FOX News " Hannity" - Transcript: Trump's Statement On Immigration and 2016 Presidental Candidates

Interview

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DONALD TRUMP, R, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: How are you, Sean?

HANNITY: I assume you probably want to respond to that. He's used a lot of incendiary language throughout his career. I can go through the laundry list. But you're pretty aware of all the things he's said.

TRUMP: Well, look, number one, he took my statement and cut it up, like everybody else. And you are the first to admit. I mean, if people read it, whether it's Sharyl Attkisson, who did an analysis -- and that doesn't make me a fan of John McCain because he's let a lot of people down, especially the veterans, especially at the border. He has really failed the veterans and he's really, really failed at the border, and I'm very open about that.

And they just did a recent poll that I'm much more popular with the veterans than John McCain is. And the reason is that he doesn't do the job. He talks, but he doesn't do the job. So I'm disappointed in him.

But equally with the president, he's probably the worst president in the history of our country. He's a very divisive person, which is why he brings this kind of stuff up. And he should have devoted more time to working on a good nuclear deal with Iran instead of what he's doing because he has just been a disaster for our country.

HANNITY: Oh, I don't disagree. All right, a lot of people, all weekend long, wherever I went, people said Donald Trump. Why do you think Donald Trump is leading in all the polls? You're winning nationally. You're winning in New Hampshire. You're doing very well even in Iowa. You're in second place, 2 points between Scott Walker in the recent poll. But I have one poll has you at 24 percent, the next closest competitor, 13 percent.

I have my answer. What is your answer? Why are you doing so well?

TRUMP: I think people are tired, really tired of these incompetent politicians where it's all talk, no action. I didn't want to be doing this. I love my business. I built a tremendous company, and you see that.
I did my filings. Everyone said, Wow, it's much bigger and much better than we even thought.

I built an incredible company. I've had tremendous success. I love doing it. But I'm so sick and tired of watching these incompetent politicians that are all talk, no action. They don't do anything. And I just felt that I had to do it.

And I guess we engender some great love because I have the biggest crowds of anybody by far. And I have the biggest standing ovations. People agree
-- I'm not sure they like me, but they certainly like my message. I hope they like me. I think I'm a nice guy.

But I'm tired of watching these all talk, no action politicians. The only thing they want to do is keep their job. And that's just not for me. And it resonates with all of these people that are for Trump.

I'll give you another example, Walker. I mean, I was very nice to him. He gave me an award, came up to my office and gave me an award three, four months ago, a beautiful plaque. It was very nice. But in the end, they said something a little nasty about me. And what did I do? I looked into Wisconsin. And I love Wisconsin, but they have a tremendous budget deficit of $2.2 billion, which is unthinkable. They were supposed to have a surplus of a billion, and they have $2.2 billion.

Their jobs are a disaster. Their schools are a disaster. Their roads are a disaster. They don't want to spend any money on roads because he doesn't want to raise taxes, so he's borrowing and borrowing. And you know, when the facts come out about Scott Walker, I think he's going to plunge in the polls because -- and I'm -- obviously, he's also very divisive because it's a very divisive state. I mean, everybody's fighting with everyone.

So I think that's going to be next. I think he's going to be the next one to fall.

But I think in the end, Sean, just to answer your question, people are tired of incompetent politicians running our country. When they see a deal like the Iran nuclear deal, when they see how badly our veterans are taken care of, they're just sick and tired of it.

HANNITY: You know, the -- there's a recent poll, a Pew poll that came out that showed that since January, Republicans have lost 18 percentage points in terms of their support. And I would argue there's a reason for it.
They promised they'd stop the president's executive amnesty. They didn't do that. They've been promising to repeal and replace ObamaCare forever. They won't use their constitutional authority to do that.

They won't stop sanctuary cities. And even with the Iranian deal, when they had amendments that would have demanded recognition of Israel, demanded that they release our hostages, they didn't even want to add those amendments.

So when people ask me, I say you're willing to fight, and the Republican establishment in Washington is not willing to fight. Is that an accurate description?

