The 29 wildest lines from Donald Trump's interview with Hugh Hewitt
Whoa boy.
I was traveling all day yesterday — Dallas —> DC —> Richmond —> DC — but I saw that Donald Trump had called into Hugh Hewitt’s radio show. And I wanted to go through the transcript of that interview if I got a minute today.
I got a minute! Below the lines you need to see from the interview!
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To the lines!
“Like a baby. He'd take all the candy away very quickly.”
The question? How would a President Kamala Harris deal with Chinese President Xi. And away we go!
“We would lose our country or be in World War III.”
Ok, so if Kamala Harris wins either China will take over the U.S. or we will be in World War III with them? I am going to be honest: Those options don’t sound great!
“I got along with him very good.”
“Me fail English? That’s unpossible.” — Ralph Wiggum
“When I was there, basketball players stole things from Louis Vuitton and great stores, right? And they were being drafted, and -- being drafted. It was a big story. And it's an automatic 10 years in China. I got them out.”
This happened in 2017 — and it involved 3 UCLA basketball players including LiAngelo Ball, the brother of NBA players Lonzo and LaMelo Ball. Trump was, as usual, gracious in the moment:
“They're like -- I watched her last night, and she's like a child almost.”
He’s talking about Kamala Harris. Who he called a “baby” a few minutes ago.
“I think it was the worst performance -- yeah, it was the worst performance. She hasn't had a good one, but this was the worst performance.”
I didn’t think Kamala Harris was particularly good in the CNN town hall this week. But her “worst” performance was, without doubt, “The View” interview where she said that she wouldn’t change “anything” that Joe Biden did in four years as president.
“Now with you, because you have a tendency to go much longer than you agree to, my people will say, ‘Thank you, sir. Thank you.’ And you go through them like it's candy, OK? You go through them like Grant took Richmond, OK? But the people were screaming.”
“Sir” alert! And, I have absolutely no idea what he is talking about.
“You know, Bibi calls me quite a bit, and we have a lot of talks.”
Same.
“I even mention, when I did all the things I did with Iran, Iran was broke.”
“I.”
“But then, we had that accident happen, despite getting, you know, millions and millions of votes I got the first time.”
He’s calling the 2020 election the “accident.” Good times. GOOOOOOOOOD TIMES.
“Well, it's a gift, or it's something like being left a gift.”
The “question” Hewitt asked was this: “Why do you destabilize people this way?” I mean…
“You know, (inaudible) called me, ‘Sir, you're up seven points.’ The next (inaudible) -- ‘So you went up 6.2 points.’ And it's rather amazing.”
“Sir” alert! (Also, the phone connection between Hewitt and Trump was terrible — hence all the “inaudibles” in the transcript.)
“But Trump derangement syndrome, I don't know. It -- it's -- I -- I'm -- I think I'm a nice person, but I -- I -- I'm a negotiator but I win.”
Put this on my grave: “I'm a nice person, but I -- I -- I'm a negotiator but I win.”
“Look, I've won for the Republican Party.”
Trump won the White House in 2016. In 2018, Republicans lost the House. In 2020, Trump lost the White House and Republicans lost the Senate. In 2022, Republicans drastically underperformed expectations but did manage to win back the House. So…
“I've taken the Republican Party and made it entirely different party.”
Fact check: True!
“The Republican Party is a very big, powerful party. Before, it was sort of an elitist party with -- with real stiffs running it. You know what a stiff is? A stiff is..”
Hewitt interrupted Trump here — and, in so doing, robbed me from ever knowing what a “stiff” is.
“Well, they -- they (inaudible) I won. You know, when you win, people -- look, I wasn't supposed to beat Hillary. And I'll tell you little secrets. And it was in, I guess, 2020, I made phone calls for congressmen. And when we had, like, 38 more (inaudible) remember that? That was me. I did that. I did all of that. I called -- I did tele-town halls for congressmen. I'm doing it right now.”
WTF.
“If I make a call for a Congressman who's even -- or a little down, (inaudible) a little down or a little up. So (inaudible), right? A little down, a little up. And then I make 35, 40 calls. Every one of them will win”
So if Trump makes a phone call to a potential supporter for ANY Congressman, that person wins? Like, it’s foolproof?
“She's got no intelligence, she's got nothing -- she's got nothing.”
“She’s got nothing.” Welp!
“It's so easy. I would fire him within two seconds.”
The “him” here is special counsel Jack Smith, who has sought to prosecute Trump over his handling of classified documents and for his action in and around the 2020 election and January 6, 2021.
“I could have had her put in jail and I decided I didn't want to do that.”
To be clear: Trump could not have put Hillary Clinton in jail. That’s not how any of this works.
“I'm very, very conservative on trade, maybe more conservative than any human being that's ever lived.”
How would one measure the most conservative human being who has ever lived?
“I'm -- I -- I think I'm the strongest of them, I would say, in a way, more conservative than Reagan, because I'll tell you this: Nobody's more conservative on trade than me”
There is a 0% chance that Trump is more conservative than Reagan. Zero.
“I'm a really good businessman.”
How many really good businessmen do you know who say “I’m a really good businessman”?
“I said, ‘Let me ask you a question: Which is better, steam or electric?’ ‘Steam is better, sir.’”
“But I said, ‘Which is better?’ ‘The steam, sir.’”
This is not the same quote. He said it again! Also: “Sir” alert!
“I did Detroit such a favor, and I stopped it just by -- just by making a statement, because the most beautiful word in the dictionary is the word ‘tariff.’”
“Well, they show me that we're going to win the election, because we're winning in Georgia big, very big.”
According to the Washington Post’s swing state polling averages, Trump is ahead of Harris by 2 points in Georgia. “Very big.”
“I have rallies -- I had a rally, 55,000. I had a rally, 100,000 people. That would be the -- the Butler rally. One was 55 and one was 100,000 people -- 101,000 people.”
It will stun you to learn that there were not, in fact, 100,000 people at Trump’s Butler rally earlier this month. Yeah, this feels like a good place to end.
In a normal election with normal candidates, these reviews would be quaint and funny. When the "media" is getting criticized for not calling out Trump for the completely crazy stuff he's saying, these reviews now just seem like a complete missed opportunity to fairly compare the two candidates. Chris, your reviews of Harris' interviews and town hall performances actually criticize the candidate who is discussing policy, engaging with the audience like a normal human being, and is empathetic with the voters including those who disagree with her. With Trump it's just laughing it all off like it's normal or something. We've reached the point where we've normalized ridiculous and even treasonous statements and hold the other candidate to what used to be a normal benchmark. Trump couldn't pull off the town hall like she did this week on his absolute best day.
More abject lunacy from Trump. We are asked by many, including Chris, to be understanding of Trump's voters. But I'm reminded of the great scene in the Sopranos in which Carmela sees a psychiatrist who tells her to take the kids and run and won't accept her blood money. In conclusion, he says "one think you can never say: that you haven't been told. " We've heard his unhinged words; we've had warnings from Kelly, Esper, Mattis, Milley, etc; we've heard from women he assaulted; we've seen his incitement to riot on 1/6; we know of the jury verdicts for fraud. It's beyond me how any decent and informed person could cast a ballot for Trump.