Ladies and gentlemen the Republican nominee forpresident, Donald J. Trump, and the Democratic nominee forpresident, Hillary Clinton.
(APPLAUSE)
COOPER: Thank you very much for being here. We’re going to beginwith a question from one of the members in our town hall. Each ofyou will have two minutes to respond to this question. SecretaryClinton, you won the coin toss, so you’ll go first. Our firstquestion comes from Patrice Brock. Patrice?
QUESTION: Thank you, and good evening. The last debate could havebeen rated as MA, mature audiences, per TV parental guidelines.Knowing that educators assign viewing the presidential debates asstudents’ homework, do you feel you’re modeling appropriate andpositive behavior for today’s youth?
CLINTON: Well, thank you. Are you a teacher? Yes, I think thatthat’s a very good question, because I’ve heard from lots ofteachers and parents about some of their concerns about some of thethings that are being said and done in this campaign.
And I think it is very important for us to make clear to ourchildren that our country really is great because we’re good. Andwe are going to respect one another, lift each other up. We aregoing to be looking for ways to celebrate our diversity, and we aregoing to try to reach out to every boy and girl, as well as everyadult, to bring them in to working on behalf of our country.
I have a very positive and optimistic view about what we can dotogether. That’s why the slogan of my campaign is “StrongerTogether,” because I think if we work together, if we overcome thedivisiveness that sometimes sets Americans against one another, andinstead we make some big goals — and I’ve set forth some big goals,getting the economy to work for everyone, not just those at thetop, making sure that we have the best education system frompreschool through college and making it affordable, and so muchelse.
If we set those goals and we go together to try to achieve them,there’s nothing in my opinion that America can’t do. So that’s whyI hope that we will come together in this campaign. Obviously, I’mhoping to earn your vote, I’m hoping to be elected in November, andI can promise you, I will work with every American.
I want to be the president for all Americans, regardless of yourpolitical beliefs, where you come from, what you look like, yourreligion. I want us to heal our country and bring it togetherbecause that’s, I think, the best way for us to get the future thatour children and our grandchildren deserve.
COOPER: Secretary Clinton, thank you. Mr. Trump, you have twominutes.
TRUMP: Well, I actually agree with that. I agree with everythingshe said. I began this campaign because I was so tired of seeingsuch foolish things happen to our country. This is a great country.This is a great land. I’ve gotten to know the people of the countryover the last year-and-a-half that I’ve been doing this as apolitician. I cannot believe I’m saying that about myself, but Iguess I have been a politician.
TRUMP: And my whole concept was to make America great again. When Iwatch the deals being made, when I watch what’s happening with somehorrible things like Obamacare, where your health insurance andhealth care is going up by numbers that are astronomical, 68percent, 59 percent, 71 percent, when I look at the Iran deal andhow bad a deal it is for us, it’s a one-sided transaction wherewe’re giving back $150 billion to a terrorist state, really, thenumber one terror state, we’ve made them a strong country fromreally a very weak country just three years ago.
When I look at all of the things that I see and all of thepotential that our country has, we have such tremendous potential,whether it’s in business and trade, where we’re doing so badly.Last year, we had almost $800 billion trade deficit. In otherwords, trading with other countries. We had an $800 billiondeficit. It’s hard to believe. Inconceivable.
You say who’s making these deals? We’re going the make great deals.We’re going to have a strong border. We’re going to bring back lawand order. Just today, policemen was shot, two killed. And this ishappening on a weekly basis. We have to bring back respect to lawenforcement. At the same time, we have to take care of people onall sides. We need justice.
But I want to do things that haven’t been done, including fixingand making our inner cities better for the African-Americancitizens that are so great, and for the Latinos, Hispanics, and Ilook forward to doing it. It’s called make America great again.
COOPER: Thank you, Mr. Trump. The question from Patrice was aboutare you both modeling positive and appropriate behavior for today’syouth? We received a lot of questions online, Mr. Trump, about thetape that was released on Friday, as you can imagine. You calledwhat you said locker room banter. You described kissing womenwithout consent, grabbing their genitals. That is sexual assault.You bragged that you have sexually assaulted women. Do youunderstand that?
TRUMP: No, I didn’t say that at all. I don’t think you understoodwhat was — this was locker room talk. I’m not proud of it. Iapologize to my family. I apologize to the American people.Certainly I’m not proud of it. But this is locker room talk.
You know, when we have a world where you have ISIS chopping offheads, where you have — and, frankly, drowning people in steelcages, where you have wars and horrible, horrible sights all over,where you have so many bad things happening, this is like medievaltimes. We haven’t seen anything like this, the carnage all over theworld.
And they look and they see. Can you imagine the people that are,frankly, doing so well against us with ISIS? And they look at ourcountry and they see what’s going on.
Yes, I’m very embarrassed by it. I hate it. But it’s locker roomtalk, and it’s one of those things. I will knock the hell out ofISIS. We’re going to defeat ISIS. ISIS happened a number of yearsago in a vacuum that was left because of bad judgment. And I willtell you, I will take care of ISIS.
