Trump's full press conference following the Charlottesville white supremacist attack, Sep 15, 2017
“From Trump Tower in New York City on August 15, 2017, President Donald Trump address the events in Charlottesville during a press conference where he was speaking about infrastructure.” – Politico
Link to video.
0:09
Hello everybody. Great to be back in New York with all of our friends and some great friends outside the building I must tell you. I want to thank all of our distinguished guests with us today including members of our cabinet: Treasury Secretary Stephen Minuchin, OMB director Mick Mulvaney, and of course our transportation secretary who’s doing a fabulous job, Elaine Chao. Thank you all for doing a really incredible and creative job on what we're going to be discussing today which is infrastructure.
0:53
We've just had a great set of briefings upstairs on our infrastructure agenda.
My administration is working every day to deliver world class infrastructure that our people deserve, and frankly, that our country deserves.
That's why I just signed a new executive order to dramatically reform the nation’s badly broken infrastructure, permitting process.
It took eleven months to build the Empire State Building. Today it could take as long as a decade and much more than that.
[video cuts out…] 25 years just to get approvals to start construction, a fairly routine highway. Highway builders must get up to 16 different approvals involving nine different federal agencies governed by 29 different statutes.
One agency alone can stall a project for many many years and even decades. Not only does this cost our economy billions of dollars, but it also denies our citizens the safe and modern infrastructure they deserve.
This over regulated permitting process is a massive self-inflicted wound on our country. Disgraceful, denying our people much-needed investments in their community. And I just want to show you this, because it was just shown to me, and I think I I'm going to show it to the media, both real and fake media, by the way.
2:41
This is what it takes to get something approved today. Elaine you see that? So this is what it takes.. permitting process flow chart. That's a flow chart. So that can go out to 20 years. This shows about 10. But that could go out to about 20 years to get something approved. This is for a highway.
I’ve seen a highway recently in a certain state I won't mention its name. 17 years. I could have built it for four or five million dollars without the permitting process. It cost hundreds of millions of dollars, but it took 17 years to get it approved, and many many… many many pages of environmental impact studies.
This is what we will bring it down to. This is less than two years. This is going to happen quickly that's what I'm signing today. This will be less than two years for a highway. So it's going to be quick. It’s going to be a very streamlined process.
And by the way if it doesn't meet environmental safeguards, we're not going to approve it. Very simple. We’re not going to approve it. So maybe this one will stay. Let's throw the other one away. Would anybody like it from the media? Would anybody like that long beautiful chart? You can have it.
4:03
So my executive order also requires agencies to work together efficiently by requiring one lead agency for each major infrastructure project. It also holds agencies accountable if they fail to streamline their review process. So each agency is accountable. We’re gonna get infrastructure built quickly, inexpensively, relatively speaking, and the permitting process will go very very quickly. No longer will we tolerate one job-killing delay after another. No longer will we accept a broken system that benefits consultants and lobbyists at the expense of hardworking Americans.
Now I knew the process very well–probably better than anybody. I had to get permits for this building and many of the buildings I built––all of the buildings I built––in Manhattan, and many other places. And I will tell you that the consultants are rich people. They go around making it very difficult. They lobby Congress. They lobby state government, city governments to make it very difficult, so that you have to hire consultants, and that you have to take years and pay them a fortune. So we're streamlining the process and we won't be having so much of that anymore. No longer will we allow the infrastructure of our magnificent country to crumble and decay.
While protecting the environment, we will build gleaming new roads, bridges, railways, waterways, tunnels, and highways. We will rebuild our country with American workers American iron, American aluminum, American steel. We will create millions of new jobs and make millions of American dreams come true. Our infrastructure will again be the best in the world. We used to have the greatest infrastructure anywhere in the world and today we're like a third-world country. We are literally like a third-world country. Our infrastructure will again be the best and we will restore the pride in our communities, our nation. And all over the United States we’ll be proud again.
6:15
So I want to thank everybody for being here. God bless you. God bless the United States. And if you have any questions we have Mick you could come up here please. Come on up Mick Mulvaney. If you have any questions please feel free to ask.
6:34
REPORTER: Why do you think these CEOs are leaving your manufacturing council?
