job i'm doing, frankly, because if you look at every place to do a rally i couldn't do it with everybody and it was very hard to do it with people in congress because they're just too many -- it would be too many stops, but i did it with andy barr as you know. and he won a tough race against mcgrath. that was a tough race in kentucky and he was down quite a bit and i went there and we had a tremendous very successful -- some of you were at that rally and he won that race but i could only do that so much because there's just so many players
involved but i did focus on the senate and we had tremendous success with the senate. really tremendous. >> can i ask one pormore questi. rare opportunity. a lot will rush to iowa, new hampshire. you know the democrats are already looking ahead to 2020. do you want to lock down your ticket right now, sir? will the vice president be your running mate in 2020? >> well, i haven't asked him but i hope so. where are you? mike, will you be my running mate? huh? stand up. raise your right hand? no, i'm only kidding. will you, thank you. okay, good. the answer is, yes, okay. [ applause ] >> that was unexpected but i feel very fine. yeah, please. >> thank you, mr. president. going back to the russia investigation and the potential investigations from the now democratic majority and congress, some say that you could stop all this by declassifying -- >> i could fire everybody right now but i don't want to stop it because politically i don't like
stopping it. it's a disgrace. it should have never been started because there was no crime. it is -- everybody has conflicts. they all have conflicts over there that are beyond anything that anybody has ever seen in terms of conflicts. from the fact that people ask for jobs from the fact that they have very good friends on the other side like really good friends like comey who by the way lied and leaked and also leaked classified information, nothing happened there. it might perhaps, maybe something is happening that i don't know about. i stay away from it but you know what i do, i let it just go on. they're wasting a lot of money but i let it go on because i don't want to do that but you're right, i could end it right now. i could say that investigation is over but it's really -- it's a disgrace, frankly, and it's an embarrassment to our country.
it's an embarrassment to the people of our country and it's too bad. go ahead. >> what about the declassification of the documents, some say that would clear -- >> we're looking at that very seriously. declassification. we're looking at it seriously. can i ask one more question. >> it's amazing how people on the other side just don't want those documents declassified but we're looking at that carefully. i certainly wanted to wait until after the midterms. >> can i ask you one more question, mr. president? okay. thank you. >> go ahead. >> thank you, mr. president. you have campaigned as a pro-life president. you have defended the rights of unborn children. now you have a divided congress. how are you going to push forward your pro-life agenda? >> i've been pushing and done a very good job and they're happy with me but it's a tough issue for the two sides. >> what are you going to do? >> what am i going to do? i won't be able to explain it to you because it is an issue that is a very divisive polarizing
issue but there is a solution. i think i have that solution and nobody else does. we're going to be -- we're going to be working on that. yes, go ahead, please. >> she took your place but that's okay. >> mr. president, just a quick question on rural america. in states like indiana, north dakota, folks turned out for republican candidates. could you talk a little about what this means for your agenda in terms of trade and the farm bill? >> the farm bill is working really well. i mean we could have it approved any time but we're looking to get work rule as proved. the farmers want it. i'd like it. the problem is the democrats are not giving us the ten voights that we need. we are -- everybody wants it. the farmers want it but the democrats are not approving the farm bill with work rules. we could have it very fast without the work rules but we want the work rules in and the democrats just don't want to vote for that, so at some point they'll have to pay maybe a price. jeff. >> mr. president, thank you very
much. >> thank you. >> have you seen any evidence that russia or china intervened in yesterday's election? >> we're going to make a full report and unlike the previous administration we've done a lot of work on that issue and if you look -- speak with the fbi, speak with the department of justice, speak to homeland security, we've spent a lot of time, it gets very little coverage in the papers, i mean, you cover the nonsense part but you don't cover the important -- this is very important and we have been working very hard on china and russia and everybody else looking into our elections or meddling with our elections, but people tend thought to write about it but we have worked very hard as you probably heard. >> what do you intend to say, sir, to president xi and president putin when you meet with them late they are month? >> well, i have a good relationship with both. i know president xi better but i think i have a very good relationship with both. i actually had a very good meeting in russia thaw people