TRUMP: Sean, and also, I'm not controlled by special interests and lobbyists and donors. I don't need any money. I'm using my own money. So the lobbyists and the donors, they're not giving me, like in Bush's case,
$100 million-plus, and Hillary Clinton, $50 million-plus. Walker, all these guys, they're controlled by the people that give them the money.

Look, who is the king of that for many years? Me. I mean, you give money, and you don't ask for anything. You have total power over these people.
Believe me, total power.

And if it's bad for the country and good for them, the candidate, whether it's Bush or whether it's walker or Hillary or whoever it might be, they're going to do what their donors and lobbyists tell them what to do. That's not good for the country.

I know the system better than anybody. And now I'm running because we're not going to have a country soon. We don't have borders. We don't have law enforcement. They've taken all of the power away from our policemen.
And sure, you have a couple of bad apples and you have some bad decisions being made. And I hate to see it when I see it.

But the fact is, we don't have law and order. We don't have -- I mean, our country is going to hell. And you know what else we don't have? We don't have jobs because our jobs are going to China and so many other countries.

HANNITY: Let me ask...

TRUMP: So I just see this all happening, and I said it's time to do something about it.

HANNITY: The issue of third party keeps coming up again and again and again. And when it came up last week, I wrote Reince Priebus. I said -- because you had said that you weren't being treated well by the RNC. And I said, Are there any issues between you and Mr. Trump? He wrote me back, and I'm paraphrasing, not specific -- no, he's running for the presidency.
My job is to remain neutral. And my hope is, is the best man wins. That's what he said to me.

He was asked about this. I want to play it for you.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REINCE PRIEBUS, RNC CHAIRMAN: My job is not to call balls and strikes but to treat everyone respectfully and fairly. But certainly, I think our candidates should pledge not to run as a third party candidate. If Hillary Clinton's going to get beat, she's going to get beat by a Republican. And most people that run for president run to win. And if our candidates want to win, then they'll have to run as a Republican.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Can you put this to rest once and for all? You're not planning on running third party. You have no intention...

TRUMP: No. Absolutely.

HANNITY: And do you have any issues with -- do you have any issues at all with the RNC?

TRUMP: So let me just do this. I'm leading in the Republican primaries.
I mean, by I think every poll you have in front of you, but I think I'm leading in every poll, doing great in New Hampshire, doing great in Iowa, great places, and we're doing really well.

The way we're going to beat the Democrats and Hillary, who would be a disaster -- by the way, she was the worst secretary of state in history.
Why is she going to be a good president if she ever makes it? Because I think her e-mails are a criminal thing. They're far beyond what people are talking about.

But assuming she runs, I think I'm the one that can beat her. I would much prefer -- I will say, so many people want me to run as an independent. I don't want to do that. And why would I do that? I'm leading -- with all of the Republicans, I'm leading, and in some cases, as you just stated, by a big margin.

No, my preference and what I want to do is to run as a Republican and win.
And I think I will win. I think I'll win in the primaries and I think I'll win ultimately, and I'll make our country great again.

We have so many things to do. We don't have time for other things. And I think doing a third party would be very difficult, and it's not something I want to do.

With that being said, I will say -- maybe it's the polls, but the chairman and the RNC, they've treated us with great respect over the last week or so. We're getting along with them great. They respect what we've done and where we've come from. And I think they respect the kind of things I'm saying.

So I'm not looking to do that at all. I want to run as a Republican and I want to win as a Republican, and win the big thing so we can take our country back.

HANNITY: I think the fear is, is that if you didn't win the primary, that you would leave it open as an option. That's what people are wanting to hear you take a stand on that, whether you win or lose, you're going to support the eventual candidate, even though you hope it's you.

TRUMP: If I'm treated fairly and I get a good, fair shot at this and I'm not, you know, being sabotaged with all sorts of nonsense and a lot of phony ads and they throw a lot of money into it -- and you know, they'll do ads that are all false, and you know, this and that -- if I get a good shot, a fair shot, I would have no interest in doing that whatsoever. All I want to do is be treated fairly. And I will say, over the last week or so, Reince and the whole group, they've treated us very fairly.

HANNITY: You know, you -- I was glad to see this weekend -- and you just mentioned in this interview about Hillary Clinton's criminal misconduct. I think a lot of people are looking forward to the time where maybe you're not going after Scott Walker, Jeb Bush or any of the Republican candidates, but her. If it's you versus her...

