CNN "Erin Burnett OutFront"- Transcript: Trump Denies "Meltdown" Over Breast Pump Request and Interview with Donald Trump

Interview

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

BOLDUAN: OUTFRONT tonight, Dana Bash is here with her exclusive interview. And Dana, Trump is not taking that accusation lightly.

[19:30:08] DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: No. That's probably not a surprise to anybody who has ever watched Donald Trump at all, particularly when somebody comes after him so personally. He shoots back. That's definitely what he did with me today.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BASH: She said that you got up, shook your finger, screamed, "You're disgusting, you're disgusting", and ran out.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: OK. I watched that and I thought it was disgraceful. She's a terrible attorney. She lost her case to me. In fact, I won legal fees. The judge awarded legal fees, which is pretty rare when you get that.

But we beat her soundly. She's got a terrible reputation in my opinion. She's got just a terrible reputation. Other lawyers have called me up and say, how bad she was.

Bottom line, I beat her. And what happened is in the middle of everything, it wasn't breast feed. It was breast pump. She wanted to pump in front of me during a deposition.

BASH: She wanted to take a break so she could take the pump out.

TRUMP: Not true. In fact, if you ask my lawyer who was there, he said, I've never seen anything like it. She wanted to breast pump in front of me.

And I may have said that's disgusting, I may have said something else. I thought it was terrible.

She's a horrible person, knows nothing about me. I see her, she's now the great expert of Donald Trump.

BASH: I guess the question isn't so much that she's an expert but she does have an experience which she clearly doesn't think --

TRUMP: Excuse me. And it's a bad experience. She lost.

BASH: Right. TRUMP: And that's what the country needs. The country needs somebody that's going to win. We always lose. We lose on trade. We lose to China, Japan, Mexico. We lose to everybody.

Wouldn't it be nice if we could win something? I beat her so badly. She's a vicious, horrible person.

BASH: Because you are not a politician, we don't have your voting record to go on. We don't have -- you know, we have your experience as a businessman, and part of your experience are legal issues.

TRUMP: Well, let me explain.

BASH: I guess the question is --

TRUMP: Let me explain.

BASH: Can I just --

TRUMP: So many people are on television that don't know me and they are like experts on me. You know, when Michael Jackson died -- I knew him very well. Everybody was talking about Michael Jackson. They didn't know him. They knew nothing. Some of them never even met him.

And I sort of laughed to myself. Here they are talking about Michael Jackson. They never met him.

BASH: But she -- I don't think anybody is saying she's an expert on Donald Trump.

TRUMP: Well, she claims to be.

BASH: She's recounting an experience she has. My question for you is --

TRUMP: Excuse me. It was a bad experience. She lost.

BASH: Right. But my question for you is, people are looking at that. They're thinking, OK, if he blows up at a lawyer in a deposition --

TRUMP: I didn't blow up. I didn't blow up.

BASH: -- negotiating, what would he do -- what would you do if Putin challenged you?

TRUMP: Excuse me. Oh, believe me, he would be -- I would do very well with him. I get along with people.

I didn't blow up at a deposition. I don't blow up. I'm a person that --

(CROSSTALK)

BASH: She's wrong?

TRUMP: She made it up. She made it up. BASH: One of the things I do want to ask about that was in "The New York Times" this morning, they went through some of your depositions, quoted you under oath saying, "I'm no different from a politician running for office. You always want to put the best foot forward," saying that you exaggerate.

TRUMP: Well, I do want to put the best. You can call it exaggeration. Of course, I want to put the best foot forward. I'm not going to say, oh, gee, everything is terrible. I'm a very optimistic person. I'm optimistic for the country.

Of course, I want to put --

BASH: Do you exaggerate?

TRUMP: Everybody exaggerates. I guess I do. I want to say good things.

OK. So, I have space for rent. Somebody walks in. Am I supposed to say, this space is no good, don't take it, it's terrible? Or am I supposed to say, this is beautiful space, don't you love it, isn't it wonderful, look at the view?

BASH: Will you exaggerate in the White House?

TRUMP: The word -- I don't think the word "exaggerate" is a good word. I want to put a positive spin on things. I want to put a positive spin on the United States. If I'm president, because we have a country that's not respected. We're very down. The United States is very down. We don't have good news anymore. We don't have victories anymore.