COOPER: So, Mr. Trump…
TRUMP: And we should get on to much more important things and muchbigger things.
COOPER: Just for the record, though, are you saying that what yousaid on that bus 11 years ago that you did not actually kiss womenwithout consent or grope women without consent?
TRUMP: I have great respect for women. Nobody has more respect forwomen than I do.
COOPER: So, for the record, you’re saying you never did that?
TRUMP: I’ve said things that, frankly, you hear these things Isaid. And I was embarrassed by it. But I have tremendous respectfor women.
COOPER: Have you ever done those things?
TRUMP: And women have respect for me. And I will tell you: No, Ihave not. And I will tell you that I’m going to make our countrysafe. We’re going to have borders in our country, which we don’thave now. People are pouring into our country, and they’re comingin from the Middle East and other places.
We’re going to make America safe again. We’re going to make Americagreat again, but we’re going to make America safe again. And we’regoing to make America wealthy again, because if you don’t do that,it just — it sounds harsh to say, but we have to build up thewealth of our nation.
COOPER: Thank you, Mr. Trump.
TRUMP: Right now, other nations are taking our jobs and they’retaking our wealth.
COOPER: Thank you, Mr. Trump.
TRUMP: And that’s what I want to talk about.
COOPER: Secretary Clinton, do you want to respond?
CLINTON: Well, like everyone else, I’ve spent a lot of timethinking over the last 48 hours about what we heard and saw. Youknow, with prior Republican nominees for president, I disagreedwith them on politics, policies, principles, but I never questionedtheir fitness to serve.
Donald Trump is different. I said starting back in June that he wasnot fit to be president and commander-in-chief. And manyRepublicans and independents have said the same thing. What we allsaw and heard on Friday was Donald talking about women, what hethinks about women, what he does to women. And he has said that thevideo doesn’t represent who he is.
But I think it’s clear to anyone who heard it that it representsexactly who he is. Because we’ve seen this throughout the campaign.We have seen him insult women. We’ve seen him rate women on theirappearance, ranking them from one to ten. We’ve seen him embarrasswomen on TV and on Twitter. We saw him after the first debate spendnearly a week denigrating a former Miss Universe in the harshest,most personal terms.
So, yes, this is who Donald Trump is. But it’s not only women, andit’s not only this video that raises questions about his fitness tobe our president, because he has also targeted immigrants, African-Americans, Latinos, people with disabilities, POWs, Muslims, and somany others.
So this is who Donald Trump is. And the question for us, thequestion our country must answer is that this is not who we are.That’s why — to go back to your question — I want to send a message— we all should — to every boy and girl and, indeed, to the entireworld that America already is great, but we are great because weare good, and we will respect one another, and we will work withone another, and we will celebrate our diversity.
CLINTON: These are very important values to me, because this is theAmerica that I know and love. And I can pledge to you tonight thatthis is the America that I will serve if I’m so fortunate enough tobecome your president.
RADDATZ: And we want to get to some questions from online…
TRUMP: Am I allowed to respond to that? I assume I am.
RADDATZ: Yes, you can respond to that.
TRUMP: It’s just words, folks. It’s just words. Those words, I’vebeen hearing them for many years. I heard them when they wererunning for the Senate in New York, where Hillary was going tobring back jobs to upstate New York and she failed.
I’ve heard them where Hillary is constantly talking about the innercities of our country, which are a disaster education-wise,jobwise, safety-wise, in every way possible. I’m going to help theAfrican-Americans. I’m going to help the Latinos, Hispanics. I amgoing to help the inner cities.
She’s done a terrible job for the African-Americans. She wantstheir vote, and she does nothing, and then she comes back fouryears later. We saw that firsthand when she was United Statessenator. She campaigned where the primary part of her campaign…
RADDATZ: Mr. Trump, Mr. Trump — I want to get to audience questionsand online questions.
TRUMP: So, she’s allowed to do that, but I’m not allowed torespond?
RADDATZ: You’re going to have — you’re going to get to respondright now.
TRUMP: Sounds fair.
RADDATZ: This tape is generating intense interest. In just 48hours, it’s become the single most talked about story of the entire2016 election on Facebook,with millions and millions of people discussing it on the socialnetwork. As we said a moment ago, we do want to bring in questionsfrom voters around country via social media, and our first stays onthis topic. Jeff from Ohio asks on Facebook, “Trump says thecampaign has changed him. When did that happen?” So, Mr. Trump, letme add to that. When you walked off that bus at age 59, were you adifferent man or did that behavior continue until just recently?And you have two minutes for this.
TRUMP: It was locker room talk, as I told you. That was locker roomtalk. I’m not proud of it. I am a person who has great respect forpeople, for my family, for the people of this country. Andcertainly, I’m not proud of it. But that was something thathappened.
If you look at Bill Clinton, far worse. Mine are words, and his wasaction. His was what he’s done to women. There’s never been anybodyin the history politics in this nation that’s been so abusive towomen. So you can say any way you want to say it, but Bill Clintonwas abusive to women.
