{"id":95739,"date":"2020-02-18T21:50:10","date_gmt":"2020-02-19T05:50:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/69.46.6.243\/?p=95739"},"modified":"2020-02-18T21:51:10","modified_gmt":"2020-02-19T05:51:10","slug":"remarks-by-president-trump-before-air-force-one-departure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/?p=95739","title":{"rendered":"Remarks by President Trump Before Air Force One Departure To California"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Joint Base Andrews, MD&#8230;Hello, everybody.  It\u2019s a little windy out here, so I\u2019ll button up my coat.  You have a couple of more people who want to join you.  Q So we\u2019re hearing you\u2019re going to commute the sentence of Blagojevich?  THE PRESIDENT:  Yes, we have commuted the sentence of Rod Blagojevich.  He served eight years in jail.  That\u2019s a long time.  And I watched his wife on television.  I don\u2019t know him very well.  I\u2019ve met him a couple of times.  He was on, for a short while, on \u201cThe Apprentice,\u201d years ago.  Seemed like a very nice person.  Don\u2019t know him.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/I0R8E1n0JZI\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>But he served eight years in jail.  He has a long time to go.  Many people disagree with the sentence.  He\u2019s a Democrat; he\u2019s not a Republican.  It was a prosecution by the same people \u2014 Comey, Fitzpatrick \u2014 the same group.<\/p>\n<p>Very far from his children.  They\u2019re growing older.  They\u2019re going to high school now, and they rarely get to see their father outside of an orange uniform.  I saw that and I did commute his sentence.  So he\u2019ll be able to go back home with his family after serving eight years in jail.  That was a tremendously powerful, ridiculous sentence, in my opinion \u2014<\/p>\n<p>Q    Mr. President \u2014<\/p>\n<p>THE PRESIDENT:  \u2014 and in the opinion of many others.<\/p>\n<p>Yes.<\/p>\n<p>Q    Do you have confidence in your Attorney General?  First \u2014<\/p>\n<p>THE PRESIDENT:  Yeah, I have total confidence in my Attorney General.<\/p>\n<p>Q    And do you agree with his statement that he \u2014 that you should stop tweeting about Justice Department issues?<\/p>\n<p>THE PRESIDENT:  Well, people like that.  But, you know, everybody has the right to speak their mind.  And I use social media.  I guess I use it well, because here I am.  I\u2019m here.  And I probably wouldn\u2019t have gotten here without social media because I certainly don\u2019t get fair press.<\/p>\n<p>So I wouldn\u2019t have gotten here without social media and, perhaps, with all of the hoaxes.  You had the impeachment hoax, you had the Mueller hoax, you had the \u201cRussia, Russia, Russia\u201d nonsense.  All scams.  And if I didn\u2019t have social media, I probably wouldn\u2019t be here.  So I\u2019m very happy with social media.<\/p>\n<p>But I think he\u2019s doing an excellent job.  He\u2019s a strong guy.  I never spoke to him about the Roger Stone situation.  Roger Stone, just so you know, never worked \u2014 he didn\u2019t work for my campaign.  There might\u2019ve been a time \u2014 way early, long before I announced \u2014 where he was somehow involved a little bit.  But he was not involved in our campaign at all.  And I think it was a very, very rough thing that happened to Roger Stone.<\/p>\n<p>Because when you look what happened with Comey after a 78-page, horrific report, when you look at what happened to McCabe with a recommendation of prosecution, and you look at all of these other people, and then you look at what happened to General Flynn, a highly respected man \u2014 look at \u2014 I mean, his life has been destroyed.  If you\u2019re looking at Roger Stone for a tweet and some other things \u2014 you take a look at what\u2019s happening to these people.  Somebody has to stick up for the people.<\/p>\n<p>So, my social media is very powerful.  I guess, Mark Zuckerberg just recently said, \u201cTrump is number one in the world\u201d on social media, which is a very nice statement, I guess.  