So, I would certainly want to promote the United States as a great place. People are laughing at us all over the world. They think we're stupid. And we are. I mean, we're being led by stupid people. We're being led by people that don't have a clue they're incompetent.

BASH: One other question about the quote. You said, I'm no different from a politician running for office. Have you considered yourself a politician? Because you are out there saying that you're not.

TRUMP: I became a politician a few months when I decided --

BASH: This is several years ago.

TRUMP: Yes. But politicians running for office try and put a positive spin. I think that's OK. I mean, what are they going to do, put a negative spin in? I think they try and put a positive spin.

A politician is a person that generally speaking should be uplifting.

BASH: Do you consider yourself a politician?

TRUMP: Well, now, I'm a politician but I'm not acting like a politician because I tell the truth.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BOLDUAN: Exaggeration, is it optimism only? I mean, to hear him someone who is now a politician acknowledge that he exaggerates, I can't decide if it's shocking or refreshing.

BASH: You know, that's the issue. The fact is, the reason why Donald Trump is leading in all the polls, not just nationally, but he is doing extremely well in New Hampshire, in Iowa, is because he defies convention.

[19:35:10] BOLDUAN: That's right.

BASH: Convention, of course, is a politician -- somebody who is running for president -- has admitted to exaggerating, it's like game over. Donald Trump, his numbers are probably going to go up because expectations are different for him. That actually is the kind of thing that appeals to people.

BOLDUAN: And also, especially talking about defying convention, flip- flopping as the worst words in politics ever, but he readily acknowledges it.

BASH: He went from advocating single payer system Canadian-style, government-run, you know, socialist --

BOLDUAN: Right.

BASH: -- healthcare model to the left of the most people in the Democratic Party, to being a conservative Republican in 15 years. He wrote that in his book 15 years ago. Again, game over for most people. Not Donald Trump, at least not yet.

BOLDUAN: Defying convention. And that's not all of it. Dana is going to stick around because there's more of this.

OUTFRONT next, more of Donald Trump in an interview. Now he is invoking a GOP hero.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Ronald Reagan was a long time ago. He was somebody that liked me a lot. I liked him a lot. I helped him a little bit.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: And back to our top story as well. I will talk to a man whose wife was lost on MH370.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BOLDUAN: Back now with more of Dana Bash's exclusive interview with Donald Trump. Trump who was once a registered Democrat, is now running as a Republican candidate for president, he has accused -- he's been accused of flip-flopping on some key conservative issues, including abortion. Dana asked Trump about that today.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BASH: On the train up here, I bought your 2000 book, "The America We Deserve".

TRUMP: Right.

BASH: $7.99 on Amazon.

TRUMP: Good.

BASH: I contributed to the empire.

And so, in reading it, there were a couple of things that jumped out. One is on abortion. At time you said that you were pro-choice. Now you've changed, right?

TRUMP: Not strong, but I am pro-life. I had an experience with a friend of mine who was, frankly -- they were going to abort their child, which they ended up having. Their child is like this magnificent person. It had an impact. I have seen that a couple of times. But I'm pro-life.

BASH: You're pro-life. But you do think there should be exceptions for rape and incest?

TRUMP: Yes. And life -- the health of the mother, the death, because, you know, you have cases where the mother may die. It's basically Ronald Reagan had the same thing. He had the three exceptions.

BASH: If you are the Republican nominee, you would be the effective leader of the Republican Party.

TRUMP: Yes.

BASH: Would you make sure that that exception or those exceptions would be in the platform?

TRUMP: Well, I think it would be something I would discuss seriously with the people in the Republican Party. I'm actually getting along very well with the people at RNC right now. I think that would be something certainly we would be discussing.

I do agree with -- I mean, Ronald Reagan was a long time ago. He was somebody that liked me a lot. I liked him a lot. I helped him a little bit. And he had the exceptions also. It would certainly be something I'd want to discuss with the Republican Party.

BASH: Last question. You are going to head abroad to do some business for a couple of days. The debate is a week from today. Talk about a Donald Trump debate prep. Are you going to be reading on plane? Are you going to be reading on the plane? Are you -- how is that going to work?

