Transcript: Donald Trump Talks Roger Stone, Colonel Vindman During Veteran Bill Signing

President Trump: (00:00) I stay out of things to a degree that people wouldn't believe, but I didn't speak to them. I thought the recommendation was ridiculous. I thought the whole prosecution was ridiculous and I look at others that haven't been prosecuted or I don't know where it is now, but when you see that, I thought it was an insult to our country and it shouldn't happen and we'll see what goes on there. But that was a horrible aberration. These are, I guess the same Mueller people that put everybody through hell and I think it's a disgrace. No, I have not been involved with it at all. Speaker 2: (00:39) Would you consider- President Trump: (00:41) I don't want to talk about that now. I think it was a disgraceful recommendation. They ought to be ashamed of themselves, what they've done to general Flynn, what they've done to others, and then the really guilty ones, people that have committed major crimes are getting away with it. I think it's a disgrace. See what happens. Go ahead, John. John: (00:58) I was going to say Mr. President you talk a lot about Michael Bloomberg [inaudible 00:01:03] as well over stop and frisk in 2016 and 2018 you praised Rudy Giuliani for the stop and frisk program. So what's different about what Bloomberg said and what you believe- President Trump: (01:13) Well, I'll tell you what, I looked at it and I watched him pander in a church and practically begged for forgiveness. I wouldn't have begged for forgiveness. I mean, he was doing his job at the time and when he went up to the church, I thought it was disgraceful, but I put something out and it was pretty nasty. And I thought, you know, I'm looking to bring the country together, not divide the country for that. But when he went up to a church and he apologized for everything he's ever done, that was only for getting votes. And I think probably people understand that. Yeah, please. Speaker 4: (01:44) You're traveling to India- President Trump: (01:45) I am. I just spoke with the Prime Minister Modi and it's going to be very, I don't know who's going, but he said we will have millions and millions of people. My only problem is, so last night we probably had 40 or 50,000 people far more than anyone else, but when we have 50,000 people nowadays, fellas I'm not going to feel so good because he thinks we'll have five to 7 million people just from the airport to the new stadium and you know, it's the largest stadium in the world. He's building it now. It's almost complete and it's the largest in the world. And he's a friend of mine, he's a great gentleman and I look forward to going to India. So we'll be going at the end of the month. Speaker 4: (02:21) You plan to sign a trade deal with him? President Trump: (02:24) They want to do something that we'll see if we can make the right deal, we'll do it. John: (02:27) Mr. President, do you know who anonymous is? President Trump: (02:30) I don't want to say, but you'd be surprised. You'd be surprised? But I don't want to say. John: (02:38) Can you talk a little bit more about some of the recent departures from the white house, including the Vindman twins? President Trump: (02:43) No, well, yeah. I obviously wasn't happy with the job he did. First of all, he reported a false call that wasn't what was said on the call. What was said on the call was totally appropriate. And I call it a perfect call. I always will call it a perfect call. And it wasn't one call, it was two calls. There were two perfect calls, there was no setup, there was no anything. And he reported a totally differently. And then they all went wild when I said that we have transcripts of the calls and they turned out to be totally accurate transcripts. President Trump: (03:10) And if anybody felt there was any changes, we let them make it because it didn't matter. So we had accurate, totally accurate transcripts and it turned out that what he reported was very different. And also when you look at Vindman's the person he reports to said horrible things, avoided the chain of command, leaked, did a lot of bad things. And so we sent him on his way to a much different location and the military can handle him anyway they want. General Milley has him now. I congratulate General Milley and he can have him, and his brother also. So we'll find out what happened. I mean we'll find out. But he reported very inaccurate things. You understand that John? When you look at his report and then when you look at what actually the exact words. Fortunately I had the words because otherwise we would have had a lot of people lying and we were able to do it, so fortunately we had transcripts of those calls. President Trump: (04:03) I think you guys all agree with it, right? Wasn't it nice? After they said these horrible things and made up these horrible, horrible lies about what was said in the call, and then I said, here's the call. I had a transcript. If I didn't have a transcript, it would have been my word against their word, but there were other people on that call too. Many people on the call, Mike Pompeo, and I know that when I speak to the head of state of countries, presidents, prime ministers, et cetera, there are always a lot of people in those calls, especially from the other countries. I imagine. I don't know that for a fact, but I know for a fact that we have a lot of people on those calls who would say something wrong? I wouldn't say it wrong anyway, but it would say wrong. When you have a call is loaded up with, you know, sometimes as many as 25 people. President Trump: (04:44) Sometimes it's as many as three or four or two. But there's always people on those calls. I fully know that, but that was a perfect call and it wasn't reported the way it was reported, like, oh, it was so terrible. That was a very nice call. That was a very friendly call. A couple of things. The president, as