Certainly it\u2019s something you can be at least a little bit proud of.  But it means I have a voice so I\u2019m able to fight the fake news.<\/p>\n<p>Q    Has the Attorney General threatened to resign over your tweets?  And then, also, he said that your comments on Twitter are making it \u201cimpossible\u201d to do his job.  Are you making his job impossible?<\/p>\n<p>THE PRESIDENT:  Well, but it allows me \u2014 yeah, I do make his job harder.  I do agree with that.  I think that\u2019s true.  He\u2019s a very straight shooter.  We have a great Attorney General, and he\u2019s working very hard.  And he\u2019s working against a lot of people that don\u2019t want to see good things happen, in my opinion.  That\u2019s my opinion, not his opinion.  That\u2019s my opinion.  You\u2019ll have to ask what his opinion is.<\/p>\n<p>But I will say this: Social media, for me, has been very important because it gives me a voice, because I don\u2019t get that voice in the press.  In the media, I don\u2019t get that voice.  So I\u2019m allowed to have a voice.<\/p>\n<p>Q    Do you think he could still do his job with integrity, though?<\/p>\n<p>THE PRESIDENT:  Oh, yeah.<\/p>\n<p>Q    He says it\u2019s making it hard for him to do his job with integrity.<\/p>\n<p>THE PRESIDENT:  He\u2019s a very \u2014 he\u2019s a man with great integrity.  The Attorney General is a man with incredible integrity.<\/p>\n<p>Now, just so you understand, I chose not to be involved.  I\u2019m allowed to be totally involved.  I\u2019m actually, I guess, the chief law enforcement officer of the country, but I\u2019ve chosen not to be involved.<\/p>\n<p>But he is a man of great integrity.  But I would be \u2014 I could be involved if I wanted to be.<\/p>\n<p>Q    Are you also pardoning Bernie Kerik?<\/p>\n<p>THE PRESIDENT:  Yes.  I just pardoned Bernie Kerik \u2014<\/p>\n<p>Q    Okay.<\/p>\n<p>THE PRESIDENT:  \u2014 a man who had many recommendations from a lot of good people.<\/p>\n<p>You know, oftentimes \u2014 pretty much all the time \u2014 I really rely on the recommendations of people that know them.  We have Bernie Kerik.  We have Mike Milken, who\u2019s gone around and done an incredible job for the world, with all of his research on cancer, and he\u2019s done this and he suffered greatly.  He paid a big price; paid a very tough price.  But he\u2019s done an incredible job.<\/p>\n<p>And \u2014 yeah.  These are all people that you have to see the recommendations.  I rely on recommendations, very importantly.<\/p>\n<p>Q    Are you planning to pardon Roger Stone?<\/p>\n<p>THE PRESIDENT:  I haven\u2019t given it any thought.  In the meantime, he\u2019s going through a process.  But I think he\u2019s been treated very unfairly.<\/p>\n<p>Yes.<\/p>\n<p>Q    You tweeted this morning about China and wanting U.S. companies to be able to \u2014<\/p>\n<p>THE PRESIDENT:  Yeah.<\/p>\n<p>Q    \u2014 sell jet parts.<\/p>\n<p>THE PRESIDENT:  Yeah.<\/p>\n<p>Q    Are you \u2014 are you not concerned about national security on that?<\/p>\n<p>THE PRESIDENT:  I\u2019m very concerned about national security.  Number one, I\u2019m concerned about national security.  Nobody has done a better job with national security than me.  You take a look at what\u2019s going on: We\u2019ve done a great job on national security.  A lot of countries are a lot different now than they were when I started.<\/p>\n<p>But I will say that we\u2019re not going to be sacrificing our companies, for all of the growth and everything else \u2014 they\u2019re ready, they\u2019re exploding; they\u2019re doing so well \u2014 by using a fake term of national security.  It\u2019s got to be real national security.  And I think people were getting carried away with it.<\/p>\n<p>So I want our companies to be treated \u2014 I want our companies to be allowed to do business.  I mean, things are put on my desk that have nothing to do with national security, including with chipmakers and various others.  So we\u2019re going to give it up.  And what will happen: They\u2019ll make those chips in a different country or they\u2019ll make them in China or someplace else.<\/p>\n<p>So, national security is very important.  