this discussion continues a decades long tradition during election years of inviting journalists to discuss the policies and their impact with the candidates who are running for president and the impact of those policies especially in Black communities former President George W bush Barack Obama and Bill Clinton have attended the NAB conventions uh either as presidents or as presidential candidates in past years nabj is currently in conversation with vice president kamla Harris's team to schedule a Q&A either in person or virtually in September as journalists we use opportunities like these both to inform our reporting but also
to help voters understand the choices that they face in a consequential and historic election year nabj has partnered with PolitiFact to fact check this conversation in real time you can access that feed on social media using the hashtag nabj fact check again the hashtag is nabj fact check we have a lot to get to and we do not want to waste any time so let's bring out the former president of the United States the Republican nominee for president former president Donald [Music] Trump hell I'm Mr Trump scotc thank you how are you how Mr President
we so appreciate you giving us an hour of your time I want to start by addressing the elephant in the room sir a lot of people did not think it was appropriate for you to be here today you have pushed false claims about some of your Rivals from Nikki Haley to former president Barack Obama saying that they were not born in the United States which is not true you have told four congresswoman women of color who were American citizens to go back to where they came from you have used words like animal and rabbit to
describe black District Attorneys you've attack black journalists calling them a loser saying the questions that they ask are quote stupid and racist you've had dinner with a white supremacist at your Maraga Resort so my question sir now that you are asking black supporters to vote for you why should black voters trust you after you have used language like that well first of all I don't think I've ever been asked a question so in in such a horrible manner first question you don't even say hello how are you are you with ABC because I think they're
a fake News Network a terrible Network and I think it's disgraceful that I came here in Good Spirit uh I love the black population of this country I've done so much for the black population of this country uh in including uh employment including uh opportunity zones with Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina which is one of the greatest programs ever for black workers and black entrepreneurs I've done so much and you know and I say this uh historically black colleges and universities were out of money they were Stone Cold broke and I saved them and
I gave them long-term financing and nobody else was doing it I think it's a very rude introduction I don't know exactly why you would do something like that and let me go a step further I was invited here and I was told my opponent whether it was Biden or Camala uh I was told my opponent was going to be here it turned out my opponent isn't here you invited me under false pretense and then you said you can't do it with zoom well you know where's Zoom she's going to do it with zoom and she's
not coming and then you were half an hour late just so we understand I have too much respect for you to be late they couldn't get their equipment working or something Mr I would love Nast I have answered the question you with another I have been the best president for the black population since Abraham Lincoln better my answer better than President Johnson who sign the Voting Rights Act for you to start off a question and answer period especially when you're 35 minutes late because you couldn't get your equipment to work in such a hostile manner
I think it's a a disgrace I really don't let me ask follow sir and then we'll move on to other questions here uh some of your own supporters including Republicans on Capitol Hill have labeled vice president kamla Harris who is the first black and Asian-American woman to serve as vice president and be on a major party ticket as a Dei hire is that acceptable language to you and will you tell those Republicans and those supporters to stop it how do you how do you define Dei go ahead how do you define diversity Equity inclusion okay
yeah go ahead is that what your definition give me that that that is Give me a definition then would you give me a definition of that give me a definition of that sir I'm asking you a question Define define the Define it for me if you want I just defined it sir do you believe that vice president kamla Harris is only on the ticket because she is a black woman well I can say no I think it's maybe a little bit different so uh I've known her a long time indirectly not directly very much and
she was always of Indian Heritage and she was only promoting Indian Heritage I didn't know she is black until a number of years ago when she happened to turn black and now she wants to be known as black so I don't know is she Indian or is she black she has always identified as a black I respect either one but she obviously doesn't because she was Indian all the way and then all of a sudden she made a turn and she went she became a black person just to be clear sir do you believe I
think somebody should look into that too when you ask a continue in a very hostile nasty town it's a direct question sir do you believe believe that vice president KLA Harris is a Dei hire as some I don't know I mean I really don't know could be could be there are some and there are uh plenty I know this lady right over there Harris is a fantastic person who just interviewed me at length and we had a great interview I think and I heard you got very good ratings on that well you told me it