Hillary Clinton attacked those same women and attacked themviciously. Four of them here tonight. One of the women, who is awonderful woman, at 12 years old, was raped at 12. Her client sherepresented got him off, and she’s seen laughing on two separateoccasions, laughing at the girl who was raped. Kathy Shelton, thatyoung woman is here with us tonight.
So don’t tell me about words. I am absolutely — I apologize forthose words. But it is things that people say. But what PresidentClinton did, he was impeached, he lost his license to practice law.He had to pay an $850,000 fine to one of the women. Paula Jones,who’s also here tonight.
And I will tell you that when Hillary brings up a point like thatand she talks about words that I said 11 years ago, I think it’sdisgraceful, and I think she should be ashamed of herself, if youwant to know the truth.
(APPLAUSE)
RADDATZ: Can we please hold the applause? Secretary Clinton, youhave two minutes.
CLINTON: Well, first, let me start by saying that so much of whathe’s just said is not right, but he gets to run his campaign anyway he chooses. He gets to decide what he wants to talk about.Instead of answering people’s questions, talking about our agenda,laying out the plans that we have that we think can make a betterlife and a better country, that’s his choice.
When I hear something like that, I am reminded of what my friend,Michelle Obama, advised us all: When they go low, you go high.
(APPLAUSE) And, look, if this were just about one video, maybe whathe’s saying tonight would be understandable, but everyone can drawtheir own conclusions at this point about whether or not the man inthe video or the man on the stage respects women. But he neverapologizes for anything to anyone.
CLINTON: He never apologized to Mr. and Mrs. Khan, the Gold Starfamily whose son, Captain Khan, died in the line of duty in Iraq.And Donald insulted and attacked them for weeks over theirreligion.
He never apologized to the distinguished federal judge who was bornin Indiana, but Donald said he couldn’t be trusted to be a judgebecause his parents were, quote, “Mexican.”
He never apologized to the reporter that he mimicked and mocked onnational television and our children were watching. And he neverapologized for the racist lie that President Obama was not born inthe United States of America. He owes the president an apology, heowes our country an apology, and he needs to take responsibilityfor his actions and his words.
TRUMP: Well, you owe the president an apology, because as you knowvery well, your campaign, Sidney Blumenthal — he’s another realwinner that you have — and he’s the one that got this started,along with your campaign manager, and they were on television justtwo weeks ago, she was, saying exactly that. So you really owe himan apology. You’re the one that sent the pictures around yourcampaign, sent the pictures around with President Obama in acertain garb. That was long before I was ever involved, so youactually owe an apology.
Number two, Michelle Obama. I’ve gotten to see the commercials thatthey did on you. And I’ve gotten to see some of the most viciouscommercials I’ve ever seen of Michelle Obama talking about you,Hillary.
So, you talk about friend? Go back and take a look at thosecommercials, a race where you lost fair and square, unlike theBernie Sanders race, where you won, but not fair and square, in myopinion. And all you have to do is take a look at WikiLeaks andjust see what they say about Bernie Sanders and see what DeborahWasserman Schultz had in mind, because Bernie Sanders, betweensuper-delegates and Deborah Wasserman Schultz, he never had achance. And I was so surprised to see him sign on with thedevil.
But when you talk about apology, I think the one that you shouldreally be apologizing for and the thing that you should beapologizing for are the 33,000 e-mails that you deleted, and thatyou acid washed, and then the two boxes of e-mails and other thingslast week that were taken from an office and are now missing.
And I’ll tell you what. I didn’t think I’d say this, but I’m goingto say it, and I hate to say it. But if I win, I am going toinstruct my attorney general to get a special prosecutor to lookinto your situation, because there has never been so many lies, somuch deception. There has never been anything like it, and we’regoing to have a special prosecutor.
When I speak, I go out and speak, the people of this country arefurious. In my opinion, the people that have been long-term workersat the FBI are furious. There has never been anything like this,where e-mails — and you get a subpoena, you get a subpoena, andafter getting the subpoena, you delete 33,000 e-mails, and then youacid wash them or bleach them, as you would say, very expensiveprocess.
So we’re going to get a special prosecutor, and we’re going to lookinto it, because you know what? People have been — their lives havebeen destroyed for doing one-fifth of what you’ve done. And it’s adisgrace. And honestly, you ought to be ashamed of yourself.
RADDATZ: Secretary Clinton, I want to follow up on that.
(CROSSTALK)
RADDATZ: I’m going to let you talk about e-mails.
CLINTON: … because everything he just said is absolutely false, butI’m not surprised.
TRUMP: Oh, really?
CLINTON: In the first debate…
(LAUGHTER)
RADDATZ: And really, the audience needs to calm down here.
CLINTON: … I told people that it would be impossible to befact-checking Donald all the time. I’d never get to talk aboutanything I want to do and how we’re going to really make livesbetter for people.