I\u2019ve been very tough on Huawei, but that doesn\u2019t mean we have to be tough on everybody that does something.  We want to be able to sell all of this incredible technology.  We\u2019re number one in the world.  We want to be able to sell to other countries.<\/p>\n<p>Q    Mr. President, do you trust the Taliban in this ceasefire?  And are you confident that a peace deal can be reached in Afghanistan?<\/p>\n<p>THE PRESIDENT:  We are doing something \u2014 we\u2019ve been in the war in Afghanistan now for 19 years.  We\u2019ve substantially reduced the force, as you know.  We\u2019re really acting more as a law enforcement agency than we are as a military, because we could win that very quickly and easily if I was willing to kill millions of people.  I\u2019m not willing to do that.  I\u2019m not willing to do that.  We\u2019d win that so quickly your head would spin.  And I\u2019m not talking about nuclear; I\u2019m talking about very conventional.  But I\u2019m not willing to kill millions of people.<\/p>\n<p>So we are negotiating with the Taliban.  We\u2019ve been negotiating with them for a while.  We will see what happens.  There\u2019s a chance of making a deal.  There\u2019s a chance.<\/p>\n<p>I can\u2019t believe \u2014 so quiet, all of a sudden.<\/p>\n<p>Q    Senator Graham is traveling with \u2014<\/p>\n<p>THE PRESIDENT:  I saw that Senator Murphy met with the Iranians.  Is that a fact?  I just saw that on the way over.  Is there anything that I should know?  Because that sounds like, to me, a violation of the Logan Act.<\/p>\n<p>Q    Can I ask about Venezuela, sir?<\/p>\n<p>THE PRESIDENT:  Yeah, what happened with that?  Did you read about Senator \u2014 or hear about Senator Murphy met with the Iranians?<\/p>\n<p>Q    No.  Tell us about it.<\/p>\n<p>THE PRESIDENT:  Well, they ought to find out about it if it\u2019s true.  I don\u2019t know.  It just came out as I was leaving the car.<\/p>\n<p>Q    Can I ask about Venezuela, sir?  Do you think Guaid\u00f3 is still the guy to get Maduro out of office?<\/p>\n<p>THE PRESIDENT:  Well, he\u2019s the person that the country, right now, prefers, and that\u2019s what I go with.  We\u2019ll see what happens.  We put additional sanctions on \u2014 very strong sanctions \u2014 this morning on Venezuela.  We\u2019ll see what happens.  We\u2019re watching Venezuela very closely.<\/p>\n<p>Q    You were asked specifically about Roger Stone, but are you ruling out pardons for Stone, for your former campaign Chairman Paul Manafort, and for Michael Flynn, for example?<\/p>\n<p>THE PRESIDENT:  I\u2019m not even thinking about that.  There\u2019s a process that people are going through.  These are unrelated situations where people have done a great job with very, very strong recommendations.  But we haven\u2019t thought about that yet.  Right now there\u2019s a process.<\/p>\n<p>I think Roger Stone has been treated unfairly.  I think General Flynn has been treated very unfairly.  I think a lot of people have been treated very unfairly.  I think the Mueller scam is just exactly what it\u2019s \u2014 what a lot of people are calling, because it was started illegally.  It was started by abuse.  It was phony.  It was a fake dossier.  And they went in, and they went into the FISA courts and they forged papers, and they did a lot of bad things.  So the whole Mueller thing, to me, is a scam.<\/p>\n<p>Q    Do you think Roger Stone deserves any prison time?<\/p>\n<p>THE PRESIDENT:  You\u2019re going to see what happens.  Let\u2019s see what happens.<\/p>\n<p>Q    You spoke to President Erdo\u011fan the other day \u2014<\/p>\n<p>THE PRESIDENT:  I think he\u2019s treated very unfairly.<\/p>\n<p>Q    You spoke to President Erdo\u011fan of Turkey the other day \u2014<\/p>\n<p>THE PRESIDENT:  I did.<\/p>\n<p>Q    Are you concerned about all-out war breaking out between Turkey and Syria?<\/p>\n<p>THE PRESIDENT:  I did.  I had a very good conversation with President Erdo\u011fan.  I respect him.  We have a very good relationship.  Yes, I agree, he\u2019s a tough guy.  But we have a very good relationship.  I seem to do better with tough people.