didn't agree with but that's okay. it doesn't much matter obviously because here i am but the fact is i had a very, very good meeting, a very, very good meeting with president putin and a lot was discussed about security, about syria, about ukraine, about the fact that president obama allowed a very large part of ukraine to be taken and right now you have submarines off that particular parcel that we're talking about. >> that was president putin who annexed crimea. >> that was president obama's regime. that was during president obama, right? that was not during me. >> it was putin, sir, who did the annexation. >> so, it was president obama that allowed it to happen. had nothing to do with me. okay. go ahead. yeah, go ahead. go ahead. go ahead. >> i'm from sky news. you're a man who likes to win but last night was not an
absolute victory. >> i'll be honest, i thought it was a very close to complete victory. when you look at it from the stangepoint of negotiation, when you look at it from the standpoint of dealmakes because it's all about dealmaking, again, if we had the majority and we had one or two or three votes to play with, we would never -- we would have been at a standstill. i really believe we have a chance to get along very well with the democrats and if that's the case we can do a tremendous amount of legislation and get it approved by both parties. so, i can consider it to be -- hey, look, i won georgia. president obama campaignedty ha -- campaigned very hard in georgia. oprah winfrey campaigned very hard over the television. this is going to be tough. i only had me and didn't have anybody else and went to georgia and we had one of the largest crowds that anybody here has
ever seen here at a political rally. and you know what, he won. and he won actually by, you know, pretty good margin. he won. and then we went to florida and they had celebrities all over the place, and a man who happens to be a very smart person was running, ron desantis, and people didn't give him a chance and i went and we had -- we did some great work and they're going to have a great governor of the state of florida and then we talked about the senate and a lot of money was pouring in for the democrat. this is a man who's been in office for like 44 years or something. this is a man who is like a professional at getting elected and being in office so he's not -- bill necessary, not easy to beat, okay. and -- but they had a lot of celebrities for nelson and had everybody coming out for nelson and rick scott won and i helped him and i think we've done an amazing job and you could look at many other places.
you just take a look at some of the other places. and we just got the word that in iowa, you have a governor who just got extended who -- kim just got extended and numerous other places. i think it was a great victory. i'll be honest. i think it was a great convivic and some of the news was that it was a great victory but if you look at it from the standpoint of gridlock, i really believe there's going to be much less gridlock because of the way this is going than any other -- >> mr. president -- >> sit down, please. go ahead. >> thank you, mr. president. let me ask about one of the campaign promises you made down the stretch which was a 10% tax cut for the middle class. you just talked about gridlock. democrats now run the house, ways and means committee. if it means a tax cut of some kind for the middle class but that means raising rates elsewhere, corporations, on the wealthiest, is that a trade-off that you would be willing to make.
>> you know this has to be now proposed because if we did it now we don't have the votes in the senate. we need -- we would need ten democrat votes. we probably couldn't get them. if we could we could pass it easily in the house. no reason to waste time because you don't have the votes in the senate but if the -- as an example, if the democrats come up with an idea for tax cuts which i am a big believer in tax cuts i would absolutely pursue something, even if it means some adjustment to make it possible but i would love to see a tax cut for the middle class now. that's going to be their decision. they'll have to make that decision. as you know if we bring it up to the senate we'd need democrat vote, ten, and don't have those. >> just because the markets would want to know, sir, some adjustment, would that be 1, 2, 3% on either side -- >> i would certainly be willing to do a little bit of an adjustment. go ahead, please. >> thank you. >> mr. president, thank you very much. two question, one is you had stalked about leaders who called to congratulate you.
did president putin call to congratulate and will you meet with him at lunch this coming weekend? >> well, as i understand it we're having and i guess a lot of you are going over. we're having a lunch for numerous countries. i believe president putin is going to be there. we don't have anything scheduled. i don't think we have anything scheduled in paris. and i'm coming back very quickly. i'm going over -- there is a great event this, is an important -- really it's going to be a very important and i think a beautiful ceremony. i'm looking forward to going and we're representing the incredible heroes of the world but the heroes of our country from world war i and so i'll be going there and i am very proud to go there. >> did he call you -- >> i don't think we have time set aside for that meeting. now, with that being said we're shortly meeting again at the g20 where he'll be there and i'll be there and that's where we're actually looking forward to meet. we will be having -- we will be having a lunch but i think there are many people there.