TRUMP: Because they're not taking their job seriously as it pertains to this country. We want jobs manufacturing in this country. If you look at some of those people that you're talking about they're outside of the country they're having a lot of their product made outside. If you look at Merck as an example, take a look at where their product is made. It’s made outside of our country. We want products made in the country. Now I have to tell you some of the folks that will leave, they're leaving out of embarrassment, because they make their products outside. And I've been lecturing them, including the gentleman that you're referring to, about you have to bring it back to this country. You can't do it necessarily in Ireland and all of these other places. You have to bring this work back to this country. That's what I want. I want manufacturing to be back into the United States so that American workers can benefit.
7:34
REPORTER: Why did you wait so long…
TRUMP: I didn't wait long. I didn't wait long. I wanted to make sure, unlike most politicians, that what I said was correct, not make a quick statement. the statement I made on Saturday, the first statement, was a fine statement but you don't make statements that direct unless you know the facts. It takes a little while to get the facts. You still don't know the facts. And it's a very very important process to me. And it's a very important statement, so I don't want to go quickly and just make a statement for the sake of making a political statement. I want to know the facts. If you go back to my… In fact, I brought it… I brought it…
8:23
As I said on, remember Saturday…
We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred bigotry and violence it has no place in America.
Then I went on from there. Now here's the thing… When I make a statement I like to be correct I want the facts this event just happened in fact a lot of the event didn't even happen yet as we were speaking this event just happened before I make a statement I need the facts so I don't want to rush into a statement so making the statement when I made it was excellent.
9:03
In fact, the young woman who I hear is a fantastic young woman, and it was on NBC…
Her mother wrote me and said through, I guess Twitter… social media… the nicest things. And I very much appreciated that. I hear she was a fine… really actually an incredible young woman. But her mother on Twitter thanked me for what I said. And honestly, if the press were not fake and if it was honest, the press, would have said what I said was very nice. But unlike you, and unlike the media, before I make a statement I like to know the facts.
9:47
REPORTER: The CEO of Walmart says you missed a critical opportunity to bring the country together. Did you?
TRUMP: Not at all. I think the country.. Look. You take a look. I’ve created oner a million jobs since I’m president. The country is booming. The stock market is setting records. We have the highest employment numbers we’ve ever had in the history of our country. We’re doing record business. We have the highest levels of enthusiasm. The head of Walmart, who I know, he’s a nice guy, he was making a political statement.
[inaudible] I do it in the same way, you know why? Because I want to make sure, when I make a statement, that the statement is correct. And there was no way of making a correct statement that early. I had to see the facts, unlike a lot of reporters. I didn’t know David Duke was there. I wanted to see the facts. And the facts as they started coming out were very well stated. In fact, everybody said, “His statement was beautiful. If he would have made it earlier that would have been good.” I couldn’t have made it sooner because I didn’t know all of the facts. Frankly people still don’t know all of the facts.
It was very important to me to get the facts out and correctly because if I would have made a fast event and the first statement was made without knowing much other than what we were seeing. The second statement was made after with knowledge, with great knowledge. There's still things that people don't know. I want to make a statement with knowledge. I wanted to know the facts.
11:43
REPORTER: Two questions. Was this terrorism, and can you tell us your feeling about your [inaudible].
TRUMP: Well I think the driver of the car is a disgrace to himself, his family, and this country. And that is… you can call it terrorism, you can call it murder, you can call it whatever you want.
I would just call it as– the fastest one to come up with a good verdict. That's what I'd call it. Because there is a question. Is it murder. Is a terrorism? And then you get into legal semantics.
The driver of the car is a murderer, and what he did was a horrible horrible inexcusable thing.
12:22
REPORTER: Can you tell us how you’re feeling about [inaudible] Mr. Bannon?
TRUMP: I never spoke to Mr. Bannon about it.
REPORTER: Tell us broadly, do you still have confidence in him?
TRUMP: I like Mr. Bannon. He's a friend of mine. But Mr. Bannon came on very late. You know that. I went through 17 senators, governors, and I won all the primaries. Mr. Bannon came on very much later than that. And I like him. He’s a good man.
He’s is not a racist. I can tell you that. He’s a good person. He actually gets a very unfair press in that regard. But we’ll see what happens with Mr. Bannon. But he’s a good person. And I think the press treats him frankly very unfairly.
13:09
REPORTERS: [inaudible]
TRUMP: Senator McCain? You mean the one who voted against (repealing) Obamacare? You mean Senator McCain who voted against us getting good health care?
REPORTER: He said that the alt right is behind these attacks and he linked that same group to those who perpetrated the attack in Charlottesville.