<\/p>\n<p>But the fact is that he\u2019s fighting on Idlib.  He doesn\u2019t want people to be killed by the thousands and hundreds of thousands, and he called me about that and other reasons.  But we spoke about Idlib, and we\u2019re working together on seeing what can be done.<\/p>\n<p>Q    What\u2019s the solution?<\/p>\n<p>THE PRESIDENT:  Well, it\u2019s a very tough solution.  You have a lot of warring going on right now.  A lot of warring going on.  But I\u2019m dealing with President Erdo\u011fan.<\/p>\n<p>Q    On this swing, can you talk a little bit about these coming three days, and also why you wanted to \u2014<\/p>\n<p>THE PRESIDENT:  Yeah.<\/p>\n<p>Q    Wait.  Also why you wanted to fly back to Las Vegas every night to spend the night there?<\/p>\n<p>THE PRESIDENT:  Well, I don\u2019t know exactly the schedule because I don\u2019t set the schedule.<\/p>\n<p>Q    (Inaudible) flying to Vegas every night to stay there.<\/p>\n<p>THE PRESIDENT:  Yeah.  Largely, the schedule is set by the Secret Service.  We do what they want us to.<\/p>\n<p>But we\u2019re going to California.  We\u2019re going to Nevada.  We\u2019re going to Arizona.  We\u2019re going to different places.  And I guess we\u2019re coming back here.  But I don\u2019t set the schedule.  I have nothing to do with it.<\/p>\n<p>Q    Mr. President, you saw Michael Bloomberg made the Democratic debate stage tomorrow night.  Do you have any advice for him as he makes his first debate appearance?<\/p>\n<p>THE PRESIDENT:  No, he doesn\u2019t need that kind of advice.  He\u2019s been doing it for a long time.  It just seems unfair what\u2019s happening to Bernie Sanders, to be honest with you.  I watched it happen four years ago.  And always be careful what you wish for, and I\u2019m not wishing for anything.  Whoever it is, I\u2019ll be very happy.<\/p>\n<p>But it seems that Bernie Sanders and that whole big section of the Democratic Party \u2014 or, as I call it, the \u201cDemocrat Party,\u201d which is really the correct name \u2014 it seems they\u2019re being taken advantage of like they were four years ago, to me.<\/p>\n<p>Q    But what\u2019s your campaign strategy for being in Nevada while the Democrats are focusing on the caucuses there?<\/p>\n<p>THE PRESIDENT:  Well, I\u2019ll be making a speech in Nevada, and that will be probably the day before, I guess, as they have it arranged.  That seems to be pretty effective.  We got more votes than any incumbent President in history, in Iowa and in New Hampshire, as you saw.<\/p>\n<p>And, in that case, I went just before \u2014 the day before and I went the day before, in both cases: Iowa and New Hampshire.  So it seems to be effective.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ll be going to South Carolina \u2014 they\u2019re working that out now \u2014 probably the day before.  But, you know, look, we have a big voice and we might as well use it.<\/p>\n<p>Q    Mr. President, are you still satisfied with how President Xi is handling the coronavirus?<\/p>\n<p>THE PRESIDENT:  I think President Xi is working very hard.  As you know, I spoke with him recently.  He\u2019s working really hard.  It\u2019s a tough problem.  I think he\u2019s going to do \u2014 look, I\u2019ve seen them build hospitals in a short period of time.  I really believe he wants to get that done, and he wants to get it done fast.  Yes, I think he\u2019s doing it very professionally.<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019re also working with him and helping him, as of the last few days, as you know.<\/p>\n<p>Q    Some people don\u2019t seem to trust the data coming out of China.  Are you worried about that?<\/p>\n<p>THE PRESIDENT:  Look, I know this: President Xi loves the people of China, he loves his country, and he\u2019s doing a very good job with a very, very tough situation.<\/p>\n<p>Q    Mr. President, Senator Graham is traveling with you.  Do you want to talk to him about the Judiciary Committee doing any investigations into the Bidens or others?<\/p>\n<p>THE PRESIDENT:  You know, if it comes up, yes.  But we\u2019ll see what happens on that.  