FOX "Hannity"- Transcript: Trump Interview

Interview

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HANNITY: All right, here to respond to those remarks, 2016 Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. Mr. Trump, welcome back, sir. How are you?

DONALD TRUMP, R-PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm very good, thank you, Sean.

HANNITY: What is your reaction to the ongoing feud?

TRUMP: Well, number one, I really respect the fact that Jeb is sticking up for his brother. I mean, I would stick up for my brothers also. And he's sticking up for his brother, and I understand that.

But this all started when he said that we're safe, you know, the country was safe. Well, the World Trade Center was just attacked. It fell down, 3,000 people were killed. Thousands and thousands of people were injured, and to this day are injured. And it was the worst attack in history.

So you can't say he kept our country safe because he was president. You know, as Truman said, the buck stops here. So he was president.

And if you look at my book, which was written a couple of years prior to the attack, I actually mentioned the name of Usama bin Laden, that he's a bad terrorist and we have to do something about it.

And when one of your competitors heard about it today, they said, Whoa, whoa, this is amazing. Trump actually predicted it...

HANNITY: I actually...

TRUMP: ... because I actually said in the book that something would happen. Nobody talks about it. But I actually talk about the name Usama bin Laden.

HANNITY: I have the quote. Let me put it up on the screen. This is exactly what you wrote. This was in a book you published in 2000, "The America We Deserve." You said, "I am really convinced that we're in danger of the sort of terrorist attacks that will make the bombing of the Trade Center look like kid's play with firecrackers. No sensible analyst rejects this possibility, and plenty of them, like me, are not wondering if but when it will happen."

In the book, you also wrote, quote, "One day, we're told that a shadowy figure with no fixed address named Usama bin Laden is public enemy number one, and U.S. jet fighters lay waste to his camp in Afghanistan. He escapes back under some rocks, and a few news cycles later, it's on to a new enemy, a new crisis."

How could you have stopped it?

TRUMP: I mean, I know what's happening, Sean. I know what's going on. I think I could have stopped it because I have very tough illegal immigration policies, and people aren't coming into this country unless they're vetted and vetted properly.

If you look at what happened, George Tenet, who was the head of the CIA -- - first of all, the CIA and the FBI and everybody else -- they weren't talking with each other because they weren't getting along. That's leadership. You have to get everybody to get along.

Second of all, George Tenet predicted an attack. George Tenet said there's going to be an attack. They should have done something about it.

So I'm not blaming anybody. And this started very innocently when I said, you know, to somebody, frankly, that didn't really matter -- I said, Listen, the World Trade Center came down during -- you know, there's nothing safe when the World Trade Center was attacked and came down during his reign. Well, that's not safe because he said, Jeb said our country was safe. Well, that's not the case.

And then if you want to go a little further, he then attacked Iraq, which turned out not to be the right country because they didn't have weapons of mass destruction. And by the way, the terrorists sent their families home to Saudi Arabia. They didn't send them home to Iraq, they sent them home to Saudi Arabia, which is another thing for people to think about.

HANNITY: You know, Mr. Trump, the only disagreement I have is we knew Saddam had weapons of mass destruction because we have the images of the Kurds that were slaughtered and little children and women in the streets. We knew there was a chemical attack. And the world's intelligence, in fairness, also thought that.

I want to add another element to this. There's an unknown...

TRUMP: Well, you know, by the way, but they never found them. You're right.

HANNITY: They didn't find them.

TRUMP: But they never found them. I think they did use...

HANNITY: I think they probably moved them to Syria, myself.

TRUMP: Well, I don't know. They never found them. And frankly, they probably used them against Iran, which really was beautiful -- I mean, not that they used the weapons, but the beauty of it was you had these two countries that were equal in strength, and we decapitated one of those countries, and now Iran is taking over Iraq and everything else, and ISIS is taking oil and Iran is taking oil and they're taking over the whole country.

HANNITY: Yes.

TRUMP: So it's turned out to be really bad. With that being said, I respect the fact that Jeb is defending his brother. I think that's good. I would do the same thing.

HANNITY: Yes. One point I've always agreed with you on is that if we liberate Kuwait and we liberate Iraq, they need to pay us for the liberation. We need to give money to the families that lost brave American soldiers or are injured for the rest of their lives. We don't do that. And I also think that if...