was the longest one of your life so we had a good discussion look I I want to talk about why you're here today I mean it is not lost on us how divided we are as a country and as you were coming today we really got to see that we are divided along the lines of race along the lines of gender and there is this question of in this moment where we are why come here what is your message today my message is to stop people from invading our country that are taking frankly a lot
of problems with it but one of the big problems and a lot of the journalists in this room I know and I have great respect for a lot of the journalists in this room are black I will tell you that coming coming from the border are millions and millions of people that happen to be taking black jobs you had the best what exactly is a black job sir a black job is anybody that has a job that's what it is anybody that has a job and they're taking they're taking the employment away from black people
they're coming in and they're coming in they're invading it's an invasion of millions of people probably 15 16 17 million people I have a feeling it's much more than that and and everybody's been seeing what's happened the first group of people the black population is affected most by that and kamla is allowing it to happen she's the bordar she's the worst bordar in the history of the world there's never been a bordar like this she's never even essentially been she said she was there once but not the right part of the border so she was
a bordar she's done a horrible job these people are coming into our country and they're taking black jobs and Hispanic jobs and frankly they're taking union jobs unions are being very badly affected by all of the millions of people that are pouring into our country and one thing as we as we discussed many of these people are coming in from mental institutions from prisons from jails their gang members in other countries other countries are setting loose their prisoners they're opening up their prisons and their mental institutions and they're taking their their bad people uh drug
dealers gang members and they're bringing them into the United States and by the way their crime rate is going down and our crime rate is going to be a disaster Mr President I I want to get into how you address some of the issues with black communities and I say that plural because we live in communities of color that are different we're not all the same we don't vote the same we don't think the same it's not monolithic um so as you come here today I want to talk about something that bursts and this is
the weight of the inflation on this country right now uh the nonprofit Money Management International recently released data from its midyear analysis that we have found a 52% rise in people who are seeking counseling for being in credit debt they're paying for food that is Skyhigh on their credit cards and now they can't pay that off the credit counseling nonprofit MMI as I said is saying now that they've seen surges that they haven't seen since we were in a pandemic of people in financial trouble much of that falls on the the shoulders of single moms
single black moms when you look statistically how do you turn it around what's your plan for the black community when it comes to money so first of all uh it's very hard to hear you for whatever reason because of the fact that they have bad equipment CU I guess you know this woman was unable to get the right equipment but it's very hard for me to hear you but I can hear every other word uh it's very difficult actually but so I don't know if they can fix it or do something with it but I'll
do the best I can with it uh the inflation is absolutely destroying our middle class uh our working class virtually every class inflation is a disaster in our country inflation is a country Buster it breaks every country and we had in my opinion the worst inflation we've had they say it's 58 years but I think it's much more than that it's been devastating and if you just take a look at a lot of things they don't include like interest rates interest rates went from 2.4% to 10% and you can't get the money people can't buy
houses they no longer have the American dream young people young black people they don't have the American dream anymore they can't buy a house they can't borrow the money because of the cost of the money they can't buy because of the cost of housing because of the cost to build it because of inflation inflation is a disaster and it's destroying our country and it's destroying the black community probably as much or you what's your plan you know what we have to do we have to bring down the cost of energy and that's going to bring
down the cost of inflation this was all started with a bad energy policy by Joe Biden by the way just if I might I was running against a man named Biden you probably saw that and he was losing very badly in the polls and then he had a rather bad debate I would say it was a bad debate I would say it was one of the worst worst debates in history and his poll numbers crashed and instead of saying you know let's keep going and maybe something happens the other way they said oh we're going
to replace him let's just replace him that's like you're in a fight a prize fighter is in a fight he's not doing well you say let's bring in another fighter so our whole campaign was steered toward him and now we have to steer to but ultimately it's the same because they have bad policy they have policies of open borders unbelievable open borders horrible energy policies they they want to get rid of uh as you say gasoline in cars they want to get rid of oil they want to get rid of efficient efficient heating environmentally what