So, once again, go to HillaryClinton.com. We have literally Trump —you can fact check him in real time. Last time at the first debate,we had millions of people fact checking, so I expect we’ll havemillions more fact checking, because, you know, it is — it’s justawfully good that someone with the temperament of Donald Trump isnot in charge of the law in our country.
TRUMP: Because you’d be in jail.
(APPLAUSE)
RADDATZ: Secretary Clinton…
COOPER: We want to remind the audience to please not talk out loud.Please do not applaud. You’re just wasting time.
RADDATZ: And, Secretary Clinton, I do want to follow up on e-mails. You’ve said your handing of your e-mails was a mistake. Youdisagreed with FBI Director James Comey, calling your handling ofclassified information, quote, “extremely careless.” The FBI saidthat there were 110 classified e-mails that were exchanged, eightof which were top secret, and that it was possible hostile actorsdid gain access to those e-mails. You don’t call that extremelycareless? CLINTON: Well, Martha, first, let me say — and I’ve saidbefore, but I’ll repeat it, because I want everyone to hear it —that was a mistake, and I take responsibility for using a personale-mail account. Obviously, if I were to do it over again, I wouldnot. I’m not making any excuses. It was a mistake. And I am verysorry about that.
But I think it’s also important to point out where there are somemisleading accusations from critics and others. After a year-longinvestigation, there is no evidence that anyone hacked the server Iwas using and there is no evidence that anyone can point to at all— anyone who says otherwise has no basis — that any classifiedmaterial ended up in the wrong hands.
I take classified materials very seriously and always have. When Iwas on the Senate Armed Services Committee, I was privy to a lot ofclassified material. Obviously, as secretary of state, I had someof the most important secrets that we possess, such as going afterbin Laden. So I am very committed to taking classified informationseriously. And as I said, there is no evidence that any classifiedinformation ended up in the wrong hands.
RADDATZ: OK, we’re going to move on.
TRUMP: And yet she didn’t know the word — the letter C on adocument. Right? She didn’t even know what that word — what thatletter meant.
You know, it’s amazing. I’m watching Hillary go over facts. Andshe’s going after fact after fact, and she’s lying again, becauseshe said she — you know, what she did with the e-mail was fine. Youthink it was fine to delete 33,000 e-mails? I don’t think so.
She said the 33,000 e-mails had to do with her daughter’s wedding,number one, and a yoga class. Well, maybe we’ll give three or threeor four or five or something. 33,000 e-mails deleted, and now she’ssaying there wasn’t anything wrong.
And more importantly, that was after getting a subpoena. Thatwasn’t before. That was after. She got it from the United StatesCongress. And I’ll be honest, I am so disappointed in congressmen,including Republicans, for allowing this to happen.
Our Justice Department, where our husband goes on to the back of aairplane for 39 minutes, talks to the attorney general days beforea ruling is going to be made on her case. But for you to say thatthere was nothing wrong with you deleting 39,000 e-mails, again,you should be ashamed of yourself. What you did — and this is aftergetting a subpoena from the United States Congress.
COOPER: We have to move on.
TRUMP: You did that. Wait a minute. One second.
COOPER: Secretary Clinton, you can respond, and then we got to moveon.
RADDATZ: We want to give the audience a chance.
TRUMP: If you did that in the private sector, you’d be put in jail,let alone after getting a subpoena from the United StatesCongress.
COOPER: Secretary Clinton, you can respond. Then we have to move onto an audience question.
CLINTON: Look, it’s just not true. And so please, go to…
TRUMP: Oh, you didn’t delete them?
COOPER: Allow her to respond, please.
CLINTON: It was personal e-mails, not official.
TRUMP: Oh, 33,000? Yeah.
CLINTON: Not — well, we turned over 35,000, so…
TRUMP: Oh, yeah. What about the other 15,000?
COOPER: Please allow her to respond. She didn’t talk while youtalked.
CLINTON: Yes, that’s true, I didn’t.
TRUMP: Because you have nothing to say.
CLINTON: I didn’t in the first debate, and I’m going to try not toin this debate, because I’d like to get to the questions that thepeople have brought here tonight to talk to us about.
TRUMP: Get off this question.
CLINTON: OK, Donald. I know you’re into big diversion tonight,anything to avoid talking about your campaign and the way it’sexploding and the way Republicans are leaving you. But let’s atleast focus…
TRUMP: Let’s see what happens…
(CROSSTALK)
COOPER: Allow her to respond.
CLINTON: … on some of the issues that people care about tonight.Let’s get to their questions.
COOPER: We have a question here from Ken Karpowicz. He has aquestion about health care. Ken?
TRUMP: I’d like to know, Anderson, why aren’t you bringing up thee-mails? I’d like to know. Why aren’t you bringing…
COOPER: We brought up the e-mails.
TRUMP: No, it hasn’t. It hasn’t. And it hasn’t been finished atall.
COOPER: Ken Karpowicz has a question.
TRUMP: It’s nice to — one on three.