HANNITY: And by the way, Sean...

HANNITY: ... if Obama would have -- if he would have held the ground, ISIS never would have emerged. He wanted to pull out for political reasons!

TRUMP: I love that you bring up Kuwait. Kuwait had nothing but money. They get attacked by Iraq. They take over Kuwait. The rich Arabs go and they move into London, as you know -- the Kuwaitis, they moved into London. They didn't take a room, like you would or maybe even I would. They took the entire hotel. And they lived like kings.

And then we attack. We lose lives. We spent billions of dollars, and we give them back the country for nothing!

HANNITY: Nothing, nothing.

TRUMP: And they don't even want to invest in -- and then I told them -- I had them in my office a few months after that. They don't like investing in the United States, OK? We gave them the country back for nothing.

We should have said, We want 50 percent of everything you make for the next 50 years, or permanently. And you know what? They would have agreed to it. We gave it back for nothing. Why did we do that?

HANNITY: We're a stupid country. That's the answer. We negotiate bad deals. I agree with you.

Let me play for you -- I want to add another element to this whole -- how come America wasn't prepared for 9/11. In a little known speech on Long Island that Bill Clinton gave in February of 2002 -- the audio's a little sketchy, but I want you to pay close attention where he said, Well, you know, we knew he wanted to commit crimes against America, but I had no legal basis to take him. And I think he missed the opportunity.

You had published two years earlier what a bad guy bin Laden was. Listen to Clinton admit that he could have gotten him, but he failed to take action. Listen to this.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

FORMER PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON: (INAUDIBLE) bin Laden (INAUDIBLE) expelled from Saudi Arabia (INAUDIBLE) so they released him. At the time (INAUDIBLE) he had committed no crime against America, so I had (INAUDIBLE) hold him. (INAUDIBLE)

(END AUDIO CLIP)

HANNITY: So the key words are, He committed no crimes against America, so I didn't bring him here because we had no basis on which to hold him, even though we knew he wanted to commit crimes against America.

Now, here's the point. In 2000, you identified him, as a citizen, a private citizen. And Bill Clinton knew he wanted to commit crimes against America, had the opportunity to get him, and didn't take him? Doesn't he bear that responsibility?

TRUMP: Well, he made a mistake. But I will tell you that if I were there, I would have taken him out. Now, I wrote about him in my book. And when they talk -- when I talk about the World Trade Center, that was the first attack, which was compared to what happened, ultimately relatively minor.

But I talk about Usama bin Laden in my book, and people can't believe it. They're just starting to read that book. That was the only political book I had ever done. And people are just starting to read that book, and they can't believe that I mentioned the name Usama bin Laden.

Remember, and he ought to crawl under a rock, but we have to get him. And Clinton made a mistake. And frankly, Bush should have taken him out. Somebody should have taken him out. And I think I would have. But I think my immigration policies would have gone a long way to helping this also, Sean.

HANNITY: Well, I think the immigration policy -- we're now facing a crisis. You see what's happening in Europe. There's a huge backlash because of Syrian refugees and Iraqi refugees and the cost. We're being told by our national intelligence director that ISIS and al Qaeda -- not if, they will infiltrate the refugee community.

This president has committed to nearly 250,000 coming to America. That tells me we have a pre-9/11 mindset again. Your thoughts?

TRUMP: I was always a big fan of Merkel from Germany. I'm not a fan anymore. What she's doing is insane. And we want to take in 200,000, and we don't know where they come from. They have no papers. All we know is they're young and they're strong and they're mostly men. And this could be the greatest Trojan horse ever. This could be bigger than the original Trojan horse.

We shouldn't be taking anybody. We have enough problems. We have to rebuild our country, our infrastructure. We owe $19 trillion. And by the way, taking in 200,000 is going to cost us -- they just did a study, over a period of 10 years, going to cost us billions of dollars. What are we doing?

Merkel made a tremendous mistake. They're going to end up having a revolution in Germany. You see what's happening with the German people.

HANNITY: A hundred percent.

TRUMP: Now, what we should do, at the same time from a humane standpoint, take a big chunk of Syria, and let's all put some money into it, if we have to, because on a humane basis -- and build a safe zone, what's called a safe zone. Let the people -- but to allow them into Germany and to allow them into these other countries, where there's nothing but a horror show you see what's happening. And now we're going to take in 200,000 people in this country?