That\u2019s really up to Senator Graham.  And he is traveling with me.<\/p>\n<p>Q    Do you think you\u2019ll get a trade deal with India before your visit?<\/p>\n<p>THE PRESIDENT:  Well, we can have a trade deal with India, but I\u2019m really saving the big deal for later on.  We\u2019re doing a very big trade deal with India.  We\u2019ll have it.  I don\u2019t know if it\u2019ll be done before the election, but we\u2019ll have a very big deal with India.<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019re not treated very well by India, but I happen to like Prime Minister Modi a lot.  And he told me we\u2019ll have 7 million people between the airport and the event.  And the stadium, I understand, is sort of semi under construction, but it\u2019s going to be the largest stadium in the world.  So it\u2019s going to be very exciting.  But he says between the stadium and the airport, we\u2019ll have about 7 million people.  So it\u2019s going to be very exciting.  I hope you all enjoy it.<\/p>\n<p>Are you going?<\/p>\n<p>Q    Yes, sir.<\/p>\n<p>THE PRESIDENT:  Are you going, Steve?  I hope so.  Are you going, Jeff?<\/p>\n<p>Q    No, sir.  (Inaudible) is going.<\/p>\n<p>THE PRESIDENT:  I hope you\u2019re going too.  All right?  Okay?  So I\u2019ll see you maybe on the plane.<\/p>\n<p>How are you?<\/p>\n<p>Q    I\u2019m good.  How are you?<\/p>\n<p>THE PRESIDENT:  Marriage is good?  Huh?<\/p>\n<p>Q    Yes, thank you.<\/p>\n<p>Q    One other thing: Is there a search underway for \u201cAnonymous\u201d?  Remember \u201cAnonymous\u201d is \u2014<\/p>\n<p>THE PRESIDENT:  Yeah, there is.  It\u2019s not so much a search.<\/p>\n<p>Q    Who do you think it is?<\/p>\n<p>THE PRESIDENT:  I \u2014 I know who it is.  Yeah.<\/p>\n<p>Q    Who is it?<\/p>\n<p>THE PRESIDENT:  I can\u2019t tell you that.<\/p>\n<p>Q    Why not?<\/p>\n<p>Q    Why not?<\/p>\n<p>THE PRESIDENT:  But I know who it is.<\/p>\n<p>Q    Why not?<\/p>\n<p>THE PRESIDENT:  But we won\u2019t \u2014 we won\u2019t get into it.  People know it\u2019s \u2014 people know it\u2019s a fraud.  I know who it is and I know who some of the leakers are.  But some of the leakers don\u2019t exist.  It\u2019s made up by the press.  So, you know, they say, \u201cNine people have said\u201d or \u201ctwo people have said,\u201d and those people don\u2019t exist.<\/p>\n<p>But, no, I know all about \u201cAnonymous.\u201d  I know a lot about the leakers too.<\/p>\n<p>Q    Do you believe it\u2019s a person who still works at the White House?<\/p>\n<p>THE PRESIDENT:  We know a lot.  In fact, when I want to get something out to the press, I tell certain people.  And it\u2019s amazing, it gets out there.  But, so far, I\u2019m leaving it that way.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ll see you later.  Thank you.  See you on the plane.<\/p>\n<p>END<\/p>\n<p>1:55 P.M. EST<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Joint Base Andrews, MD&#8230;Hello, everybody. It\u2019s a little windy out here, so I\u2019ll button up my coat. You have a couple of more people who want to join you. Q So we\u2019re hearing you\u2019re going to commute the sentence of Blagojevich? THE PRESIDENT: Yes, we have commuted the sentence of Rod Blagojevich. He served eight [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":95741,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_cbd_carousel_blocks":"[]","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,5,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-95739","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-government","category-news","last_archivepost"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Fullscreen-capture-2182020-94809-PM.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95739","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=95739"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95739\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/95741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=95739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=95739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=95739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}