Theres no reason that we can keep going through this i made a mistake, i thought i was under attack. The Democratic Candidates must show they have a real solution to policing. Whether its in south bend, whether its in new york around the choking death of eric gardner, whether its philadelphia. Its a national problem. If you want national leadership, then get up and lead. That does it for me. This weekend. But thanks for tuning in. Ill see you back here next saturday, 5 00 pmp eastern rdayn this sunday my sit down with president donald trump. A blunt, frank, and farreaching interview. What happened last night . Reporter on why he stopped the planned Military Strike in iran. Here were sitting with with 150 dead people that would have taken place within half an hour
after i said go ahead and i didnt like it. I didnt think it was proportionate. On u. S. Iranian relations. Im not looking for war and if there is, it will be obliteration like youve neverer seen before but you cant have a nuclear weapon. Theyre in terrible shape down there, president. In homestead, florida, the conditions are terrible. I agree and its been there a long time. A lawsuit that would kill coverage for preexisting conditions. Im in favor of preexisting conditions. So drop your aspect of the lawsuit. And on his biggest regret as president. If you could have one do over as president , what would it be . And what mr. Trump thinks of how imp peachment could impact his reelection prospects, if hell keep Vice President pence on the ticket and this morning one on one with president. Dwae and the democrats heading to the first debates, joe biden and Pete Buttigieg confront questions on race. And peter baker, chief White House Correspondent for the new york times, Wall Street Journal columnist, peggy nunen and loggy chen of stanford university. Welcome to sunday and a Special Edition of Meet The Press. From nbc news, the longest running show in television history, this is a Special Edition of Meet The Press with chuck tautd. Its safe to say were at one of the pivotal points of the 2020 election cycle. Though you could argue hes been running for reelection since he signed his papers the day he was inaugurated and the democrats will their starting gun when 20 candidates face off for two nights of debates this coming week in miami. And President Trump will be a dominating presence at those debates. One way or the other, it will be a refer rendm on donald trump. He will argue hes a successful businessman turned president with a successful economy, apoined conservative judges. In short hell argue hes made America Great again. Democrats will say hes a bigot whos caged children and embarrassed america before the world and in short unfrit the office. I sat down for an interview that touched on well, almost everything. From the crisis at the border to the Mueller Report to whether hell accept the results if he loses. And we start with the decision to call off a strike on iran. What happened last night . Well, you had a situation that was very bad because the night before they shot down an unmanned drone and the unmanned is a very big factor. It fact there was not a person on it. A u. S. Person or anybody. And that had an impact on me. I said we got problem. And i think they did it on purpose because they understand they will be hit very hard if that water plane with a person in it and i think they knew there was nobody there. We had a modest but pretty heavy attack schedule. And this is a preplan that you had if they did something these were sort of readymade plans. I have so many targets you wouldnt believe. So did you green light something or had you said if we do it, ill do this . Nothing is green lighted until the very end because things change. So you never gave final ord
snr. No but we had something redty go subject to my approval and they came in about half an hour before and said sir, were about ready to go. Were planes in the air . About ready to go. No, but they would have been pretty soon and things with would have happened to a point where you wouldnt turn back or couldnt turn back. So they said sir, wed like decision. I said i want to know something before you go. How many people will be killed . In this case iranians. How many people were going to be killed. Sir, id like to get back to you on that. Great people these generals. They came back said, sir, approximately 150. And i thought about it for a second and i said you know what they shot down an unmanned drone, plane, whatever you want to call it and here we are sitting with with 150 dead people that would have taken place within half an hour after
i said go ahead. And i didnt like it. I didnt think it was proportionate. You think they were trying to provoke you . No, i dont think so. And i think its very important to them. You dont think they intended to get you to respond . Their economy is shattered. Their inflation is through the roof. The highest in the world right now. Theyre living not well. Do you want to do a deal with iran or get everybody involved in the same deal with the russians and the chinese . I dont care what kind of deal. Separate or total. One on one talks with you the ayatollah . Anything that gets you to the result that cannot have a nuclear weapon. A lot of people covered it incorrectly. They cannot have a nuclear weapon. Theyd use it and theyre not go having to a nuclear weapon. Reuters is reporting you sent
a message i dont want war, i want to talk. I did not send that message. I dont know who would have said that. I mean its fake news. Then sunday message right now. Wouldnt be much different than their message. Which is . Im not looking for war and if there is, it will be obliteration like youve never seen before. But you skraent a nuclear weapon. You want to talk, good. No preconditions . Not as far as im concerned. You cant have nuclear weapons. If you want to talk about it, good. Otherwise, you can live in a Shattered Econfraemomy for long to come. Do you feel you were being pushed into Military Action . I have doves and hawks. John bolton is absolutely a hawk. If it was up for him, hed take on the whole world at one time. But that doesnt matter because i want both sides. I was against going to iraq for