QUESTION: Thank you. Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare, it isnot affordable. Premiums have gone up. Deductibles have gone up.Copays have gone up. Prescriptions have gone up. And the coveragehas gone down. What will you do to bring the cost down and makecoverage better?
COOPER: That first one goes to Secretary Clinton, because youstarted out the last one to the audience.
CLINTON: If he wants to start, he can start. No, go ahead,Donald.
TRUMP: No, I’m a gentlemen, Hillary. Go ahead.
(LAUGHTER)
COOPER: Secretary Clinton?
CLINTON: Well, I think Donald was about to say he’s going to solveit by repealing it and getting rid of the Affordable Care Act. AndI’m going to fix it, because I agree with you. Premiums have gottentoo high. Copays, deductibles, prescription drug costs, and I’velaid out a series of actions that we can take to try to get thosecosts down.
But here’s what I don’t want people to forget when we’re talkingabout reining in the costs, which has to be the highest priority ofthe next president, when the Affordable Care Act passed, it wasn’tjust that 20 million got insurance who didn’t have it before. Butthat in and of itself was a good thing. I meet these people all thetime, and they tell me what a difference having that insurancemeant to them and their families.
But everybody else, the 170 million of us who get health insurancethrough our employees got big benefits. Number one, insurancecompanies can’t deny you coverage because of a pre-existingcondition. Number two, no lifetime limits, which is a big deal ifyou have serious health problems.
Number three, women can’t be charged more than men for our healthinsurance, which is the way it used to be before the AffordableCare Act. Number four, if you’re under 26, and your parents have apolicy, you can be on that policy until the age of 26, somethingthat didn’t happen before.
So I want very much to save what works and is good about theAffordable Care Act. But we’ve got to get costs down. We’ve got toprovide additional help to small businesses so that they can affordto provide health insurance. But if we repeal it, as Donald hasproposed, and start over again, all of those benefits I justmentioned are lost to everybody, not just people who get theirhealth insurance on the exchange. And then we would have to startall over again.
Right now, we are at 90 percent health insurance coverage. That’sthe highest we’ve ever been in our country. COOPER: SecretaryClinton, your time is up.
CLINTON: So I want us to get to 100 percent, but get costs down andkeep quality up.
COOPER: Mr. Trump, you have two minutes.
TRUMP: It is such a great question and it’s maybe the question Iget almost more than anything else, outside of defense. Obamacareis a disaster. You know it. We all know it. It’s going up atnumbers that nobody’s ever seen worldwide. Nobody’s ever seennumbers like this for health care.
It’s only getting worse. In ’17, it implodes by itself. Theirmethod of fixing it is to go back and ask Congress for more money,more and more money. We have right now almost $20 trillion indebt.
Obamacare will never work. It’s very bad, very bad healthinsurance. Far too expensive. And not only expensive for the personthat has it, unbelievably expensive for our country. It’s going tobe one of the biggest line items very shortly.
We have to repeal it and replace it with something absolutely muchless expensive and something that works, where your plan canactually be tailored. We have to get rid of the lines around thestate, artificial lines, where we stop insurance companies fromcoming in and competing, because they want — and President Obamaand whoever was working on it — they want to leave those lines,because that gives the insurance companies essentially monopolies.We want competition.
You will have the finest health care plan there is. She wants to goto a single-payer plan, which would be a disaster, somewhat similarto Canada. And if you haven’t noticed the Canadians, when they needa big operation, when something happens, they come into the UnitedStates in many cases because their system is so slow. It’scatastrophic in certain ways.
But she wants to go to single payer, which means the governmentbasically rules everything. Hillary Clinton has been after this foryears. Obamacare was the first step. Obamacare is a total disaster.And not only are your rates going up by numbers that nobody’s everbelieved, but your deductibles are going up, so that unless you gethit by a truck, you’re never going to be able to use it.
COOPER: Mr. Trump, your time…
TRUMP: It is a disastrous plan, and it has to be repealed andreplaced.
COOPER: Secretary Clinton, let me follow up with you. Your husbandcalled Obamacare, quote, “the craziest thing in the world,” sayingthat small-business owners are getting killed as premiums double,coverage is cut in half. Was he mistaken or was the mistake simplytelling the truth?
CLINTON: No, I mean, he clarified what he meant. And it’s veryclear. Look, we are in a situation in our country where if we wereto start all over again, we might come up with a different system.But we have an employer-based system. That’s where the vastmajority of people get their health care.
And the Affordable Care Act was meant to try to fill the gapbetween people who were too poor and couldn’t put together anyresources to afford health care, namely people on Medicaid.Obviously, Medicare, which is a single-payer system, which takescare of our elderly and does a great job doing it, by the way, andthen all of the people who were employed, but people who wereworking but didn’t have the money to afford insurance and didn’thave anybody, an employer or anybody else, to help them.