they're doing is killing our country they're absolutely destroying our country but the inflation is the thing that's hurting the black worker the black population and every other population within our country inflation is the worst it's been I think in over a hundred years and they'll fact check they'll say it's only 58 whatever it may be they don't add all the numbers they don't add the really bad numbers and you can check that too but inflation Harris is absolutely destroying this country and the people in our country yes Mr President can I ask you another question
that is also impacting black and that's very clear now good uh I'm sorry it's very clear I hear you okay um so Saia Massie a someone from Illinois an unarmed black woman was shot the other day in her home um by a deputy sheriff the deputy has since been charged with murder you've said police would get immunity from prosecution if you went why should someone like that officer have immunity in your opinion immunity uh I don't know the exact case but I saw something and it didn't look it didn't look good to me it didn't
look good to me are you talking with the water right yeah well it I mean police unions are not backing this person either but again they're going to be charging the officer I guess they're charging the officer so why should he receive immunity well he might not I mean it depends it depends on what happens I'm talking about people that are much different cases than that we need people to protect ourselves and by the way in Chicago as an example last a few weeks ago July 4th weekend they had 117 shootings and 17 deaths nobody
wants that nobody wants that we need to have our police officers have the respect and dignity back in this particular case I saw something that didn't look good to me I didn't like it I didn't like it at all so can you get a little more specific back to the immunity question who would make those CH those now for the most part for the most part uh people are protected by their unions by their police unions or by their police departments but I'm saying if if i f or if if a group of people would
feel that somebody was being unfairly prosecuted because the person did a good job maybe with crime or made a mistake an innocent mistake there's a big difference between being a bad person and making an innocent mistake but if somebody made an innocent mistake I would want to help that person what would those exceptions be what was what would determine you go after somebody and it's a very close call and it's very dangerous and you know they have the polic 's life and woman is a very difficult thing because sometimes you have less than a second
to make it you know life and death decision and sometimes very bad decisions are made they're not made from an evil standpoint but they're made from the standpoint of they made a mistake so I want to follow up really quickly um you know I find it interesting because you do talk about reigning in you uh prosecutors especially when it comes to prosecutors that are Prosecuting you um why doesn't that skepticism apply to law enforcement well I've been prosecuted because I'm a political opponent of two people that have weaponized our justice system I've been prosecuted I
just won the big case in Florida everyone said that was the biggest case that was the most difficult case uh and I just want it now Biden has a similar case except much worse I was protected under the presidential records act Biden wasn't because he wasn't president at the time and he had 50 years worth of documents and they ruled that he was incompetent and therefore he shouldn't stand trial and I said isn't that something he's incompetent and he can't stand trial and yet he can be president isn't that nice Mr President they released him
on the basis that he was incompetent they said he had no memory and he was a nice old guy but he had no memory and therefore we're not going to prosecute him uh I won the case and it got very little publicity I didn't notice ABC doing any publicity on it George we cover you exens sir I love to move over on to I didn't notice you do any publicity on it at all I won the case the biggest case uh this was this is an attack on a political opponent I have another one where
I have a Jud we have you for a limited time sir I'd love to move on a different to excuse you you're the one that held me up for 35 minutes just so you understand if we can move on now to the state of the race sir I want to get back to the campaign Senator JD Vance is your running mate he's had a lot of controversy lately and I want to read you a few things that he has said in the past he said the Democrats running the country are a bunch of childless cat
ladies who were miserable at their own lives and the choices they've made and so they don't they want to make the rest of the country miserable too he's not talking here about how great it is to be a parent he's attacking what he says are the choices people are making to not have children did you know that he had these views about people who do not have children before you picked him to be your running Maiden do you agree with him no I know this he is very family oriented and he thinks family is a
great thing that doesn't mean he thinks that if you don't have a family it's not I know people with families I know people with great families I know people with very troubled families and I also know people with no families I didn't meet the right person things happened you go through life you don't meet the right person he's not just talking about families here he also says that people that don't have children should get less votes than those that do I'm just speaking for myself I think I'm speaking for him too he strongly believes in