TRUMP: Well, I don’t know. I can’t tell you. I’m sure Senator McCain must know what he's talking about. But when you say the alt-right… define alt-right to me. You define it. Go ahead. No define it for me. Come on.
REPORTER: Senator McCain defined them as…
TRUMP: What about the fact they came charging at the as you say the alt right do they have any semblance of guilt what about the fact that came charging with clubs in the hand swinging clubs? Do they have any problem? I think they do. That was a horrible day. Wait a minute. I'm not finished.
14:21
I'm not finished, fake news, that was a horrible day I watched those very closely much more closely than you people watched it and you have you had a group on one side that was bad and you had a group on the other side that was also very violent and nobody wants to say that but I'll say it right now. You had a group, you had a group on the other side that came charging in without a permit and they were very very violent.
REPORTER (unheard in the background): Would you call the alt left the same as neo-nazis?
I've condemned neo-nazis. I've condemned many different groups but not all of those people were neo-nazis. Believe me. Not all of those people were white supremacists by any stretch. Those people were also there to protest the taking down of a statue Robert E Lee. You take a look at some of the groups, and you see, and you know it if you were honest reporters, which in many cases you're not, but many of those people were there to protest the taking down of the statue of Robert E Lee. So this week it's Robert E Lee. I noticed that Stonewall Jackson's coming down. I wonder, is it George Washington next week? And is it Thomas Jefferson the week after? You know you really do have to ask yourself– Where does it stop? But they were there to protest.
You take a look, the night before, they were there to protest the taking down of the statue of Robert E Lee.
Infrastructure question. Go ahead.
The property left up… I would say that's up to a local town community or the federal government, depending on where it is located.
16:22
I think they've gotten better, or the same, [inaudible] for a long time and you can ask President Obama about that because he'd make speeches about it. But I believe that the fact that I brought in, it will be soon millions of jobs, you see, where companies are moving back into our country.
I think that's going to have a tremendous positive impact on race relations. We have companies coming back into our country. We have two car companies that just announced. We have Foxconn in Wisconsin just announced. We have many companies I see pouring back into the country. I think that's going to have a huge positive impact on race relations. You know why. It's jobs what people want. Now they want jobs. They want great jobs with good pay. And when they have that, you watch how race relations will be.
And I'll tell you we're spending a lot of money on the inner cities. We're fixing the inner cities. We're doing far more than anybody's done with respect to the inner cities. It’s a priority for me and it's very important.
17:33
I'm not putting anybody on a moral plane. What I'm saying is this.
You had a group on one side and you had a group on the other, and they came at each other with clubs, and it was vicious and it was horrible, and it was a horrible thing to watch. But there is another side.
(Explaining to a reporter who Antifa is) There was a group on this side you can call it the left you just call it the left, that came violently attacking the other group so you can say what you want but that's the way it is. Blame, yes I think there is blame on both sides (KKK and Antifa). You look at both sides. I think there's blame on both sides and I have no doubt about it and if you…
18:29
[Inaudible]
18:30
But you also had (completely different) people that were very fine people on both sides.
You had people in that group that were there to protest the taking down of, to them, a very very important statue and the renaming of a park from Robert E Lee to another name.
George Washington was a slave owner. Was George Washington a slave owner? So will George Washington now lose his status? Are we gonna take down excuse me are we gonna take down statues to George? How about Thomas Jefferson? what do you think of Thomas Jefferson? you like him? okay good. Are we gonna take down the statue? Cuz he was a major slave owner. Now we're gonna take down his statue… so you know what? It’s fine. You're changing history. You’re changing culture.
19:26
And you had people…
… and I'm not talking about the neo-nazis and the white nationalists because they should be condemned totally.
But you had many people in that group *other than* neo-nazis and white nationalists. And the press has treated them absolutely unfairly.
19:42
Now, in the other group (the anti-statue crowd), also you had some fine people.
But you also had troublemakers (antifa), and you see them come with the black outfits and with the helmets and with the baseball bats you had a lot of bad people in the other group too.
19:58
REPORTER:
Who was treated unfairly, sir? I’m sorry I just didn’t understand what you were saying. You were saying the press has treated white nationalists unfairly?
TRUMP. No. No. There were (other) people in that rally, and I looked the night before.
20:05
If you look, they were people protesting very quietly the taking down of the statue of Robert E Lee. (Most of whom did not belong to antifa or kkk.)