>> did he call you to congratulate and also if i could invite you since this is quite a gathering we've got here to go ahead and talk about the staff changes that you expect in the white house while we're here, we're eager to hear about them. is general kelly going to stay on? >> as we make changes we'll sit down and talk to you bit. no great secret. a lot of administrations make changes after midterms. i will say that for the most part i'm very, very happy with this cabinet. we're doing a great. >> what about in the white house. you have a lot of white house staff and some have talked about leaving. general shkreli has been rumored to be leaving. >> people leave. >> is that going to happen? >> people leave. i haven't heard about john kelly. but, no, people -- people leave. they come in. they're here. it's a very exhausting job although i love doing it, i must tell you but it's exhausting for a lot of people. i'm surprised that a lot of people, they start off, they're young people. they're there for two years and they're old by the time they leave.
[ laughter ] it's quite exhausting. but i love doing it and i'll tell you, there will be changes. nothing monumental from that standpoint. i don't think very much different than most administrations and we have -- i mean we have many people lined up for every single position. any position, everybody wants to work in this white house. we are a hot country. this is a hot white house. we are a white house that people want to work with. okay. no, no. please, behind you. behind you. go ahead. >> mr. president, this has been a very challenging campaign. this has been a very challenging campaign. >> it has. >> it has involved quite a lot of abuse and a lot of violence. people have died during the course of this campaign. is there any way in which you think the temperature could be lowered, perhaps peace could break out with the media, perhaps your bipartisan relationships across the house and the senate may now produce some change or are we going to have more of the same. >> it's a very fair question.
look, i would love to see unity and peace and love and any other word you want to use, and obviously i think we had to especially at this particular young tur, we had to wait until after the midterms are over. now they're over. if they would cover me fairly, which they don't, which they don't, i'm not saying that in a hostile way, i get extremely inaccurate coverage, i can do something that's fantastic and they'll make it look like not good. and i don't mind being -- having bad stories, i make a mistake, cover it. i'd like you to cover it fairly, but cover it but when you do something terrific, look how little the economy is talked about. a poll came out this morning talking about how little the three networks -- i don't think they included cnn but how little the three networks talk about how good the economy is. how little. almost not at all. if president obama had this
economy and, by the way, if that administration through somebody else kept going, you would have had negative 4.2 instead of positive 4.2% growth. you would have had negative. it was heading down but the point is this, excuse me, i would love to see unity including with the media because i think the media -- i'll be honest, i think it's a very divisive thick for our country. and you would be amazed at how smart people are that are reading the stories and seeing your stories and watching, you'd be amazed how perceptive and how smart they are. they get it. and it really does bring disunity. i didn't -- excuse me. you are not -- you are not called on. go ahead. go ahead. go ahead, please. >> thank you, president trump. shortly after your victory speech on the night back in november 2016 i asked you to
what single factor you most attributed this victory too. >> speak up. >> sure, on the night of your victory i asked you right after your speech to what you would attribute your victory. you pointed up to the ceiling and you said that it was god. based off of that how would you say over the last two years god plays what kind of a factor he plays in the day-to-day execution of the office of the president -- >> god plays a big sfashth in my life and god plays a factor in the lives of many people that i know very well in this room like your vice president, god plays a very big role in my life. >> and one more back -- quick one, quick follow-up. which loss last night surprised you the most and which of these unsuccessful candidates are you most likely to consider for future administration -- >> there were some losses last night and there were some victories last night that have been incredible. i mean there were victories last night that nobody would believe. especially based on the suppression polls, they had a lot of suppression polls and
there was some victories last night that were very surprising but i'm not going to pick out -- >> would you consider any -- >> tough enough for them to have a loss. >> would you consider any for administration -- as one of -- >> would i what? >> would you consider any of the people who lost last night for a post in the administration in the near future? >> i know a couple of very good ones, yeah, i would, go ahead. >> mr. president, mr. president, i asked you on monday if there was anything you regret in your first two years and you said that at times you could have and should have used a, quote, softer tone. your critics as you can imagine, your skeptics say they're holding their breath on that happening. will you indeed have to change your tone if you're to get things passed through congress since you lost the house and you might extend an olive branch. >> i would love to have -- i'd be good at a low tone but when things are done not correctly about you, written about you, said about you on television, on