TRUMP: Well, I own one of the great resorts in the world, Turnberry in Scotland. And they're having the Women's British Open, you know, for years, I was going to go to this tournament. Now, all of a sudden, I'm going to put it down for a day and a half or something.

But I feel an obligation do it. It's biggest tournament I think in woman's golf. It's tremendous -- it's one of the biggest tournaments in golf. So, I'm going to go there for a day and a half, two days. I'm going to be back immediately.

I have to be who I am. You know, these other people -- I know they have their debate coaches and they have their pollsters and they don't say anything without the pollsters knowing exactly -- and they pay them hundreds of thousands and some cases hundreds of thousands of dollars a month.

BASH: I'm sure you are brushing up on policy, right?

TRUMP: I am. But, you know, I brush up all the time. I'm reading constantly. I'm watching your show and others. I'm constantly brushing up. I mean, every time I turn on the television --

BASH: So, no formal debate prep?

TRUMP: I watched Mitt Romney where he locked himself in a cabin to a week and he wasn't able to speak. Something happened to him. It wasn't a good picture.

Barack Obama, he studied and he wasn't great either. But I would say that certainly he was horrible on the first debate and not good in the second two. But Romney was not good.

So, I am going to be Donald Trump. I think if I'm not Donald Trump, it's not going to look good. I will do my best. I've never done it before.

BASH: Who is your biggest competition?

TRUMP: I don't know. I mean --

BASH: Who are you most looking at? I mean, you know, you are a competitor.

TRUMP: I don't know. You don't know what's going to happen. You know, you're up there and you are talking. You don't know who is coming at you.

If you watch you and everybody at you, they're all coming at me. Whatever it is, it is.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BASH: He might not be doing any formal debate prep, but he's I guess nine other competitors who will be on the stage, Kate, of course, they are and have been for months and months.

BOLDUAN: I can't tell if he's lowering expectations or he really is not prepping. I think that's just one thing we're not going to --

BASH: They actually could be one in the same. BOLDUAN: You are absolutely right.

Now, he has gotten into trouble with his own party. But now, I found it fascinating that he told you now he's getting along with everyone. That clearly is not stopping him from taking jabs at his GOP rivals and also, of course, Democrats, namely Hillary Clinton, right?

BASH: Yes. I mean, I actually said to him, it seems as though you have mellowed. It was a week ago that he was going after the Republican Party as treating him very unfairly. Now he sounds very different.

Listen to this.

(BEGIN VDIEOTAPE)

BASH: Can I ask you a couple of questions before we wrap up? You mentioned that you are getting along well with the Republican National Committee.

[19:45:00] TRUMP: I am.

BASH: And I also notice that your tone has changed a little bit. You softened a little bit.

TRUMP: Really? Wow.

BASH: You don't think so?

TRUMP: I'm glad. Well, I get criticized by Bush. He said, tone, tone.

I understand what he is saying. But we need energy, we need a strong tone in this country.

BASH: About the Republican National Committee, I know that you have been talking to the chair, Reince Priebus.

TRUMP: I have.

BASH: So, can you give me some insight into the conversations? Why are you so much more positive now? Is it just because --

TRUMP: I don't think I've changed. I think that -- you know, I've gotten some amazing polls. Look at the poll in New Hampshire. And you look at the poll in --

BASH: What about the conversations you have been talking about?

TRUMP: I think that the conversations are very nice. I respect him.

Look, the best way to win is for me to win the nomination and I will beat Hillary. Believe me. I will beat Hillary.

Hillary -- I don't know if she's going to be able to run, because what she did is a criminal act. She burned up e-mails. She got rid of her hard drive.

She had subpoenas from the United States Congress. General Petraeus was destroyed for doing far less. I mean, they destroyed this general's life and what he did is far less than what she has done.

So, I don't know that she's going to make it. I don't think it's going to be Bernie Sanders. I think other peoples are going to probably going to join the race eventually, like may be Biden and other people. I'm not so sure she's going to be in the race, because what she did is a criminal act.

And the only reason she's maybe and probably not going to be prosecuted is because all of the prosecutors are Democrats. Otherwise, she wouldn't have a chance. What she did is far worse than Petraeus.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source