I'm sure in that group there were some bad ones. The following day it looked like they had some rough bad people– neo-nazis, white nationalists, whatever you want to call them.
But you had a lot of (non racist) people in that group that were there to innocently protest and very legally protest because, I don't know if you know, they had a permit. The other group (anti-statue crowd) didn't have a permit so I only tell you that there are two sides to a story. (anti-statue crowd)
20:44
I thought what took place was a horrible moment for our country a horrible moment but there are two sides of the country.
20:54
Does anybody..
REPORTER: Do you think you can get an infrastructure bill? You didn't get healthcare.
TRUMP: We came very close with healthcare unfortunately John McCain decided to vote against it at the last minute you'll have to ask john McCain why he did that but we came very close to health care we will end up getting health care but we'll get the infrastructure and actually infrastructure something that i think will have bipartisan support on I actually think Democrats will go along with the infrastructure bill.
21:21
REPORTER: Have you spoken to the family of the victim of the car attack?
TRUMP: I’ll be reaching out. I was very… I thought that the statement put out… the mother's statement, I thought was a beautiful statement. I tell you, it was it was something that I really appreciated. I thought it was terrific and really under the kind of stress that she's under and the heartache that she's under I thought putting out that statement to me was really something I won't forget.
21:53
Thank you all very much. Thank you.
22:04
Does anyone know I own a house in Charlottesville? Oh boy it's gonna be… it's in Charlottesville you'll see. I mean I know a lot about Charlottesville. Charlottesville is a great place that's been very badly hurt over the last couple of days. I own actually one of the largest wineries in the United States.
Well I really think jobs can have a big impact. I think if we continue to create jobs, over a million, substantially more than a million. And you see just the other day, the car companies coming in with Fox you know. I think if we continue to create jobs at levels that I'm people I'm creating jobs I think that's gonna have a tremendous impact positive impact on race relations because the people are gonna be working they're gonna be making a lot of money much more money than I ever thought about Miramar that's gonna happen and the other thing very important I believe wages will start going up they haven't gone up for a long time I believe wages now because the economy is doing so well with respect to employment and unemployment.
I believe wages will start to go up I think that'll have a tremendously positive impact on race relations.
“From Trump Tower in New York City on August 15, 2017, President Donald Trump address the events in Charlottesville during a press conference where he was speaking about infrastructure.” – Politico
Link to video.
0:09
Hello everybody. Great to be back in New York with all of our friends and some great friends outside the building I must tell you. I want to thank all of our distinguished guests with us today including members of our cabinet: Treasury Secretary Stephen Minuchin, OMB director Mick Mulvaney, and of course our transportation secretary who’s doing a fabulous job, Elaine Chao. Thank you all for doing a really incredible and creative job on what we're going to be discussing today which is infrastructure.
0:53
We've just had a great set of briefings upstairs on our infrastructure agenda.
My administration is working every day to deliver world class infrastructure that our people deserve, and frankly, that our country deserves.
That's why I just signed a new executive order to dramatically reform the nation’s badly broken infrastructure, permitting process.
It took eleven months to build the Empire State Building. Today it could take as long as a decade and much more than that.
[video cuts out…] 25 years just to get approvals to start construction, a fairly routine highway. Highway builders must get up to 16 different approvals involving nine different federal agencies governed by 29 different statutes.
One agency alone can stall a project for many many years and even decades. Not only does this cost our economy billions of dollars, but it also denies our citizens the safe and modern infrastructure they deserve.
This over regulated permitting process is a massive self-inflicted wound on our country. Disgraceful, denying our people much-needed investments in their community. And I just want to show you this, because it was just shown to me, and I think I I'm going to show it to the media, both real and fake media, by the way.
2:41
This is what it takes to get something approved today. Elaine you see that? So this is what it takes.. permitting process flow chart. That's a flow chart. So that can go out to 20 years. This shows about 10. But that could go out to about 20 years to get something approved. This is for a highway.
I’ve seen a highway recently in a certain state I won't mention its name. 17 years. I could have built it for four or five million dollars without the permitting process. It cost hundreds of millions of dollars, but it took 17 years to get it approved, and many many… many many pages of environmental impact studies.
This is what we will bring it down to. This is less than two years. This is going to happen quickly that's what I'm signing today. This will be less than two years for a highway. So it's going to be quick. It’s going to be a very streamlined process.