HANNITY: It's insane. It's insane.

TRUMP: And we can't breathe! I mean, we don't know what we're doing!

HANNITY: You know, and I suggested the same thing, make it a secure zone, offer humanitarian assistance, offer food, water, medicine and supplies...

TRUMP: Fine, fine.

HANNITY: ... and keep them within Syria.

All right, to close the circle on the feud with Jeb, if Jeb wins the nomination, will you support him?

TRUMP: Absolutely yes. I would absolutely support him. He's a good person. He's a good man. I would support him.

HANNITY: OK, stay right there. We'll have more coming up -- more with Donald Trump, the Republican front-runner, right after the break. We have a lot of polls to show you that reveal he is continuing his stronghold over his rivals. Plus, if he wins the nomination, who would Donald Trump like to face in a general election, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders? That's next.

And later tonight, during a recent fund-raiser for his brother, President George W. Bush reportedly did not hold back his true feelings against Texas senator Ted Cruz. George W. Bush said, quote, "I just don't like the guy." Well, have more on that straight ahead.

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HANNITY: Welcome back to "Hannity." So Donald Trump continues to surge in three brand-new polls. In the brand-new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, Donald Trump is on top with 25 percent. That is the highest level of support he has received in that particular poll since he entered the 2016 race. Dr. Ben Carson is second with 22 percent, followed by Marco Rubio, who has 13, Ted Cruz, Jeb Bush and Carly Fiorina all in single digits.

We have a brand-new CNN/ORC poll, also more good news for Donald Trump. He's in first place with 27 percent of the vote. Dr. Carson comes in second with 22 percent, followed by Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, Mike Huckabee and Rand Paul all in single digits.

Also, Trump has a commanding lead in a new Monmouth University poll. He's leading Dr. Carson by double digits. He has 28 percent in that poll. And we have a new Morning Consult poll which had you at, what, 41 percent, 51 percent if you look at those that look at you as their second choice.

And Donald Trump the 2016 front-runner -- what do you make of these polls? I know you talk a lot about the polls, but they have been steady. They have been consistent. And now Byron York has a piece out, and there was another piece that week that says finally, the establishment believes you can win, and Byron York outlines how the establishment prepares to go after you as not being a conservative.

Are you ready to deal with that? And what will you do?

TRUMP: Well, I am. Look, I have meetings in New Hampshire. We have thousands and thousands of people, 6,000, 7,000, 8,000 people every time. I went to Dallas. We had 2 20,000 in Mark Cuban's arena. It was an amazing evening. Alabama, we had 35,000, Oklahoma 20,000. Every place we go in Iowa, we have thousands and thousands, overflow crowds.

People are tired of being ripped off in our country. We're run by people that are incompetent. They don't know what they're doing. Every nation is beating us. "Obama care" is a disaster. Our Iran deal is horrible. It was written by -- it was done by people that don't know what they're doing. I mean, they don't know what they're doing.

And people see what's happening. And look, they know I do things properly. I do the right thing. And they just like what I'm saying...

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: The establishment now thinks you can win. And what they're planning and what they're telegraphing they're planning is a barrage of ads in early states, huge buys, millions and millions of dollars trying to chip away at your conservative credentials with primary voters.

What do you think is the best way to respond to that?

TRUMP: But they're not buying -- the candidates aren't buying the ads. The people that are buying the ads are the special interests, the donors, the people that are lobbyists. You know, you have lobbyists -- I know half the lobbyists. I used to contribute to the lobbyists. Who knows more about a lobbyist than me? I know the good ones and the bad ones.

But the lobbyists are going crazy because when they come to me, say they want me to do something for all these companies, even though it's not in the best interests of the United States, I'm not going to do it. When the special interests tell me to do something that's adverse to the people of the United States, I'm not going to do it because I'm not taking their money.

HANNITY: Will you fight back, then, with your own ads...

TRUMP: These people...

HANNITY: ... and your own money?

TRUMP: Sure, I'll fight back. Sure. Of course I'm going to -- I always fight back. I have to fight back.

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: Otherwise I wouldn't be leading every poll.

(CROSSTALK)

No, but I wouldn't be leading every poll. But Sean, you have to understand, these people have hundreds of millions of dollars that they've given to these politicians, and the politicians are puppets for them. They're just puppets.

