Here are 5 of Trump's craziest comments from his latest right-wing Oval Office interview
30 January 2019
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On Wednesday, the right-wing Daily Caller sat down with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office for yet another interview packed with leading questions and incoherent answers.
Here are some of the highlights of that interview:
For the past few days, the right-wing media and Trump's allies in Congress have tried to paint the FBI's arrest of former Trump campaign adviser Roger Stone on obstruction, false statements, and witness tampering as a case of excessive force. In reality, the agents summoned to Stone's home in Florida used a typical amount of force for a suspect deemed a flight risk.
But prompted by the Daily Caller's questions, Trump said he would "think about" looking into the matter and that he was "speaking for a lot of people that were very disappointed to see that go down that way."
"To see it happen where it was on camera, on top of it," Trump added. "That was a very, very disappointing scene."
"I guess they’re well over 30 million dollars now on this Russian collusion hoax, and everybody knows it’s a hoax. They’ve spent all this money. Nothing. No phone calls, no meetings, no nothing," said Trump. By contrast, with the 2017 Las Vegas mass shooting, "you've had so many people killed, and so badly wounded, because I went to the hospital. You had people so badly wounded. People never talk about the wounded. The level of hurt and devastation for a whole lifetime. You know, many people just devastated for a lifetime. They'll never be the same. And you look at that by comparison to the Russian hoax, it's a shame. The Russian witch hunt, it's a shame."
There is no question that the Vegas massacre, which killed 59 people and injured 851 in the deadliest mass shooting in history, was a tragedy. And it is frustrating that the FBI was unable to determine key answers in the case, like the gunman's motive. But the Russia investigation, which has led to over 30 indictments, guilty pleas, and convictions, is most certainly not a "hoax." And because Mueller's team has seized ill-gotten assets, it actually has the potential to turn a profit for the government, not costing any money at all.
For much of Wednesday, the right has been blowing a gasket about comments from Gov. Ralph Northam (D-VA) in which he was discussing a Democratic abortion right's bill's treatment of pregnancies with fatal birth defects, and mentioned that neonates could be "resuscitated if that's what the mother and the family desired, and then a discussion would ensue" about abortion. Republicans, including U.S. senators, have been dishonestly claiming that he and state lawmaker Kathy Tran meant any infant could be "aborted" after delivery.
The Daily Callerasked Trump to weigh in, which he did with characteristic ignorance of the subject matter.
"Do you remember when I said Hillary Clinton was willing to rip the baby out of the womb?" said Trump. "That's what it is, that's what they're doing, it's terrible." He added, "This is going to lift up the whole pro-life movement like maybe it's never been lifted up before."
One of Trump's desperate final gambits to get Democrats to give him his border wall during his federal government shutdown was to offer a "compromise" bill that supposedly extended Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) work permits for young immigrants, although the bill was actually a huge bait-and-switch to curtail these programs and shut the border to asylum seekers.
Now, however, Trump says even that is probably off the table.
"It's highly unlikely," Trump said, also noting that "I could see myself doing something for DACA but I want to find out what the Supreme Court is going to do first." The Supreme Court has already punted on DACA, leaving in place lower court decisions that found Trump's decision to eliminate it invalid, so Trump may well have a point that offering that would be worthless to Democrats as a concession.
Trump also took a pot shot at former House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) for not giving him a border wall while he was in power and Republicans held unified control of Congress.
"Well, I was going to veto the [2018] omnibus bill and Paul told me in the strongest of language, 'Please don't do that, we'll get you the wall.' And I said, 'I hope you mean that, because I don't like this bill,'" said Trump. "Paul told me in the strongest of terms that, 'please sign this and if you sign this we will get you that wall.' Which is desperately needed by our country. Humanitarian crisis, trafficking, drugs, you know, everything — people, criminals, gangs, so, you know, we need the wall. And then he went lame duck."
There is no question that Ryan failed to get Trump the money for his wall (or do much of anything, really). But by talking him off the ledge of a previous shutdown last year, he might have prevented the president from sustaining even larger losses in the midterms — the disastrous impact of the recent shutdown on his poll numbers should be his lesson.