And by the way if it doesn't meet environmental safeguards, we're not going to approve it. Very simple. We’re not going to approve it. So maybe this one will stay. Let's throw the other one away. Would anybody like it from the media? Would anybody like that long beautiful chart? You can have it.
4:03
So my executive order also requires agencies to work together efficiently by requiring one lead agency for each major infrastructure project. It also holds agencies accountable if they fail to streamline their review process. So each agency is accountable. We’re gonna get infrastructure built quickly, inexpensively, relatively speaking, and the permitting process will go very very quickly. No longer will we tolerate one job-killing delay after another. No longer will we accept a broken system that benefits consultants and lobbyists at the expense of hardworking Americans.
Now I knew the process very well–probably better than anybody. I had to get permits for this building and many of the buildings I built––all of the buildings I built––in Manhattan, and many other places. And I will tell you that the consultants are rich people. They go around making it very difficult. They lobby Congress. They lobby state government, city governments to make it very difficult, so that you have to hire consultants, and that you have to take years and pay them a fortune. So we're streamlining the process and we won't be having so much of that anymore. No longer will we allow the infrastructure of our magnificent country to crumble and decay.
While protecting the environment, we will build gleaming new roads, bridges, railways, waterways, tunnels, and highways. We will rebuild our country with American workers American iron, American aluminum, American steel. We will create millions of new jobs and make millions of American dreams come true. Our infrastructure will again be the best in the world. We used to have the greatest infrastructure anywhere in the world and today we're like a third-world country. We are literally like a third-world country. Our infrastructure will again be the best and we will restore the pride in our communities, our nation. And all over the United States we’ll be proud again.
6:15
So I want to thank everybody for being here. God bless you. God bless the United States. And if you have any questions we have Mick you could come up here please. Come on up Mick Mulvaney. If you have any questions please feel free to ask.
6:34
REPORTER: Why do you think these CEOs are leaving your manufacturing council?
TRUMP: Because they're not taking their job seriously as it pertains to this country. We want jobs manufacturing in this country. If you look at some of those people that you're talking about they're outside of the country they're having a lot of their product made outside. If you look at Merck as an example, take a look at where their product is made. It’s made outside of our country. We want products made in the country. Now I have to tell you some of the folks that will leave, they're leaving out of embarrassment, because they make their products outside. And I've been lecturing them, including the gentleman that you're referring to, about you have to bring it back to this country. You can't do it necessarily in Ireland and all of these other places. You have to bring this work back to this country. That's what I want. I want manufacturing to be back into the United States so that American workers can benefit.
7:34
REPORTER: Why did you wait so long…
TRUMP: I didn't wait long. I didn't wait long. I wanted to make sure, unlike most politicians, that what I said was correct, not make a quick statement. the statement I made on Saturday, the first statement, was a fine statement but you don't make statements that direct unless you know the facts. It takes a little while to get the facts. You still don't know the facts. And it's a very very important process to me. And it's a very important statement, so I don't want to go quickly and just make a statement for the sake of making a political statement. I want to know the facts. If you go back to my… In fact, I brought it… I brought it…
8:23
As I said on, remember Saturday…
We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred bigotry and violence it has no place in America.
Then I went on from there. Now here's the thing… When I make a statement I like to be correct I want the facts this event just happened in fact a lot of the event didn't even happen yet as we were speaking this event just happened before I make a statement I need the facts so I don't want to rush into a statement so making the statement when I made it was excellent.
9:03
In fact, the young woman who I hear is a fantastic young woman, and it was on NBC…
Her mother wrote me and said through, I guess Twitter… social media… the nicest things. And I very much appreciated that. I hear she was a fine… really actually an incredible young woman. But her mother on Twitter thanked me for what I said. And honestly, if the press were not fake and if it was honest, the press, would have said what I said was very nice. But unlike you, and unlike the media, before I make a statement I like to know the facts.
9:47
REPORTER: The CEO of Walmart says you missed a critical opportunity to bring the country together. Did you?
TRUMP: Not at all. I think the country.. Look. You take a look. I’ve created oner a million jobs since I’m president. The country is booming. The stock market is setting records. We have the highest employment numbers we’ve ever had in the history of our country. We’re doing record business. We have the highest levels of enthusiasm. The head of Walmart, who I know, he’s a nice guy, he was making a political statement.