HANNITY: Yes.

TRUMP: With me, I'm going to do what's right for the country. We have $19 trillion in debt. We're going to get the debt paid -- we're going to do things right. We're not going to let China rip us off anymore. It's enough already.

You know that last year, we had an imbalance with China of $450 billion! Who can stand that? You can't do that. And this has gone on for years and years, and nobody does anything because they have lobbyists. They have special interests.

And I'm going to represent the people. We're going to make this country so great and so strong. But with that, a lot of money's going to be spent. And I just hope when people are watching these phony ads, you know, all of these phony ads that are going to be put out, that they're going to understand it's not the candidates. It's all of these special interests, Sean, that want to not have a guy like Trump because they're going to be out of business!

HANNITY: For them, this is the art of political war for them. And I think they're serious about it because they're talking about their power going away.

Of the three Democrats -- it looks like Biden's getting in the race, so of the three Democrats, Biden, Hillary, Bernie Sanders, if you win the nomination, is there any one you prefer going up against?

TRUMP: Well, I don't think Sanders is going to get there, frankly. And I don't mind going against Hillary's record. I think I'd beat her. You saw the various polls on myself against Hillary. I just beat her in Florida. A poll came out today where I beat her pretty easily in Florida. I beat her nationwide. I don't mind going against Hillary.

And you know, Biden is -- right now, he's got his little period of time where he's popular. As soon as he gets in, he'll get beaten up very badly. He's done this three or four times. He's lost every time. So I don't mind going against him at all.

I don't want to pick a favorite, to be honest. I think I might have a favorite. But if you go by Hillary's record, she'd win very easily.

HANNITY: Have you give any thought, if you win the nomination, three people you would consider to be your vice president?

TRUMP: I have given thought, but I don't want to discuss it. It's just too early. I have to get there first. And you know, I don't like talking about -- you have so many people, they don't win, they don't know how to win. I don't want to talk about anything. I do know how to win, but that's so far down the road.

HANNITY: OK.

TRUMP: I will say, I do respect some of the people that I'm running against, and I respect many of the people -- you have many good Republicans out there that could really help and be terrific.

And we're going to unify the Republican Party. We're going to unify it and make it strong, and we're going to win. We're not going to do what Romney did last time, where he should have won an election and he lost. We're going to unify the Republican Party, and we're going to win.

HANNITY: I heard you were supposed to be on Jimmy Kimmel tonight. Did something happen?

TRUMP: No, I have a political event, but I'm going to do his show in two weeks. I have a big political event, which I can't skip. And I told him, I said, you know, I have this event. I can't skip it. But I will be doing it in two weeks when I'm out in Los Angeles.

HANNITY: You know, there was an article that came out about Hillary. She has these big hearings coming up about Benghazi. We know that Ambassador Stevens requested security before it was denied. We know that during the attack that there was a stand-down order given because I interviewed people that were there. They told me personally. And we know they made up this story about a YouTube video and a spontaneous demonstration.

We learned that about her. What do you think about the hearings? And there was another article that came out earlier today in The Washington Free Beacon that she paid men $16,000 more a year more than women! What's your reaction of those two things with her?

TRUMP: Well, I have to tell you, I was really looking forward to the hearings, but then you had a congressman, Republican, go against Trey Gowdy and all of the people, as you know, And then you had a whistleblower come out. So that hurt. That was not exactly positive.

And then yesterday, I watched Trey, who I do respect -- I think he's a terrific guy -- but he seemed to be doing a big pivot. He said, Well, this isn't about Hillary Clinton. You know, I'm pretty good at figuring this stuff out. And he seemed to be doing, Sean -- I'm sure you saw it. He seemed to be doing a big pivot away from Hillary Clinton, and I was trying to figure out what that was all about.

So you may not be as happy as you think with these hearings. I just don't know. The hearings -- I was looking forward to them. But with all that's happening -- and I was surprised that he pivoted away so much from Hillary. He said, These hearings are not about her. Actually, we want to discuss other people much moreso. And it sounded like he was sort of pulling away from going after her. So I'm going to have to see what the hearings are all about.

HANNITY: All right, Mr. Trump, thanks so much. We appreciate your time.

TRUMP: Thank you.

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