That was the slot that the Obamacare approach was to take. And likeI say, 20 million people now have health insurance. So if we justrip it up and throw it away, what Donald’s not telling you is wejust turn it back to the insurance companies the way it used to be,and that means the insurance companies…
COOPER: Secretary Clinton…
CLINTON: … get to do pretty much whatever they want, includingsaying, look, I’m sorry, you’ve got diabetes, you had cancer, yourchild has asthma…
COOPER: Your time is up.
CLINTON: … you may not be able to have insurance because you can’tafford it. So let’s fix what’s broken about it, but let’s not throwit away and give it all back to the insurance companies and thedrug companies. That’s not going to work.
COOPER: Mr. Trump, let me follow up on this. TRUMP: Well, I justwant — just one thing. First of all, Hillary, everything’s brokenabout it. Everything. Number two, Bernie Sanders said that HillaryClinton has very bad judgment. This is a perfect example of it,trying to save Obamacare, which is a disaster.
COOPER: You’ve said you want to end Obamacare…
TRUMP: By the way…
COOPER: You’ve said you want to end Obamacare. You’ve also said youwant to make coverage accessible for people with pre-existingconditions. How do you force insurance companies to do that ifyou’re no longer mandating that every American get insurance?
TRUMP: We’re going to be able to. You’re going to have plans…
COOPER: What does that mean?
TRUMP: Well, I’ll tell you what it means. You’re going to haveplans that are so good, because we’re going to have so muchcompetition in the insurance industry. Once we break out — once webreak out the lines and allow the competition to come…
COOPER: Are you going — are you going to have a mandate thatAmericans have to have health insurance?
TRUMP: President Obama — Anderson, excuse me. President Obama, bykeeping those lines, the boundary lines around each state, it wasalmost gone until just very toward the end of the passage ofObamacare, which, by the way, was a fraud. You know that, becauseJonathan Gruber, the architect of Obamacare, was said — he said itwas a great lie, it was a big lie. President Obama said you keepyour doctor, you keep your plan. The whole thing was a fraud, andit doesn’t work.
But when we get rid of those lines, you will have competition, andwe will be able to keep pre-existing, we’ll also be able to helppeople that can’t get — don’t have money because we are going tohave people protected.
And Republicans feel this way, believe it or not, and strongly thisway. We’re going to block grant into the states. We’re going toblock grant into Medicaid into the states…
COOPER: Thank you, Mr. Trump.
TRUMP: … so that we will be able to take care of people without thenecessary funds to take care of themselves.
COOPER: Thank you, Mr. Trump.
RADDATZ: We now go to Gorbah Hamed with a question for bothcandidates.
QUESTION: Hi. There are 3.3 million Muslims in the United States,and I’m one of them. You’ve mentioned working with Muslim nations,but with Islamophobia on the rise, how will you help people like medeal with the consequences of being labeled as a threat to thecountry after the election is over?
RADDATZ: Mr. Trump, you’re first.
TRUMP: Well, you’re right about Islamophobia, and that’s a shame.But one thing we have to do is we have to make sure that — becausethere is a problem. I mean, whether we like it or not, and we couldbe very politically correct, but whether we like it or not, thereis a problem. And we have to be sure that Muslims come in andreport when they see something going on. When they see hatred goingon, they have to report it.
As an example, in San Bernardino, many people saw the bombs allover the apartment of the two people that killed 14 and woundedmany, many people. Horribly wounded. They’ll never be the same.Muslims have to report the problems when they see them.
And, you know, there’s always a reason for everything. If theydon’t do that, it’s a very difficult situation for our country,because you look at Orlando and you look at San Bernardino and youlook at the World Trade Center. Go outside. Look at Paris. Look atthat horrible — these are radical Islamic terrorists.
And she won’t even mention the word and nor will President Obama.He won’t use the term “radical Islamic terrorism.” Now, to solve aproblem, you have to be able to state what the problem is or atleast say the name. She won’t say the name and President Obamawon’t say the name. But the name is there. It’s radical Islamicterror. And before you solve it, you have to say the name.
RADDATZ: Secretary Clinton? CLINTON: Well, thank you for askingyour question. And I’ve heard this question from a lot ofMuslim-Americans across our country, because, unfortunately,there’s been a lot of very divisive, dark things said aboutMuslims. And even someone like Captain Khan, the young man whosacrificed himself defending our country in the United States Army,has been subject to attack by Donald.
I want to say just a couple of things. First, we’ve had Muslims inAmerica since George Washington. And we’ve had many successfulMuslims. We just lost a particular well-known one with MuhammadAli.
CLINTON: My vision of America is an America where everyone has aplace, if you’re willing to work hard, you do your part, youcontribute to the community. That’s what America is. That’s what wewant America to be for our children and our grandchildren.
It’s also very short-sighted and even dangerous to be engaging inthe kind of demagogic rhetoric that Donald has about Muslims. Weneed American Muslims to be part of our eyes and ears on our frontlines. I’ve worked with a lot of different Muslim groups aroundAmerica. I’ve met with a lot of them, and I’ve heard how importantit is for them to feel that they are wanted and included and partof our country, part of our homeland security, and that’s what Iwant to see.
