Bill O’Reilly’s latest Donald Trump interview is one for the ages

What Donald Trump is doing on the campaign trail

Share

View Photos

MANCHESTER, NH - NOVEMBER 7: Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign event at SNHU Arena in Manchester, NH on Monday November 07, 2016. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

Donald Trump sat down with Fox News's Bill O'Reilly on Tuesday.  And, as usual with O'Reilly and Trump, the result was magical. Using Genius, I annotated it. You can too! Sign up for Genius and annotate alongside me! To see an annotation, click or tap the highlighted part of the transcript.

O'REILLY: Hi, I'm Bill O'Reilly, thanks for watching us tonight. The Talking Points Memo will be a bit later on. The topic, how religious Americans are processing Donald Trump right now. But first, a FACTOR world exclusive. The first national television interview with Mr. Trump after the debate and the "Access Hollywood" exposition. One new ground rule I have put in, if at any time during the interview, Mr. Trump feels he is being treated unfairly, he has been asked by me to say that. We will give Hillary Clinton the same courtesy, should she decide to talk with us. So, joining us now from Dallas is Donald Trump. All right. First of all, you tweeted today, it is so nice that the shackles have been taken off me. And I can now fight for America the way I want to. What exactly does that mean?
TRUMP: Well, we've been having a problem. We have millions and millions of followers. We set records in the primaries. We have a group of people that want to see America be great again, and Paul Ryan, you know, open borders and amnesty and lots of other -- and bad budgets by the way, very, very bad budgets. Frankly, the only one that Obama negotiates well with is Paul Ryan with the budgets. Because that's the only negotiation he can win.
O'REILLY: All right. All right. But what shackles did you have on? I mean --
TRUMP: The shackles are some of the establishment people that are weak and infective people within the Republican Party, senators and others and Paul Ryan, led to a certain extent by Paul Ryan.
O'REILLY: They were holding you back? They were holding you back?
TRUMP: It's not a question of holding back, no. But they're not giving support. They don't give the kind of support. You know we got more votes, more than 14 million votes, more than anybody in the history of the Republican primaries, Bill, and they don't give the support that we really need.
O'REILLY: Okay.
TRUMP: Now, I think maybe I'm better off maybe without their support if you want to know the truth.
O'REILLY: You might be. But I am so confused, you say, you say, okay, the shackles are off and now I can really do what I want. I mean, what are you going to do that you haven't done? I mean, are you going to be more outspoken?
TRUMP: I don't think I'm that outspoken to be honest with you.
O'REILLY: Oh, come on! Sure you are.
TRUMP: No, I don't think, I think I've been very nice.
O'REILLY: I didn't say you weren't nice. You're about as blunt as they come in political circles. That's why you won the primary.
TRUMP: I don't think so. Look, I went to Ivy League schools. I went, you know, I am not --
O'REILLY: So did I, and look at the big mouth on me.
TRUMP: I think, I know, and look how we turned out.
O'REILLY: Okay. All right.
TRUMP: But the fact is that, I think we should get support, and we don't get the support from guys like Paul Ryan. He had a conference call yesterday with congressmen, with hundreds of them, and they practically rioted against him on the phone. One person stuck up for him. So, I am just tired of none support and I don't really want his support. You know, if he calls now -- this happens all the time. If you sneeze, he calls up and announces, isn't that a terrible thing? So look, I don't want his support. I don't care about his support. What I want to do is that I want to win for the people, because Hillary Clinton, she is a disaster.
O'REILLY: All right.
TRUMP: She is a disaster.
O'REILLY: When you --
TRUMP: And four more years of Obama, which will be worse than Obama, but four more years of Obama through Hillary Clinton, this country can't take it.
O'REILLY: All right. I think you've gotten that point across. I think we all know that. So I want to go forward. I want to see what your forward strategy is. Four weeks from today, we'll all be voting. You're about six or seven percent down in the polling now, that's what's trickling out. Certainly, you could win. I think everybody, it was fair, you could win. But you're behind. So, let's start with risk assessment. Have you assessed how you're going to win back women who were offended by the recent exposition from "Access Hollywood"? Do you have a plan to get those women back?
TRUMP: Well, first of all, locker room talk, and most people have heard it before, and I've had a lot of women come up to me and said, boy, I've heard that and I've heard a lot worse than that over my life. And, you know, if that's why I'm going to lose an election to get rid of ISIS and to create strong borders and rebuild our military and do all the things we're going to do, including Supreme Court judges and saving the Second Amendment, because it's under siege with Hillary Clinton or as I call her crooked Hillary, which is what she is. If that's what it's going to take to lose an election, I would be pretty sad then I have to go back to my other life.
O'REILLY: All right.
TRUMP: But I will tell you what, I think we're going to win the election, Bill. I think we're going to win the election. People are tired of Obama and they're tired of Clinton.