wherever it is you have to defend yourself. i would love to do very even toned -- much easier than what i have to do. i have to go around and going around is much easier than facing somebody and being treated fairly. but when you're not treated fairly you have no choice. i would love to have a very even modest boring tone but when you have to fight all the time fight because you're being misrepresented by the media, you really can't do that. >> not about the media, sir, but, sir, real quickly, not about the media but with congress -- >> please, go ahead. >> mr. president, how you focus on the economy -- >> where are you from. >> japan. >> say hello to shinzo. i'm sure he's happy about tar f tariffs on his car. >> that's nye question. how you focus on trade commensurate with japan. you ask japan to do more or
change the tone -- >> i really don't understand. >> how would you focus on trade -- >> trade with japan. we're dealing with japan right now on trade. japan has -- it's a great country. you have a great prime minister who just had a very successful election. he's a very good friend of mine. he's one of the people i'm closest with and but i tell him all the time that japan does not treat the united states fairly on trade. they send in millions of cars at a very low tax. they don't take our cars. and if they do they have a massive tax on the cars. japan -- and i'm not blaming japan. i'm blaming the people that were in charge of the united states for allowing that to happen but as you know we have close to $100 billion trade deficit with japan and japan has treated us very unfairly but don't feel lonely because you weren't the only one. >> thank you, mr. president. two questions. the first one, secretary
pompeo's talks about -- with north korea have been postponed. what is happening there and will your meetings tell what happened -- >> we'll change it because of trips being made. we'll make it on another date but we're very happy how it's going with north korea. we think it's going fine. we're in no rush. the sanctions are on. >> you're still expect to meet kim jong-un? >> excuse me, wait. the sanctions are on. the missiles have stopped. the rockets have stopped. the hostages are home. the great heroes have been coming home. mike pence was in hawaii where the -- one of the most beautiful ceremonies that anyone has ever seen for the fallen, these are great heroes, very important when i was running, a lot of people -- as many years ago as it was in many cases grandchildren were asking about that, they're coming home and they're being provided to us as we speak.
but i'm in no rush. i'm no no rush. the sanctions are on. i read a couple of times and i've seen a few times where they said he's done so much. what have i done? i met. now, i'd love to take the sanctions off, but they have to be responsive too. it's a two-way street but we're not in any rush at all. there's no rush whatsoever. you know, before i got here they were dealing with this for over 70 years and i guess on a nuclear front for 25 years. that's a long time. i've been there, i probably left singapore four or five months ago and made more progress in that four or five months than they've made in 70 years and nobody else could have done what i've done. but i'll say this, i'll say this very simply. we're in no rush. the sanctions are on. and whenever it is but that will be rescheduled. >> that meeting but i bet your meeting with kim jong-un, sir, will it happen in the next
months? >> sometime next year, i would say. >> sometime next year. >> sometime early next year. >> a quick question on usmca. now that it's been concluded have you repaired your relationship with prime minister trudeau? >> yes, i have. we have a very good relationship. >> thank you. >> thank you very much. mr. president. we've been talking a lot about division and the division that exists in this country right now and some of the statistics are disturbing i think to just about everyone. anti-semitic incidents have increased by 57% since 2016. hate crimes are on the rise. why do you think that is and what will you do about it? >> it's very sad to see it. i hate to see it and as you know i've done more, in fact, if you were with us the last time we met, prime minister netanyahu said that this president has done more for israel than any other president. those words. those exact words. jerusalem, protection, working together, so many different things but the big thing is jerusalem.
you though -- know, many presidents said they'll build the embassy in jerusalem. never happened. making it the capital of israel. never happened. never happened. but it happened with me and quickly. and not only did it happen, we built the embassy. that would have taken another 15 or 20 years and cost probably billions of dollars and we did it for a tiny amount of money. it's already done. it's open. nobody has done more for israel than donald trump and the nice part is that's not me saying it, that's prime minister netanyahu. >> but what about -- mr. president, what about the divides in this country, mr. president, what about healing the divides in this country. >> we want to see it here. one of the things i think that can help heal is the success of our country. we are really successful now. we've gone up $11.7 trillion in worth if you know.
KnownPresidentNumberDemocrat-partySenatorsTotalRepublican5580100SeatsPercentageMATTOON (WCIA) — Korbin Bateman is the WCIA 3 Athlete of the Week. The Mattoon wrestler heads to this weekend’s state tournament with a 42-0 record. After finishing fourth as a sophomore and eighth last season, the senior is looking to leave it all on the mat after winning the Class 2A Mahomet-Seymour sectional title […]
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