It’s also important I intend to defeat ISIS, to do so in acoalition with majority Muslim nations. Right now, a lot of thosenations are hearing what Donald says and wondering, why should wecooperate with the Americans? And this is a gift to ISIS and theterrorists, violent jihadist terrorists.
We are not at war with Islam. And it is a mistake and it plays intothe hands of the terrorists to act as though we are. So I want acountry where citizens like you and your family are just as welcomeas anyone else.
RADDATZ: Thank you, Secretary Clinton.
Mr. Trump, in December, you said this. “Donald J. Trump is callingfor a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the UnitedStates until our country’s representatives can figure out what thehell is going on. We have no choice. We have no choice.” Yourrunning mate said this week that the Muslim ban is no longer yourposition. Is that correct? And if it is, was it a mistake to have areligious test?
TRUMP: First of all, Captain Khan is an American hero, and if Iwere president at that time, he would be alive today, becauseunlike her, who voted for the war without knowing what she wasdoing, I would not have had our people in Iraq. Iraq was disaster.So he would have been alive today.
The Muslim ban is something that in some form has morphed into aextreme vetting from certain areas of the world. Hillary Clintonwants to allow hundreds of thousands — excuse me. Excuse me..
RADDATZ: And why did it morph into that? No, did you — no, answerthe question. Do you still believe… TRUMP: Why don’t you interrupther? You interrupt me all the time.
RADDATZ: I do.
TRUMP: Why don’t you interrupt her?
RADDATZ: Would you please explain whether or not the Muslim banstill stands?
TRUMP: It’s called extreme vetting. We are going to areas likeSyria where they’re coming in by the tens of thousands because ofBarack Obama. And Hillary Clinton wants to allow a 550 percentincrease over Obama. People are coming into our country like wehave no idea who they are, where they are from, what their feelingsabout our country is, and she wants 550 percent more. This is goingto be the great Trojan horse of all time.
We have enough problems in this country. I believe in building safezones. I believe in having other people pay for them, as anexample, the Gulf states, who are not carrying their weight, butthey have nothing but money, and take care of people. But I don’twant to have, with all the problems this country has and all of theproblems that you see going on, hundreds of thousands of peoplecoming in from Syria when we know nothing about them. We knownothing about their values and we know nothing about their love forour country.
RADDATZ: And, Secretary Clinton, let me ask you about that, becauseyou have asked for an increase from 10,000 to 65,000 Syrianrefugees. We know you want tougher vetting. That’s not a perfectsystem. So why take the risk of having those refugees come into thecountry?
CLINTON: Well, first of all, I will not let anyone into our countrythat I think poses a risk to us. But there are a lot of refugees,women and children — think of that picture we all saw of that4-year-old boy with the blood on his forehead because he’d beenbombed by the Russian and Syrian air forces.
There are children suffering in this catastrophic war, largely, Ibelieve, because of Russian aggression. And we need to do our part.We by no means are carrying anywhere near the load that Europe andothers are. But we will have vetting that is as tough as it needsto be from our professionals, our intelligence experts andothers.
But it is important for us as a policy, you know, not to say, asDonald has said, we’re going to ban people based on a religion. Howdo you do that? We are a country founded on religious freedom andliberty. How do we do what he has advocated without causing greatdistress within our own county? Are we going to have religioustests when people fly into our country? And how do we expect to beable to implement those?
So I thought that what he said was extremely unwise and evendangerous. And indeed, you can look at the propaganda on a lot ofthe terrorists sites, and what Donald Trump says about Muslims isused to recruit fighters, because they want to create a war betweenus.
And the final thing I would say, this is the 10th or 12th time thathe’s denied being for the war in Iraq. We have it on tape. Theentire press corps has looked at it. It’s been debunked, but itnever stops him from saying whatever he wants to say.
TRUMP: That’s not been debunked.
CLINTON: So, please…
TRUMP: That has not been debunked.
CLINTON: … go to HillaryClinton.com and you can see it.
TRUMP: I was against — I was against the war in Iraq. Has not beendebunked. And you voted for it. And you shouldn’t have. Well, Ijust want to say…
RADDATZ: There’s been lots of fact-checking on that. I’d like tomove on to an online question…
TRUMP: Excuse me. She just went about 25 seconds over her time.
RADDATZ: She did not.
TRUMP: Could I just respond to this, please?
RADDATZ: Very quickly, please.
TRUMP: Hillary Clinton, in terms of having people come into ourcountry, we have many criminal illegal aliens. When we want to sendthem back to their country, their country says we don’t want them.In some cases, they’re murderers, drug lords, drug problems. Andthey don’t want them.
And Hillary Clinton, when she was secretary of state, said that’sOK, we can’t force it into their country. Let me tell you, I’mgoing to force them right back into their country. They’remurderers and some very bad people.
And I will tell you very strongly, when Bernie Sanders said she hadbad judgment, she has really bad judgment, because we are lettingpeople into this country that are going to cause problems and crimelike you’ve never seen. We’re also letting drugs pour through oursouthern border at a record clip. At a record clip. And itshouldn’t be allowed to happen.