family but I know people with great families I know people with not great families that don't have a family and the people without the family are far better they're Superior in many cases okay he's not saying they're not what he's saying is that he thinks the family experience is a very important thing it's a very good thing but that doesn't mean that if you grow up and you grow older and you don't meet somebody that would be wonderful to meet and would have been good that that's a bad thing he's not saying that he my
interpretation you'll have to ask him but my interpretation is he's strongly family oriented but that doesn't mean if you don't have a family uh there's something wrong with it just one last point and then we'll move on just just one of the Bedrock principles of American life is one person one vote Senator JD Vance has suggested that someone who has children should have more votes than a person who does not have children I just want to be clear here is that the position of your campaign well no but it's not something I have ever heard
before I can tell you this right now you have illegal aliens coming into our country many from prisons and many from uh mental institutions and they want to give them votes I don't think they should have votes they came into our country illegally and they're taking the vote away from all of the people in this room that have been here a long time that have worked hard that in many cases and you'll see this happening if I'm Not Elected you're going to see it happen if I am you're not going to have any problem but
you're going to see it happening a long time you're going to see the people in this room and people people outside of this room are going to be losing their jobs the people that have come into this country illegally Mr President can we stay with just kind of the state of the race right now because I I felt like that vice president question um candid candidate question was right in there with that so let's talk about JD Vance for a little bit um he's had some stumbles out of the gate I I don't know if
you're hearing what we hear as reporters but it's been a tough couple of weeks for him why did you choose JD Vance what I why did you choose him and I'm having a hard time hearing too I everybody out there can but it's hard I'll tell you why I chose him because he's a very strong believer in work and the working man and woman and especially the working man and woman who have been treated very unfairly because you have many of them many of them in this room but you have many of those people they
were treated very unfairly they worked very hard and they were treated unfairly he wrote the book that became a best seller the movie became a Smash Hit uh he's a very smart guy without the benefit of having a family that has contacts like a father that was well connected he got into Yale law school he graduated in two years from Ohio State Suma kamani uh I mean you take a look at you know his career has been an amazing career he started off at AEV with a a difficult family situation very difficult with the mother
and the father father and everything else he ends up going to Yale law school and was one of the top students became the head of the Law Journal uh I mean it's an amazing thing he went he's a fouryear he was in the military with great distinction for four years got out went into business became successful in business very successful in business actually did public offerings and other things and I I you know I have to believe in that I mean he's somebody that was born in a rough situation most of the people know that
situation because it was very well documented in his book and I have a lot of respect for somebody that can get into Yale and become one of the best students in Yale that meets a young woman at Yale who was also outstanding and they get married they have a beautiful family but he had a you know he's made himself an amazing life he then gets goes to Ohio lives in Ohio and he had my endorsement that helped but he wins the Senate he becomes a United States Senator so he's a United States Senator and and
so Harris like I respect you for your success I respect people for their success I the reason I asked the question is because the last time you and I sat and talked was the day that you were shot we've been together for much of that day you left uh to go to Butler Pennsylvania and we didn't know what was next yeah and two days after that I cannot understand your microphone is it is really hard for me it's just I can understand you perfectly she's closer I can understand you happy to hear that but I
can't understand haris have a few more questions because of the distance and the mics are really in lousy shape but I cannot understand are you asking a question what you're saying so what I wanted to say was the last time we spoke you said some words that were prophetic because I asked you who you wanted to choose for vice president yeah and you said normally it really wouldn't matter what they would bring you know you choose somebody that you think has a future that sort of thing but you said these words three and a half
hours before an attempted assassination on your life you told me that bad things happen Harris and that's why this decision is important this time bad things happen you said it twice when you look at JD Vance is he ready on J on day one does he what ready on day one if he has to be I've always had great respect for him uh and for the other candidates too but I will say this uh and I think this is well documented historically the Vice President in terms of the election does not have any impact I