TRUMP: I am, too!

HANNITY: All right. You said she's guilty of criminal misconduct. Where would you go in a campaign if it was you and Hillary?

TRUMP: Well, one thing I see is that the Republicans don't hit her very hard. And I think they probably say -- you know, look, again, I became a politician a couple of months ago. I'm not a politician. They are politicians. I think they say, Well, we don't want to hit her hard because we could be there also.

The fact is, what she's done is criminal. And if you look at General Petraeus, what he did is nothing compared to what she did. I mean, what he did, honestly, is nothing by comparison, and they destroyed his life. His life was destroyed. His reputation was destroyed.

Well, what she did is far worse. She gets a subpoena from the United States Congress, and her server is gone and her e-mails are gone and everything is gone.

HANNITY: And she had classified information, we now know.

TRUMP: I mean, if that was General Petraeus, he would have gone to jail for 10 years. What she did is far worse, and they destroyed his life. It's tough stuff.

HANNITY: Yes. Well, she apparently has classified information, which she swore repeatedly she didn't have.

I want to go back to immigration first. It's been an issue that now defines your campaign in many ways. OK. You build better walls, you said, than anybody else. Nobody could build a better wall. I hope you can do it quickly because I believe it's a big problem.

TRUMP: Nobody. Nobody.

HANNITY: I've been down there 12 times myself. I know the problems first hand. Anybody that denies it's just not telling the truth. My question to you is, what -- assuming you build the wall first, what is your plan for 11 million people that didn't respect our law and sovereignty?

TRUMP: Or more. OK. Number one, don't say just assuming because you got to build a wall. It's not an easy thing to do. And I'll get it done. And believe me, I'll do it for the right, but I'm also going to have Mexico pay for it. Mexico is making a fortune over us. They will pay for it. So just mark my words. That's called negotiation.

The first thing I'd do is I'd get rid -- before the wall, before we even start the wall, I get rid of the bad ones because we have a lot of really bad apples. We have a lot of bad dudes that are causing tremendous problems.

You know, You see what's happened. You know, I've been totally exonerated. If you look at what people have said, how they respect what I -- you know, I brought up this issue. I took a lot of heat. And now, all of a sudden, they're saying what Trump did was right. And I actually had people in your profession apologize to me for the statements I made that first week because I was right. And I'm very proud of bringing up illegal immigration. It took a -- it was not easy to do, and I'm very proud of it.

I would get rid of the bad ones, the criminals. We have a lot of people here that shouldn't be here, and I don't want to house them in our jails because it's costing us a fortune. I want them to go back to the country where they came from -- not only Mexico, plenty of other countries. They're pouring across the border. So that's number one.

Then number two, you either -- and these could be some great people. But you either have laws or you don't have laws. I would get them back. I would get them back where they are, and I would try and work out a process where they can come in legally.

But they got -- they have to come in legally, Sean. It's about laws. It's about borders. If we don't have a border, we don't have a country. So I'd get them out, and if they were really outstanding -- because some of these people have been here for a long period of time -- I'd let them back legally.

They'd have to come through a legal system, and I'd make the system much faster, much (INAUDIBLE) We would -- I want people to come into the country. I love the fact that people come into the country. They have to come in legally. Not only them, other people. We welcome people. I mean, my parents and my grandparents, they came from different parts of the world, too. We all sort of did...

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: They'd first have to go back and then...

TRUMP: They go back...

HANNITY: ... you'd expedite the process.

TRUMP: They go back and -- I would expedite it because some of these people are fantastic people. I've been to the border. I was there a few days ago. I met some people. These are fantastic people and they have great reputations within their community.

So what I'd do is I'd expedite it. But you have to have laws. If you don't have laws, you don't have a country. I would get them out and try and -- the good ones. The bad ones, they're gone. They never come back.
They'll never get back into this country. But the good ones, of which there are many, I want to expedite it so they can come back in legally.

HANNITY: All right, Mr. Trump, always a pleasure. Thank you. Congratulations on your good poll numbers. Appreciate you being with us.

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