NBC News " Meet The Press" - Transcript: Trump Apology

Interview

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DONALD TRUMP:

Thank you, Chuck.

CHUCK TODD:

Well, you've had 24 more hours to reflect on your comments on Megyn Kelly. Any change this morning? Do you want to apologize?

DONALD TRUMP:

No, there's nothing to apologize. She asked a very very, I thought, a very unfair question, and so did everybody on social media. And I answered the question very well. I won every poll on debates, Time Magazine, Grudge, and Newsmax, every poll. And people thought I won the debate easily. And, you know, sort of an interesting thing, they did not like the way I was questioned.

And I understand that. And I just want to get on. But what I said was totally appropriate. There was nothing wrong. Only a deviant, and I literally mean that, only a deviant would think anything other than that. What I said was totally fine--

CHUCK TODD:

Well, but let me take you on your word on that. And so you weren't trying to make a reference to hormones? You're still making a

DONALD TRUMP:

Absolutely not.

CHUCK TODD:

--demonic or animalistic reference with the, you know, with blood in-- it's still a demeaning comment, even by your "new" definition.

DONALD TRUMP:

No, I don't think so. Look, she was very angry. And look, I respect people. And she was very angry because I brought up something that got the loudest applause of the day by far. And it really interrupted her when she did the question. And she was very angry. And all I said is, "There was blood--" essentially, "there was blood pouring out of her eyes and there was blood--" and then I said, you know what, I want to get onto the next sentence, because frankly I don't have to talk about the blood coming out of her ears and her nose.

Which is a very common phrase. So I said, "Alright, whatever, let's go." And I got her to the next statement. Well, then all of a sudden, the next day, I wake up and I hear that, you know, somebody took it as something else. Only a deviant would think that, Chuck. I didn't even think that. Who would think it? Hey, I went to the Wharton School of Finance, the toughest place to get into. I was a great student. I don't talk that way.

CHUCK TODD:

So why can't you apologize? Then why can't you just apologize for saying, "You know what? I'm sorry some people took it the wrong way." You seem to have an allergy, you seem to have an allergy toward apologizing.

DONALD TRUMP:

No, I apologize when I'm wrong. But I haven't been wrong. I mean, I said nothing wrong. There's nothing- It's a very common statement. I've said it about many, excuse me, I said it about Chris Wallace. I said there was blood pouring, because he tried to question me. And he's a small shadow of his father, Mike, that I can tell you. But I said it about Chris Wallace. And Chris Wallace came out, and I said there was blood pouring out of his eyes. Nobody asked me about apologizing.

CHUCK TODD:

You know, I want to read you a comment of somebody who was rather supportive of you. This was a supporter in Atlanta. And said this, though. Her name's Myra Adams, and it was in The Washington Post. And she said this: "Talking about blood and a woman, it was just inappropriate. Megyn Kelly is just so well-liked by the public. He should've made nice-nice with her. I thought the question was a little off-base, but he took," referring to you," a mosquito bite and turned it into a skin cancer."

DONALD TRUMP:

Well, Chuck, I would've made nice. I have no problem. And I have no problem apologizing if I'm wrong. But you know, when I say it about Chris Wallace, and there was nothing wrong, and then you say it about Megyn Kelly, is there a double standard? You know, we're talking about everybody being the same. I mean, are we talking about double standards?

And I don't mind apologizing if something's wrong. The only thing is in the second part of it, I didn't want to waste time, you know, going in-- I wanted to get onto the next statement, because frankly it was more important than what I was discussing. So I just cut it short. But I never referred to anything having to do with the other subject matter, that a couple of people thought I might have. And then you had this guy, Erik Erickson, who's a total, you know, I mean, he's a known loser. And everybody in politics--

CHUCK TODD:

Mr. Trump let me stop you here for a minute. Because anybody that criticizes you, you've done it to me in the past, when you've not liked something I said, when somebody criticizes you, you go after them, you find something in their physical appearance. You go after them personally--

DONALD TRUMP:

No, I--

CHUCK TODD:

Why? Why is this your tendency--

DONALD TRUMP:

I don't. Chuck, I don't. I don't. And maybe more so than most people, but part of the problem we have now is political correctness. We have a country that's in trouble. We have a country where in the Middle East they're cutting off- they're chopping off people's heads if they happen to be a Christian and for other reasons also. We have- Look at what's going on in the border with tape and with all of the problems in San Francisco, with all of the problems that we've got.

You look at what's going on in the country with crime and with our inner cities and every-- and all they talk about is tone. Jeb Bush said, "Well, Mr. Trump's tone is not--" well, we don't have enough time to tell me-- we need enthusiasm, we need something, we need a much tougher tone than we've had. Because it's not about tone.

We have to straighten out our country, we have to make our country great again, and we need energy and enthusiasm. And this political correctness is just absolutely killing us as a country. You can't say anything. Anything you say today, they'll find a reason why it's not good.

CHUCK TODD:

Well--

DONALD TRUMP:

You know what Chuck? Essentially though, I think we have to get back to work as a country. I heard Jeb Bush the other day say a terrible thing about women's health issues. He made a horrible mistake. I equate that mistake as being worse than what Romney said about the 47%, which possibly cost him the election. And I will be fantastic. I have so much respect for women, and I will help women in terms of the health issues, because it's so important to do that.

And Chuck, I have thousands of women working for me. I have women working in high positions. I was one of the first people to put women in charge of big construction jobs. And, you know, I've had a great relationship with women. And I will help women with women's health issues, unlike somebody like Jeb Bush who really made a big mistake, and he was later forced to apologize.

CHUCK TODD:

Except, and look, let me go back to the premise of Megyn Kelly's question, which was you have a tendency of disparaging women on looks, and we're seeing all sorts of-- I found ten instances, sometimes in your book, sometimes in your Twitter feed. You went after people like Bette Midler, you went after people like Gail Collins. Why do you have to go after the look? This is what some women find offensive, Mr. Trump, is that you go to looks. It's a disparaging thing. It's something out of Mad Men, sir.

DONALD TRUMP:

Well, some of the things that she said I didn't say, okay? And she went through a whole list. And this is a hell of a first question, by the way. But I will say this, I was attacked by the people that you talk about. When you mention a couple of those names, I was attacked viciously by those people. I don't mean a little bit, I mean viciously.

When I'm attacked, I fight back. When I was attacked viciously by those women, of course, it's very hard for them to attack me on looks, because I'm so good looking. But I was attacked very viciously by those women. And frankly, again we get back to the words political correctness. Am I allowed to defend myself? What they said about me is far worse than what I said about them, Chuck.

So again, I want to get back to the country. We have such problems. We have unemployment that's incredible. We need jobs. We have to take jobs back from China. That's the subjects that I'm good at. And by the way, during that whole debate, which was 24 million people, and if I wasn't on, they would've had two million people, not 24 million people. And everybody admits that.

You would've had just another debate that nobody would've watched. So, you know, that's one of those things. But I want to get back to jobs. They didn't ask me one question about jobs. And every single poll said I am by far the best, by triple digits, I am by far the best on jobs in the economy. They didn't ask me about jobs or the economy, I want to talk about all of these issues. But a lot of times, I don't get the opportunity because people hit me with questions that don't relate to the issues.

CHUCK TODD:

Maybe the next time, we will be able to do issues.

DONALD TRUMP:

We will. I hope so, Chuck. That's what I want to do, jobs and the economy. That's what I really want to do.

CHUCK TODD:

Thank you, sir. We'll talk to you soon.

DONALD TRUMP:

Thank you.

CHUCK TODD:

Okay.

DONALD TRUMP:

Thank you very much, bye.

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