mean virtually no impact you have two or three days where there's a lot of commotion as to who like you're having it on the Democrat side who it's going to be and then that dies down and it's all about the presidential pick virtually never has it mattered maybe Lynden Johnson mattered for different reasons of what we're talking about not for vote reasons but for political reasons other political reasons but uh historically the choice of a vice president makes no difference you're voting for the president and you can have a vice president who's outstanding in every
way and I think JD is I think that all of them would have been but but you're not voting that way you're voting for the president you're voting for me if you like me I'm going to win if you don't like me I'm not going to win I'm going to get my JD Vance question in um JD Vance I'm going to get my JD Vans question in um to your point and to Rachel's point he you know has a lot of opinions about childless women like myself or divorce people like yourself do you think well
I mean my point at least it was said in a friendly manner my point is um do you think the party the Republican party is getting a little bit too judgy about people's lives when you think about abortion or when you think about what JD Vance is saying I I don't think look I think that the Democrat Party is really the one that has the problem I think they're radical on abortion because they're allowing abortion in the ninth month they're allowing the death they're allowing the death of a baby after the baby is born based
on governor of Virginia based on the governor of Virginia they're allowing the death of the baby illegal after it's born they're allowing abortions in the eth and nth month Democrats have denied I think they're right and and I think the Republican party is actually much less I think I've made them much less radical perhaps but the Republican party what we're doing is bringing it back to the states where everybody wanted it Democrats Republicans liberals conservative everybody wanted abortion brought back they didn't want roie Wade in the federal government they wanted it everybody but the majority
of Americans opposed roie Wade being overt they don't know about this right now they're voting it brought it back to the States now I happen to believe in the three exceptions Ronald Reagan believed with rape incest life of the mother I I do I think most people do I think most Republicans do also but if you take a look right now they're doing it's an amazing thing out of the federal government it's in States and people are voting and I will say Ohio is let's say let's call it a more liberal version has been approved
uh Kansas the same thing a little bit surprising to a lot of people but the people people are now voting and it's taking this issue that's been going on for 52 years and it's torn our our country apart and it's giving it to the people to vote on and they're voting and many states have already voted others are in the process of voting and it's bringing it back to the people and a vote of the people and it's not at all radical and I again you have to follow your heart I happen to believe in
the three exceptions most people believe in the three exceptions most Republicans believe in the exceptions but they don't want to see an abortion in the 9th month or the eth month almost everybody agrees to that and they certainly don't want to see in the case of the governor of Virginia the former governor in might add who said we set the baby aside and then we decide what to do meaning what do we do we execute the baby can I that's a radical horrible position and some people some people want that I don't want it most
people don't thank you um can I just pivot really quickly another question about you brought up Health Harris um you're an active man um you we see you golfing all the time but if if you win you'll still be president at 82 which is older than Biden is right now but not mentally look mentally list here's the question he's shot he's shot but most people would you cons most people I know many people in their 80s and their '90s that are in great shape some of our greatest leaders you look at throughout the world world
history the greatest leaders some of the greatest leaders in the world were in their 80s but here's the question would you consider stepping down if you felt that your health was declining or would you oh absolutely and who would I think know how would you make that decision I think I'd know look if I came onto a stage like this and I got treated so rudely as this woman treated oh my goodness and I'm fine with it because she it does it she was very rude sir very rude that was a nasty that wasn't a
question she didn't ask me a question she gave a statement that wasn't a question I repeated your statement actually you you you said you would you would absolutely if I thought that I was failing in some way I want people to be Shar I'll go step further I want anybody running for president to take an aptitude test to take a cognitive test I think it's a great idea and I took two of them and I I aced them I I took two of them but let me ask I I like to have people running for
president and I don't mean by because they're 75 or 85 I think anybody running I'd like to do it people say it's not constitutional I would like to have something passed where you can do it I think we should know I mean I've watched what's happened in the last couple of years under this gentleman and our country is a mess we have inflation we have the millions of people falling in we have Afghanistan which was the worst most embarrassing moment in the history of our country what he has done to our country and her too
what they've done to our country she has been a horrible vice president she's considered the worst vice president in the history of our country don't me interrupt you but would you consider taking the cognitive test Mr President I would love to make it public well I've already taken two of them but I'll do it again Mr suest how do you intend to I suggested Harris that let's take one I said Joe and I will go and take a cognitive test now I do it with her too I would do it with her also you know