years and years and before it happened i was against going to iraq. And some people said i dont know. I was a private citizen. It never made sense to me. I was against going to the middle east. We spent 7 trillion in the middle east right now. What would candidate trump have said about under his watch, a venezuelan dig Tartd Thumbing his nose, and drone shot down and lets take a look. The borders doing great. Mexicos doing fantastic. So for 45 years they couldnt get a deal. I got one in one day. I said were going to put tariffs on. And mexico just moved 6,000 people to their southern border. 6,000 troops to their southern border and the wall is being built. A lot of people dont like to talk about it. We will have 400 miles of wall built by the end of next year
and thats hard because the democrats dont want to aprive it. We just beat them in a big lawsuit in washington and d. C. Does it frustrate you that your numbers are worse than obamas . Theyre pouring up because the economy is good. Obama had a dead economy. Let me show you this. You see this chart . Unemployment rate from the peek of the procession. Your economy is great. Im not saying rirls not great. The 28 months youve been president and it the last 28 months of obamas presidency he averaged more new jobs. Because he started off such a bad base. I mean nobody was working. The whole place was a disaster. I never take that away. But its very easy because they pumped a tremendous amount of money into economy. And he had a Federal Reserve person who kept the interest
rates low. I dont. Raised them far too fast. Do you think thats had i didnt threaten to demote him. There was talk youd threaten to move him to the number two spot . I have a right to do that but i havent said that. 50 billion a month in quantitate chb tightening, thats ridiculous. What hes done is raised Interest Rates too fast. I think the economys so strong were going to bowl through it. But im not happy with his actions, no. I think if he didnt raise rates, obama had very low rates. So obama was playing with funny money. I wasnt. Im playing with the real stuff. Obama had somebody who kept the rates very low. Ib had somebody that raised the rates very rapidly, too much. He made a mistake. Thats been proven. And yet my economy is phenomenal. We have now the best economy in maybe the history of our country. When i took over this country, the economy was ready to collapse. It was ready to collapse. I just showed you the numbers. It was not ready to collapse. Take a look at your gdp, your jobs, optimism. All of the charts when i took over from election day on, i mean you show me one chart but im not talking about that. Take a look at some of the optimism charts. It wentz from 57 to 92. The optimism. Auoptimism is a big part of success in business. You thought he wasnt a cheerleader. He was not a cheerleader. If you had one do over . Personnel. I would not have appointed Jeff Sessions to be attorney general. In your mind i think hes a Very Taleneded roy cone. But i had many lawyers. A lot of lawyers. Roy was a tough guy. Bill barr cut from the same cloth you think . Hes equally tough. Hes a fine man. The job hes done is incredible. Hes brought sanity back. I dont think. I know hes respected. He loves the Department Of Justice. He saw what was happening. He has done a spectacular job. Now hes in the process of doing something and i stay away from it. But i think he feels that whats happened irn this country was a very bad thing and bad for our country e. Thats part one of my interview with President Trump. Let me bring in the panel. Lonny chen of the Wall Street Journal, peggy nunen and chief correspondent for the new york times. First take away, peter. Youre dousing with him in an interesting way. And its interesting hes letting you do this. Because most president s wouldnt allow you to push that way. I think he likes that. I think hes enjoying giving you his case for reelexz as you already outlined. Hes running the economy despite all the things obama had done wrong. Hes the one tough on iran. Obama gave away the store. The question is whether the results are going to end up being their November 2020 as you said. Walls not built. Border crossings are up. Can he make enough of a case on the economy and obama care and things like that . His fed chair could slow down his economy. Jeff sessions worst mistake he made. Those are people to blame if things arent going right. And let me start there because he mentioned Jeff Sessions but he first said personnel. How this week evolved, hes grappling with iran but doesnt have a Defense Secretary in place. This decision to pull back on his threat of Ice Deportations and of course Jerome Powell, taking aim at Jerome Powell and dangling the possibility of demoting him to the number two slot. This has hovered overhis entire administration. It can continues to plague him as he makes these critical choices. All correct. I agree with everything you said but mostly what i saw is he loves this. He loves talking, interviewing. Hes loaded for bear. Hes
thought out the foras hes going to take in the future and i have hawks and sympathetic or supportive of the idea that hes thinking about this. And he listens to them and then he makes it decision. I tell you i dont believe he ever will. The person that iveinate viewed and known for a long time and his positions on this, he was reveling in the fact that everybody confused. This was the classic articulation of democracy at work. Theres a piece of leverage that maybe hes created and he