O'REILLY: Okay. You're going the course of what you've been doing. You're not going to add anything new, any targeting commercials --
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: We have a great commercial that went out today. I'm right now in Dallas, Texas, I'm flying to Panama City, Florida in just a little while as soon as I'm finish with this. And we're doing a speech, and we have thousands and thousands of people. I notice where Hillary is doing a speech some place in Florida. She has got a small crowd and they're making it like a big crowd. I had 20,000 people last night. Nobody talks about that. It's a very unfair press. But one thing I'll say about you, you agree that I've been treated unfairly by the press.
O'REILLY: In some cases you have been, but in some cases you're too sensitive. But if you are treated unfairly and we do have a talking points memo tomorrow that will prove some of that. And you'll be very interested to see what we've come up with. But let's again, women, women are the key with this. You're winning with men. All right? And I think you will continue to win with men. But women you're behind.
(CROSSTALK)
O'REILLY: But you're behind with women. Are you going to target --
TRUMP: I'm not sure I believe it.
O'REILLY: You know, whether you believe it or not, that's what the polling says.
TRUMP: Yes.
O'REILLY: Do you have any plan to speak to women directly or target them with ads or anything like that?
TRUMP: I do, but what women want, you know, we do the child care program that really Ivanka wanted very, very much. My daughter Ivanka wanted it. I agreed with her 100 percent. But what women want is they want secure borders, they want safety, they want law and order, they want, you know, they want a police department that's allowed to do its job, they want justice for all. They want a lot of things that everybody else wants, and Hillary Clinton can't do it. She's been doing this stuff for 30 years and she has failed every single time. I mean, you look at her tenure in New York State. It was a disaster. She's failed at everything she's ever done including by the way, ISIS. She created ISIS in a sense because of the vacuum left by the way they got --
O'REILLY: Yes. It was an Obama policy, but remember, it's you know, when you're secretary of state, I'm not making excuses, you're working for the boss. So now, let's get back --
TRUMP: Bill, Bill, hold it, Bill, you said I could interrupt.
O'REILLY: Yes, go ahead.
TRUMP: Okay. Just one time.
O'REILLY: Yep.
TRUMP: I hope to not do it again. Just so you understand, there was no ISIS when Hillary Clinton came along.
O'REILLY: Of course I understand that.
TRUMP: The way they got out of Iraq. So there was no ISIS, so there were no countries, now they're in 32 countries all over the world including by the way --
O'REILLY: And that's on Obama.
TRUMP: She asked him -- no, it's also on her. She was secretary of state.
O'REILLY: A little bit. A little bit. But --
TRUMP: Not a little bit.
O'REILLY: If you get elected president, you're going to tell your secretary of state what to do and they'll do it or you'll fire them. But I want to get back to --
TRUMP: Bill, she was there at the beginning, she was there at the proud birth of ISIS.
O'REILLY: I know.
TRUMP: So, I'm sure she was very proud of it.
O'REILLY: Well, so she screwed up Libya too.
(CROSSTALK)
O'REILLY: So she screwed up Libya too.
TRUMP: Her baby all the way.
O'REILLY: Okay.
TRUMP: She screwed up everything.
O'REILLY: Now --
TRUMP: I mean, just there's nothing she hasn't screwed up.
O'REILLY: Okay. All right. Now your support, all right, so Ryan is gone. You attacked McCain today as well, because he was mad about the tape thing. If you're elected president --
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: You're going, you want to hear McCain? McCain was desperate --
O'REILLY: Let me ask the question.
TRUMP: He was desperate to get my endorsement. I gave him the endorsement because he needed it for the primary, and frankly, he ran against a very, very good woman. I feel very badly, I gave him the endorsement. But that's okay.
O'REILLY: All right.
TRUMP: He easily wins his primary. He easily wins his primary. And then all of a sudden, you know, he does the un-endorsement thing.
O'REILLY: He didn't like the tape thing.
TRUMP: He's never heard, give me a break. He's never heard salty language before. You know, John McCain who has probably the dirtiest mouth in all of the Senate has never heard, you know, he talked about lewd --
O'REILLY: Can I ask a question, please?
TRUMP: Sure.
O'REILLY: If you're elected president, you're going to need McCain and you're going to need Ryan. You're going to need these guys.
TRUMP: They will be there. They will be there. I would think that Ryan maybe wouldn't be there. Maybe he will be in a very different position. But McCain will be there, they'll all be there.
O'REILLY: And you think they'll going to all cooperate with you after you're trashing them?
TRUMP: I get along, I know you don't believe this. Well, I get along with you for 20 years, I guess I can get along with anybody, frankly. But to be honest with you Bill, I get along with people. And I think you know that maybe better than anybody, I get along with them.
O'REILLY: I don't know what good it does to trash people. You can say I disagree, I wish they would endorse me, but to trash them, I don't know what good that does.
TRUMP: Because he was begging for my endorsement, people are calling --
O'REILLY: I know --
TRUMP: His friends are calling. And then the first sign of a little bit of difficulty he unendorsed me.