[inaudible] I do it in the same way, you know why? Because I want to make sure, when I make a statement, that the statement is correct. And there was no way of making a correct statement that early. I had to see the facts, unlike a lot of reporters. I didn’t know David Duke was there. I wanted to see the facts. And the facts as they started coming out were very well stated. In fact, everybody said, “His statement was beautiful. If he would have made it earlier that would have been good.” I couldn’t have made it sooner because I didn’t know all of the facts. Frankly people still don’t know all of the facts.
It was very important to me to get the facts out and correctly because if I would have made a fast event and the first statement was made without knowing much other than what we were seeing. The second statement was made after with knowledge, with great knowledge. There's still things that people don't know. I want to make a statement with knowledge. I wanted to know the facts.
11:43
REPORTER: Two questions. Was this terrorism, and can you tell us your feeling about your [inaudible].
TRUMP: Well I think the driver of the car is a disgrace to himself, his family, and this country. And that is… you can call it terrorism, you can call it murder, you can call it whatever you want.
I would just call it as– the fastest one to come up with a good verdict. That's what I'd call it. Because there is a question. Is it murder. Is a terrorism? And then you get into legal semantics.
The driver of the car is a murderer, and what he did was a horrible horrible inexcusable thing.
12:22
REPORTER: Can you tell us how you’re feeling about [inaudible] Mr. Bannon?
TRUMP: I never spoke to Mr. Bannon about it.
REPORTER: Tell us broadly, do you still have confidence in him?
TRUMP: I like Mr. Bannon. He's a friend of mine. But Mr. Bannon came on very late. You know that. I went through 17 senators, governors, and I won all the primaries. Mr. Bannon came on very much later than that. And I like him. He’s a good man.
He’s is not a racist. I can tell you that. He’s a good person. He actually gets a very unfair press in that regard. But we’ll see what happens with Mr. Bannon. But he’s a good person. And I think the press treats him frankly very unfairly.
13:09
REPORTERS: [inaudible]
TRUMP: Senator McCain? You mean the one who voted against (repealing) Obamacare? You mean Senator McCain who voted against us getting good health care?
REPORTER: He said that the alt right is behind these attacks and he linked that same group to those who perpetrated the attack in Charlottesville.
TRUMP: Well, I don’t know. I can’t tell you. I’m sure Senator McCain must know what he's talking about. But when you say the alt-right… define alt-right to me. You define it. Go ahead. No define it for me. Come on.
REPORTER: Senator McCain defined them as…
TRUMP: What about the fact they came charging at the as you say the alt right do they have any semblance of guilt what about the fact that came charging with clubs in the hand swinging clubs? Do they have any problem? I think they do. That was a horrible day. Wait a minute. I'm not finished.
14:21
I'm not finished, fake news, that was a horrible day I watched those very closely much more closely than you people watched it and you have you had a group on one side that was bad and you had a group on the other side that was also very violent and nobody wants to say that but I'll say it right now. You had a group, you had a group on the other side that came charging in without a permit and they were very very violent.
REPORTER (unheard in the background): Would you call the alt left the same as neo-nazis?
I've condemned neo-nazis. I've condemned many different groups but not all of those people were neo-nazis. Believe me. Not all of those people were white supremacists by any stretch. Those people were also there to protest the taking down of a statue Robert E Lee. You take a look at some of the groups, and you see, and you know it if you were honest reporters, which in many cases you're not, but many of those people were there to protest the taking down of the statue of Robert E Lee. So this week it's Robert E Lee. I noticed that Stonewall Jackson's coming down. I wonder, is it George Washington next week? And is it Thomas Jefferson the week after? You know you really do have to ask yourself– Where does it stop? But they were there to protest.
You take a look, the night before, they were there to protest the taking down of the statue of Robert E Lee.
Infrastructure question. Go ahead.
The property left up… I would say that's up to a local town community or the federal government, depending on where it is located.
16:22
I think they've gotten better, or the same, [inaudible] for a long time and you can ask President Obama about that because he'd make speeches about it. But I believe that the fact that I brought in, it will be soon millions of jobs, you see, where companies are moving back into our country.
I think that's going to have a tremendous positive impact on race relations. We have companies coming back into our country. We have two car companies that just announced. We have Foxconn in Wisconsin just announced. We have many companies I see pouring back into the country. I think that's going to have a huge positive impact on race relations. You know why. It's jobs what people want. Now they want jobs. They want great jobs with good pay. And when they have that, you watch how race relations will be.