doesnt allow people to really know what hes think and so he may or may not exercise or use that leverage and uses that to bring his adversary to the table. Youve seen it with china, mexico and now iran. And in many ways it has become entirely predictable. The predictable have become entirely predictable. I think if you look at trump from the campaign and the donald trump we know about not wanting to get entangled in the middle east, it was very likely. Was that a confident president or is he trying to show so much confidence because hes nervous about the economy and iran, nervous about the border. Nervous about Jeff Sessions, which is code for investigations. As you say he Just Announced his reelection this past week. Hes eager to get out there in the fight. Theres an insecurity that fuels this cocky kind of persona that
he likes to project to the public. And theres always been this idea that he hasants done enough to impres the elites and i think this is sort of part and partial of his appeal to a lot of americans out there feel the same way. You guys are looking down on me but im doing okay. Why do you treat me this way . I wrote this phrase down when you asked him about the economy. Forerse he said were going to bowl through it. I thoughts that was striking. Its not the word or term you would use if youre feeling really confident about the future prospects of the economy. Im going to have to grind in my reelection. And internally conflicted, how to seem tough and that same time not to get more mired in the middle east. When we come back more on the mueller investigation. The battle for preexisting conditions and all of those
children in migrant camps. Theyre in tearerable shape down there, mr. President. In homestead, florida, where i grew up, the conditions are terrible. I agree and its been that way for a long time. I agree an way for a long time. Hold my pouch. Trust us. Us kids are ready to take things into our own hands. Dont think so . Hold my pouch. But were also a cancer fighting, hiv controlling, joint replacing, and Depression Relieving company. From the day youre born we never stop taking care of you. From the day youre born so chantix can help you quit slow turkey. Rkey. Along with support, chantix is proven to help you quit. With chantix you can keep smoking at first and ease into quitting. Chantix reduces the urge so when the day arrives, youll be more ready to kiss cigarettes goodbye. When you try to quit smoking, with or without chantix, you may have nicotine withdrawal symptoms. Stop chantix and get help right away if you have changes in behavior or thinking, aggression, hostility, depressed mood, suicidal thoughts or actions, seizures, new or worse heart or blood vessel problems, sleepwalking, or lifethreatening allergic and skin reactions. Decrease alcohol use. Use caution driving or operating machinery. Tell your doctor if youve had Mental Health problems. The most common side effect is nausea. Quit smoking slow turkey. Talk to your doctor about chantix. Welcome back. Continuing with my interview with President Trump. We hit a lot of topics in this part of our sit down, starting with the crisis at the border. I want to ask whats going on with the children in these migrant camps. The stories are horrible. Children without their parents. Kids taking care of kids. Youve read these reports. I know people are coming to you. I know you think this is the democrats problem. Why arent you doing something . They are in terrible shape down there, mr. President. In homestead, florida, where i grew up, the conditions are terrible. I agree and its been that way for a long time. And President Obama built the cages it was 1914. It was 2014. Just lisson for one second. Separation. President obama i took over separation. Im the one that put it together. Whats happened are the car teles and all of these bad people, theyre using the kids. Its almost like slavery. Lets not punish the kids. Youre right and this is happening long before i got there. What weve done is ended separation. Under President Obama you had separation. I was the one that ended it. I said one thing. I said heres whats going to happen more families are going to come up and thats whats happened. Once you ended the separation. But i ended separation. I inherited separation from President Obama. President obama built they call them jail cells. They were built by obama. Youre not schooling the can kids anymore. Youve gotten rid of that stuff. Were doing a fantastic job under circumstances. The Democrats Arent Approving Giving Us the money. It looks like these kids are being used as some sort of is it hostage . Theyre being used by very bad people and actually get paid money is being made, using them because our laws are so bad. If you have a child, you have anned a vantdage. Why Threlet The Political De hurt these children . If the democrats would changing the asylum laws and loopholes, everything would be solved immediately. But they refuse to do it. They refuse. If they changed as i say i used to say 45 minutes. If they changed asylum and loopholes, everything on the border would be perfect. Why do you think nancy pelosi has held off her impeachment caucus . Because i think she feels i will win much easier. Do you think its good politics for you . I think i win the election easier but im not sure i like having it. Look, i did nothing wrong. I was spied on. It was illegal on the other side. So impeachments a very unfair thing because nothing i did was wrong. And if you look at the Mueller Report there was no collusion. You say no collusion. Ive read this Mueller Report, both parts, theres not one place that says nothing happened. Use the word collusion and conspiracy. Nobody mentions russia