what she failed her law exam she didn't pass her law exam so maybe she wouldn't pass the cognitive test Mr President thinking she wouldn't pass just to be clear I'm just giving you the fact to be clear you don't think how do you intend and didn't pass her bar exam and she didn't think she would pass it and she didn't think she was going to have to pass it and I don't know what happened maybe she passed it I pass it pass Mr President I would love to ask you about January 6 uh you've called
yourself the candidate of Law and Order yeah when Time Magazine asked you if you would consider pardoning all the riers you said yes absolutely you call them patriots 140 police officers were assaulted that day their injuries included broken bones at least one officer lost an eye one had two cracked ribs two smashed spinal discs another had a stroke were the people who assaulted those 140 officers including those I just mentioned Patriots who deserve pardons well let me bring it back to modern day like about 5 days ago we had an attack on the capital horrible
attack on the capital uh you saw the people that were protesting and spraying these incredible monuments Bells Lions all these magnificent Limestone and granite with red paint red spray paint that will never actually come off especially in the Limestone it will never I'm a builder I know about this stuff it'll never you'll see it in a 100 years from now theyve viciously attacked our government they fought with police they fought with them much more openly than I saw on January 6th what's going to happen to those people what's going to happen to the people in
Portland that destroyed that what's going to happen to the people those riers who assaulted officers you have to would you pardon what's going to happen oh absolutely I would if they're if they're innocent I would pardon them they've been convicted and by the way the Supreme Court just under well they were convicted by a very a very tough system they were how come the people that tried to burn down Minneapolis how come the people that took over a large percentage of Seattle how come nothing happened to them how come the people we talking about people
that were SE be officers FL dragging them down the stairs they're on video have you seen that video sir you would pardon those you would pardon those RI they shot a young lady in the face who was protesting they shot her in the face you know nobody died that day you do know that but people died in Seattle nobody died but people died in Minneapolis you know people died in Minneapolis and nothing happens and nobody ever talks and nothing happens to those people but you went after the j6 people with the Vengeance and I'll tell
you what what about the cops that were and and I'm all for the police as you know but what about the police that are ushering ushering everybody into the capital go in go in go in what about that look nothing is nothing is perfect in life but you have people from Minneapolis you have people just from 5 days ago in Washington DC they were having fist fights and fighting with the police they were spraying and destroyed they were desecrating our monuments in Washington D DC 5 days ago and nothing happened to them and you have
to you can't have two systems of Justice that's why they went after me as a political oppon opponent because they felt they couldn't win without doing that and we're going to win our cases and we're going to be Vindicated but I have to spend a lot of time on that and money that's what they want after the election they won't care although in my case I think they probably will because the hatred is pretty deep but I'll tell you they went after me as a political opponent that's never happened in our country before and it's
such a terrible terrible precedent what do you do on day one if you win what's your first thing what do I do uh I close the border and I do two things cuz I can do a lot of things simultaneously I close the border we don't want people coming we want people to come in Harris but they have to be vetted they have to be checked they have to come in Legally we want I want people to come into our country but they have to be vetted they have to be checked So when you say
what do I do that and I drill baby drill I bring energy way down I bring interest rates down I bring inflation way down so people can buy bacon again so people can buy a ham sandwich again so that people can go to a restaurant restaurant and afford it because right now people can't buy food your grocery bills are up 40 50 60% right she's agreeing to me oh she's agreeing thank you I like you very much uh Mr President I think we are but it's but it's true your grocery bills are up and then
they're mandating that you buy an all electric car you know Elon Musk endorsed me and he's a friend of mine he's a good guy he's a smart guy but I'm against all everybody having an electric car okay I'm very much against that you have to be able to if you want a hybrid or if you want a gasoline propelled car but you know we have more Liquid Gold gasoline oil under our feet than any other country more than Saudi Arabia more than Russia more than any other country I want to use it I want to
use what we have I want to bring down prices bring down costs and I also have to stop The Invasion and remember they're taking your jobs these people coming in are taking your project 2025 I think we have to leave it there by the Trump team so we'll leave it we'll that is the last word thank you so much Mr Trump for coming coming today and joining us well thank you very much they've been telling us he thank you everybody very much great thank you Mr