O'REILLY: All right.
TRUMP: I wouldn't want to be in a foxhole with a lot of these people, that I can tell you --
O'REILLY: But McCain is a brave man. He is a brave man.
TRUMP: -- including Ryan. By the way, including Ryan. Especially Ryan.
O'REILLY: I got that. Okay. Now, when we come back -- I'm going to hold you over -- I want to talk about the debate, and I want you to be thinking about what in the debate got you angry, and what you felt was most important for the American public. All right? So when we come back, we'll talk to Mr. Trump, we really appreciate his time. We know how busy he is. And later, the Talking Points Memo on how religious Americans are seeing the presidential race right now. That's up ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'REILLY: Continuing now with Donald Trump who is in Dallas this evening. Okay. On the debate, think back, what's the most important thing you said in that debate?
TRUMP: Well, I think a lot of things, but I would say the most important thing I showed in the debate and as you saw, virtually everybody, other than, you know, some crooked polls said that we won the debate easily, was that Hillary Clinton, after being there for 30 years has done practically nothing except talk. She won't do anything.
O'REILLY: All right. So, that was the most important --
TRUMP: She won't do anything. To me, that's the biggest thing.
O'REILLY: Okay.
TRUMP: Because she talks about -- she talks about health care, child care, she talks about everything, but she never does anything. You look at the bills she passed, a few naming projects. She named a couple buildings or highway or something. She did practically nothing. Hillary Clinton has been there and she criticizes and she says what she's going to do but she never does anything.
O'REILLY: But she got some stuff, to be fair, after 9/11, she did a fairly good job representing New York and getting things in here that the families needed and the victims needed but I want to go to --
TRUMP: Well, she's not getting credit from my check, I will tell you that.
O'REILLY: Okay.
TRUMP: People think she was a lousy senator. She came in on the basis that she was going to fix Upstate, New York and create 200,000 jobs and guess what happened, everybody left.
O'REILLY: Okay. Now, Hillary Clinton just putting aside the compliments that she gave your children and by extension you. Did she say anything in that debate, and you know, try to be fair here, that impressed you anything that she have any point of view that was worthy?
TRUMP: Well, you know, I'm sure she said a couple of things, Bill, you know, you're asking me about the debate. I don't think I was extremely impressed with her performance. One thing I will say, you know, right after the debate they left and they said oh, Donald was in her space. I never walked near her. I was at my lectern and all of a sudden she walks right over to me, she stands right in front of me and the next day, I read that I was in her space. I watched Lazio lose the debate because he went over towards, stood over her. And that was years ago, I guess when they were running for Senate. Rick Lazio, nice guy. But he stood over and he took a lot of heat for that, so I very, you know --
O'REILLY: I thought it was a bogus issue. I said it last night.
TRUMP: No, no, wait a minute, Bill, she came into my territory. No, no, she came into my territory. I was standing at my lectern --
O'REILLY: Right.
TRUMP: And all of a sudden from nowhere, she walks right in front of me. So, I never walked near her. She stands right in front of me. The next day, it was I was in her space. I was standing at my chair, my lectern. So, this is typical Hillary Clinton. She's a phony person.
O'REILLY: All right. But it was the press that did it and it was ridiculous. The whole thing was ridiculous.
TRUMP: No, it was the Hillary Clinton camp that spun the press, and the press is an extension of Hillary Clinton. I mean, it's part of the rigged system. The press is a total extension of look, if Hillary Clinton didn't have the press, she'd be right -- she wouldn't be running. She would have lost immediately. But if she didn't have the press on her side, and it's a total fix job. If she didn't have it, she'd be at 10 percent right now. Nobody wants her.
O'REILLY: When you see how you're being treated, not only by the national press, but say "Saturday Night Live." You've got Alec Baldwin now doing you, Kate McKinnon doing Mrs. Clinton, do you feel that it's coordinated? There's no doubt that most of the press, and I said this from the very beginning, you remember I told you that the day you announced that you were going to get hammered personally, not just because of your policies, but because they don't like you, they don't think you're worthy for this job. You know, all of that.
TRUMP: No, they don't like what I stand for. They don't like what I stand for.