And I'll tell you we're spending a lot of money on the inner cities. We're fixing the inner cities. We're doing far more than anybody's done with respect to the inner cities. It’s a priority for me and it's very important.
17:33
I'm not putting anybody on a moral plane. What I'm saying is this.
You had a group on one side and you had a group on the other, and they came at each other with clubs, and it was vicious and it was horrible, and it was a horrible thing to watch. But there is another side.
(Explaining to a reporter who Antifa is) There was a group on this side you can call it the left you just call it the left, that came violently attacking the other group so you can say what you want but that's the way it is. Blame, yes I think there is blame on both sides (KKK and Antifa). You look at both sides. I think there's blame on both sides and I have no doubt about it and if you…
18:29
[Inaudible]
18:30
But you also had (completely different) people that were very fine people on both sides.
You had people in that group that were there to protest the taking down of, to them, a very very important statue and the renaming of a park from Robert E Lee to another name.
George Washington was a slave owner. Was George Washington a slave owner? So will George Washington now lose his status? Are we gonna take down excuse me are we gonna take down statues to George? How about Thomas Jefferson? what do you think of Thomas Jefferson? you like him? okay good. Are we gonna take down the statue? Cuz he was a major slave owner. Now we're gonna take down his statue… so you know what? It’s fine. You're changing history. You’re changing culture.
19:26
And you had people…
… and I'm not talking about the neo-nazis and the white nationalists because they should be condemned totally.
But you had many people in that group *other than* neo-nazis and white nationalists. And the press has treated them absolutely unfairly.
19:42
Now, in the other group (the anti-statue crowd), also you had some fine people.
But you also had troublemakers (antifa), and you see them come with the black outfits and with the helmets and with the baseball bats you had a lot of bad people in the other group too.
19:58
REPORTER:
Who was treated unfairly, sir? I’m sorry I just didn’t understand what you were saying. You were saying the press has treated white nationalists unfairly?
TRUMP. No. No. There were (other) people in that rally, and I looked the night before.
20:05
If you look, they were people protesting very quietly the taking down of the statue of Robert E Lee. (Most of whom did not belong to antifa or kkk.)
I'm sure in that group there were some bad ones. The following day it looked like they had some rough bad people– neo-nazis, white nationalists, whatever you want to call them.
But you had a lot of (non racist) people in that group that were there to innocently protest and very legally protest because, I don't know if you know, they had a permit. The other group (anti-statue crowd) didn't have a permit so I only tell you that there are two sides to a story. (anti-statue crowd)
20:44
I thought what took place was a horrible moment for our country a horrible moment but there are two sides of the country.
20:54
Does anybody..
REPORTER: Do you think you can get an infrastructure bill? You didn't get healthcare.
TRUMP: We came very close with healthcare unfortunately John McCain decided to vote against it at the last minute you'll have to ask john McCain why he did that but we came very close to health care we will end up getting health care but we'll get the infrastructure and actually infrastructure something that i think will have bipartisan support on I actually think Democrats will go along with the infrastructure bill.
21:21
REPORTER: Have you spoken to the family of the victim of the car attack?
TRUMP: I’ll be reaching out. I was very… I thought that the statement put out… the mother's statement, I thought was a beautiful statement. I tell you, it was it was something that I really appreciated. I thought it was terrific and really under the kind of stress that she's under and the heartache that she's under I thought putting out that statement to me was really something I won't forget.
21:53
Thank you all very much. Thank you.
22:04
Does anyone know I own a house in Charlottesville? Oh boy it's gonna be… it's in Charlottesville you'll see. I mean I know a lot about Charlottesville. Charlottesville is a great place that's been very badly hurt over the last couple of days. I own actually one of the largest wineries in the United States.
Well I really think jobs can have a big impact. I think if we continue to create jobs, over a million, substantially more than a million. And you see just the other day, the car companies coming in with Fox you know. I think if we continue to create jobs at levels that I'm people I'm creating jobs I think that's gonna have a tremendous impact positive impact on race relations because the people are gonna be working they're gonna be making a lot of money much more money than I ever thought about Miramar that's gonna happen and the other thing very important I believe wages will start going up they haven't gone up for a long time I believe wages now because the economy is doing so well with respect to employment and unemployment.
I believe wages will start to go up I think that'll have a tremendously positive impact on race relations.