During this week’s broadcast of FNC’s “MediaBuzz,” former President Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, responded to claims he would use his power against his adversaries, especially those in the media.
He dismissed a claim by MSNBC host Joe Scarborough suggesting he would have his producers arrested and called Scarborough a “sick puppy.”
Partial transcript as follows:
KURTZ: Let me ask you about Joe Scarborough, because on Bill Maher’s show he said: “His people,” meaning your people, “have said they’re going to arrest my producers.”
TRUMP: Oh, nobody said that.
Look, Joe’s a sick puppy. I know him well. I used to…
(CROSSTALK)
KURTZ: You used to be friends.
TRUMP: Well, I dropped him because I thought he was very unethical, actually. But I dropped him.
But I used him for 2016. And I’d do it from my apartment. I wouldn’t even have to go in. I’d do phone calls. And I did them almost, sometimes on a daily basis.
KURTZ: What do you say…
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: And then everyone saw it.
Because I watch him and what he says about me. What he says is so bad. And you have to understand, no, I was friendly with him and with Mika. But, at a certain point — and it doesn’t matter why, but I didn’t want to do it anymore with them.
And they’re not too happy about it.
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: No, but he says a lot of things like that. They’re — I think they’re unethical, but who knows?
KURTZ: I want to drill down on this question of retribution, because — against your political opponents.
TRUMP: Yes.
KURTZ: Because you have had opportunities to walk that back.
And my question is this. Are you prepared to say now that you will not use law enforcement to punish or prosecute your political opponents?
TRUMP: Excuse me. That’s what they’re using on me.
KURTZ: OK. So your…
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: Well, wait a minute. Before you — before you start this…
KURTZ: Yes. I got it.
TRUMP: … Howie, that’s what they’re using on me. I have got DAs. I have got everybody.
They look at me. There’s never been anything like this. The biggest case was the one down in Florida, and I beat it 100 percent. I won the case, because we had a — number one, a brilliant judge, and a judge that moved rather rapidly. And I won the case.
By the way, Biden had almost the same case, but he didn’t have the Presidential Records Act, because he wasn’t the president.
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: Just to finish, and he got off on the basis that he’s incompetent to — essentially, that he’s incompetent.
And it was a strange ruling, because they said, number one, he’s incompetent, so he’s not going to be — but he was — the prosecutor actually said he’s guilty, but he’s incompetent. But they didn’t say he couldn’t be president anymore.
That was his bigger problem for not being president. How can you not represent you — yourself in court because you’re incompetent, but you’re allowed to be president of the United States of America? The whole thing is crazy.
But, no, they have weaponized government against me. And…
KURTZ: But are you using — willing to use the same tactics?
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: No, I don’t want to do that, because that’s a bad thing for the country. I don’t want to do that. I don’t know who said — I haven’t said that I would.
But they have done it. I have got attorney generals, DAs. They’re all…
KURTZ: Right.
TRUMP: You take a look at — you take a look in Atlanta with Fani.
KURTZ: You’re heavily investigated.
TRUMP: Yes.
KURTZ: With Fani Willis.
TRUMP: They went and met with them. It’s all coming out of the Justice Department.
They have done something never done in this country before. Now, it’s been done in a lot of other countries, Third World countries, banana republics, but never done. So, when you ask that question, you really have to start by saying, well, they have done it to you.
No, I’m not looking to do it to them at all, because that is a really — they have set a very bad precedent, however.
KURTZ: You talk about the enemy within. There’s enemies, America’s enemies, outside.
TRUMP: Yes.
KURTZ: The enemy within is a pretty ominous phrase, if you’re talking about other Americans.
TRUMP: I think it’s accurate. I mean, I think it’s accurate.
KURTZ: Who are you talking about? Who is the enemy?
TRUMP: And I heard that. They said, oh, the enemy.
On the outside, you have Russia, you have China, you have a lot of different groups. If you have a smart president, they can be easily handled. I handled them. We had no wars. I had no — we had no wars.
The only thing I had was ISIS, and I defeated them in like record time. They were gone. But I started no wars. The outside people, the so-called enemies, if they’re enemies — and they might not be enemies — if you have a smart president, they can be handled.
But when you have people investigating my campaign, when you have people — they spied on my campaign, Howie. You understand that. That’s been proven. But they spy on your campaign. The Russia, Russia, Russia hoax was all made up. And now it’s acknowledged that it was made up, all of these different things.
You have the 51 different agents saying it was from Russia, and now they all say it wasn’t from Russia, OK, so we were lying, all — many other things, many, many. I could go on. You just don’t have enough time.
But what they have done is so terrible. Who’s ever heard of anything like this? Adam “Shifty” Schiff, he’s a crooked guy. He’s a crooked politician, 100 percent. He’s going to be a senator now. Can you believe it?
KURTZ: But, again, he’s a political opponent of yours.
TRUMP: No, no, but — he’s not.
KURTZ: But is he an enemy?
TRUMP: No, he’s a — well, he is — of course, he is an enemy. He’s an enemy.
He wanted to put my son in jail. And my son didn’t even know what he was talking about. He wanted to put my son in jail on a scam that he made up called Russia, Russia, Russia. He, Hillary Clinton, and a group of people made up a scam, and they came out of a room and they said, Donald Trump Jr. will be going to jail over this.
And my son called me. He said: “What did I do?” He knew nothing about Russia. It had nothing to do with him.
Think of how bad you have to be when you say you’re going to put any son, not just a president’s son, but any son, you’re going to put somebody in jail on a scam that you knew was made up by you. That’s an enemy from within. That’s really — that is a threat to democracy.
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