you know of Ukraine, stated very strongly that there was no pressure, there was no anything, there was nothing wrong and it was really a very sad state of affairs that our country wasted that much time on nothing on nothing. And I want to thank our three senators that are here for agreeing with me. I mean, you had one grandstander. He's always been a grandstander. Speaker 5: (05:26) [inaudible 00:01:00]. President Trump: (05:28) Oh, sure. Oh sure. Absolutely. There always are. Speaker 6: (05:32) When you say that the military can deal with Vindman anyway that they want- President Trump: (05:36) Yeah, well that's up to them. He's over with the military. Speaker 6: (05:40) Do you think he needs to face disciplinary- President Trump: (05:42) That's going to be up to the military, we'll have to see. But if you look at what happened, I mean they're going to certainly I would imagine. Take a look at that. But no, I think what he did was just reported a false call. If you look at what he said and I'll tell you the one worst was you look at shifty Schiff, take a look at what he did. He made up my conversation and then we dropped the transcript and he almost had a heart attack. Didn't you say eight quid pro quos? Think of it, so eight times. I said the same thing according to shifty Schiff, if I ever did that. So you say it once, now you say it again. We're talking about a man that I'd never even met before. President Trump: (06:26) Now you say it a third time, a fourth time, a fifth time, six times, seven times, eight times. Eight times. He said that I asked for the exact same thing in one call. After the third time, they'd have to take you away. Okay. He's a sick person. Schiff is a very corrupt politician and he's a sick person, so he made up totally made up and because he shielded, which a lot of people didn't know, but because he shielded by the holes of conquers, you know, in terms of what he says, you can say anything you want. He made up a story, it was total fiction and then at the end he said, don't call me, I'll call you. That's a mob statement. Very famous statement in numerous movies. One in particular. That's a mob statement. Don't call me, I'll call you. He said that I said that. He said that I said eight times quid pro quo. Well, there were no times, quid pro quo, nothing. That whole thing was corrupt and a disgrace and Romney's a disgrace for voting against. He's a disgrace. Okay. Anybody else? Speaker 7: (07:29) Mr. President, can you elaborate a little bit more on stop and frisk? It's going to be a big issue in the coming days. Do you support that policy and is it, as you said, in a tweet- President Trump: (07:39) Anything we can do to get down crime and to get rid of drugs, but I think when a man is with stop and frisk his whole life and then he decides to go Democrat and he goes to a church and he's practically crying, it looked like hell. He's practically crying saying what a horrible thing he did. I think that's so disingenuous. You know what I'm talking about fellas? That was so, of Bloomberg, look, he's a lightweight, he's a lightweight. You're going to find that out. He's also one of the worst debaters I've ever seen and his presence is zero, so he'll spend his three, four, $500 million. Maybe they will take it away. Frankly, I'd rather run against Bloomberg then Bernie Sanders. President Trump: (08:20) Because Sanders has real followers, whether they like them or not, whether you agree with them or not. I happen to think it's terrible what he says, but he has followers. Bloomberg's just buying his way in, but we're going to find out what happens. We're going to find out, but when you watch, go back to the church where he apologized for everything he ever did practically, and he looked pathetic. Our country doesn't need that kind of leadership. Thank you all very much. Speaker 8: (08:45) [inaudible 00:08:45] campaign? President Trump: (08:48) It's stumbling. It's mumbling. Not pretty, but we'll see how he does. You never know. You never know. The only time you knew for sure was the Trump campaign. Trump was going to win. John: (09:01) Do you think he can turn it around in South Carolina? President Trump: (09:02) He could always turn it around. I think it's not going to be easy. I think he can turn it around. Yeah, I think he has a shot. He's got probably almost as good a shot as anyone, but he's going to have to work. It's going to have to work very hard. Much harder than they thought. Don't forget when he first ran, I called him 1% Joe, because every time he ran, he only got 1% and then Obama took him off the garbage heap, but he only got 1% right, John, you know that. 1% Joe, but now he's a what? 19% Joe? It's better. He's doing better. President Trump: (09:35) He's made a lot of progress, but it's going to be very interesting. I think we're going to have a very interesting Democrat race, and I think we're going to have a very interesting election, but our country is doing better than it's ever done. We've rebuilt our military thanks to the people back here. We've taken care of our vets at a level that they've never been taken care of before. Jerry, never even close. And it's really something that we're very proud of. You look at the economy. I mean, we have the best economy we've ever had. We have the best employment numbers we've ever had. African American, Asian American, Hispanic American. We're going to protect our second amendment. The Democrats want to take away the guns. They want to take away everyone's gone. They want to destroy the second amendment. So when you add it all up, you know, I don't see how we lose, but you never know it's politics, right fellas? President Trump: (10:26) Thank you all very much. Speaker 9: (10:34) Thank you, press let's go. Thank you. Come on, press let's go. Come on guys, let's go. Let's go. President Trump: (10:35) Thank you, John. Speaker 10: (10:35) Thanks everybody. Thank you, press.