O'REILLY: Yes. I understand.
TRUMP: They don't like, worthy, I mean, look, I'll compare my I.Q. with anybody, okay? So, they don't like --
O'REILLY: But compare you to Romney. They didn't like Romney, but it wasn't as personal as it is against you. It's personal against you.
TRUMP: Well, I'm very proud to say, they say -- this is the all-time pile on in history in terms of -- you know, before I ran --
O'REILLY: Coordinated, do you believe it's coordinated?
TRUMP: Hey, Bill, yes, I do think so. Before I ran, I used to get great press, my wife said the other day, she said you used to never got a bad story. Well, I got some, but I got very few. Now I have like, I can have -- I can be on the front page of the "New York Times" in three different stories, and every one of them is a hit job. And you understand that. Now, it's a very unfair press, but I knew it would be bad. I didn't know it would be this bad. I used to talk. I said, boy, am I going to get hit? Because I stand for strong borders. We have to strengthen up our country. We're not going to have a country if we don't have borders. And people are pouring across. By the way, ICE and the border patrol guards, border patrol agents just endorsed me, 16,500 agents.
O'REILLY: Right. But that was a while back. But you missed an opportunity.
TRUMP: No, ICE -- no, no. ICE was last week, Bill, just so you understand.
O'REILLY: You missed an opportunity, because in the Wikileaks exposition, apparently, Hillary Clinton said to a bunch of Brazilian bankers that she wants open borders. I thought you were going to hammer that all day long in the debate. You didn't.
TRUMP: The problem is, Bill, I would hammer it, but the press doesn't pick it up. The press is hardly even talking about WikiLeaks. You now that. WikiLeaks is amazing. The stuff that's coming out, it shows she's a real liar. She said, well, you have to say to the public and you have to say to your donors different things. Okay? The press doesn't even pick this stuff up. You look at, where are you seeing it?
(CROSSTALK)
O'REILLY: It got overshadowed by the "Access Hollywood" stuff. I mean --
TRUMP: No, it did not. It wasn't overshadowed.
O'REILLY: Well, let me just tell you. On Friday night --
TRUMP: They just --
O'REILLY: Just let me tell you. On Friday night I'm sitting here doing a live show. I got WikiLeaks all day long on my show. And then all of a sudden an hour before airtime, the "Access Hollywood" thing explodes, so everybody is running around like this, you know, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum and the story got buried. And so, that's what happened on that one.
TRUMP: Bill, they should be speaking about what's going on in WikiLeaks. Just today, just before I put this on and shoot before your cameras, they have incredible stuff coming out even today. In fact, as soon as I'm finished, I am going to read it. But it was incredible stuff.
O'REILLY: Yes, it was about the --
TRUMP: But nobody else is picking it up.
O'REILLY: Well, we record it.
TRUMP: CNN which is totally crooked. You know, the Clinton News network. CNN, first of all, their ratings are terrible. I don't know if you've seen them.
O'REILLY: They're doing better. Because they're on Hillary's side and all that. But you're right. I am not going to dispute the fact that --
TRUMP: They're not doing better. They're doing badly in the ratings.
O'REILLY: Eighty percent of the press doesn't want you to win. That's a lot. Eighty percent. But, you always have a forum here. And I think FOX News has given you a fair shake. Would you say that's accurate?
TRUMP: I would say, yes, I would say FOX has been pretty good. Your guys in the morning have been fantastic. You've been fair. I wouldn't say you're the greatest, but you've been fair. (LAUGHTER)I think that FOX has been, no, you have some great people. Sean Hannity is a great, great person. You have some great people --
O'REILLY: We've been fair.
TRUMP: There are people that frankly don't treat me fairly, but you've been fine.
O'REILLY: All right.
(CROSSTALK)

Well, look, I appreciate you coming on, because look, you gain currency coming in here. Because I'm not --
TRUMP: I do?
O'REILLY: I'm not rooting for anybody. I'm asking you the hardest questions I can ask you, and you sit there and answer them. And guess who doesn't answer them.
TRUMP: I do.
O'REILLY: Guess who doesn't answer them.
TRUMP: Let me guess, is it crooked Hillary?
O'REILLY: I would never be disrespectful and call her that.
TRUMP: That's what she is.
O'REILLY: She should, she should.
TRUMP: Yes.
O'REILLY: All right. We appreciate your time, Donald. Thank you very much. Have a good rally this evening.
TRUMP: Thank you very much. Thank you.
O'REILLY: Directly ahead, we'll have reaction to that interview. And later your thoughts on the presidential election. We received nearly eight thousand questions. You guys in the spotlight up ahead.