ICE just endorsed me. They’ve never endorsed a presidentialcandidate. The Border Patrol agents, 16,500, just recently endorsedme, and they endorsed me because I understand the border. Shedoesn’t. She wants amnesty for everybody. Come right in. Come rightover. It’s a horrible thing she’s doing. She’s got bad judgment,and honestly, so bad that she should never be president of theUnited States. That I can tell you.
RADDATZ: Thank you, Mr. Trump. I want to move on. This nextquestion from the public through the Bipartisan Open DebateCoalition’s online forum, where Americans submitted questions thatgenerated millions of votes. This question involves WikiLeaksrelease of purported excerpts of Secretary Clinton’s paid speeches,which she has refused to release, and one line in particular, inwhich you, Secretary Clinton, purportedly say you need both apublic and private position on certain issues. So, Tu (ph), fromVirginia asks, is it OK for politicians to be two-faced? Is itacceptable for a politician to have a private stance on issues?Secretary Clinton, your two minutes.
CLINTON: Well, right. As I recall, that was something I said aboutAbraham Lincoln after having seen the wonderful Steven Spielbergmovie called “Lincoln.” It was a master class watching PresidentLincoln get the Congress to approve the 13th Amendment. It wasprincipled, and it was strategic.
And I was making the point that it is hard sometimes to get theCongress to do what you want to do and you have to keep working atit. And, yes, President Lincoln was trying to convince some people,he used some arguments, convincing other people, he used otherarguments. That was a great — I thought a great display ofpresidential leadership.
But, you know, let’s talk about what’s really going on here,Martha, because our intelligence community just came out and saidin the last few days that the Kremlin, meaning Putin and theRussian government, are directing the attacks, the hacking onAmerican accounts to influence our election. And WikiLeaks is partof that, as are other sites where the Russians hack information, wedon’t even know if it’s accurate information, and then they put itout.
We have never in the history of our country been in a situationwhere an adversary, a foreign power, is working so hard toinfluence the outcome of the election. And believe me, they’re notdoing it to get me elected. They’re doing it to try to influencethe election for Donald Trump.
CLINTON: Now, maybe because he has praised Putin, maybe because hesays he agrees with a lot of what Putin wants to do, maybe becausehe wants to do business in Moscow, I don’t know the reasons. But wedeserve answers. And we should demand that Donald release all ofhis tax returns so that people can see what are the entanglementsand the financial relationships that he has…
RADDATZ: We’re going to get to that later. Secretary Clinton,you’re out of time.
CLINTON: … with the Russians and other foreign powers.
RADDATZ: Mr. Trump?
TRUMP: Well, I think I should respond, because — so ridiculous.Look, now she’s blaming — she got caught in a total lie. Her paperswent out to all her friends at the banks, GoldmanSachs and everybody else, and she said things— WikiLeaks that just came out. And she lied. Now she’s blaming thelie on the late, great Abraham Lincoln. That’s one that Ihaven’t…
(LAUGHTER)
OK, Honest Abe, Honest Abe never lied. That’s the good thing.That’s the big difference between Abraham Lincoln and you. That’s abig, big difference. We’re talking about some difference.
But as far as other elements of what she was saying, I don’t knowPutin. I think it would be great if we got along with Russiabecause we could fight ISIS together, as an example. But I don’tknow Putin.
But I notice, anytime anything wrong happens, they like to say theRussians are — she doesn’t know if it’s the Russians doing thehacking. Maybe there is no hacking. But they always blame Russia.And the reason they blame Russia because they think they’re tryingto tarnish me with Russia. I know nothing about Russia. I know — Iknow about Russia, but I know nothing about the inner workings ofRussia. I don’t deal there. I have no businesses there. I have noloans from Russia.
I have a very, very great balance sheet, so great that when I didthe Old Post Office on Pennsylvania Avenue, the United Statesgovernment, because of my balance sheet, which they actually knowvery well, chose me to do the Old Post Office, between the WhiteHouse and Congress, chose me to do the Old Post Office. One of theprimary area things, in fact, perhaps the primary thing was balancesheet. But I have no loans with Russia. You could go to the UnitedStates government, and they would probably tell you that, becausethey know my sheet very well in order to get that development I hadto have.
Now, the taxes are a very simple thing. As soon as I have — firstof all, I pay hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes. Many of herfriends took bigger deductions. Warren Buffett took a massivededuction. Soros, who’s a friend of hers, took a massive deduction.Many of the people that are giving her all this money that she cando many more commercials than me gave her — took massivedeductions.
I pay hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes. But — but as soonas my routine audit is finished, I’ll release my returns. I’ll bevery proud to. They’re actually quite great.
RADDATZ: Thank you, Mr. Trump.
COOPER: We want to turn, actually, to the topic of taxes. We have aquestion from Spencer Maass. Spencer?
QUESTION: Good evening. My question is, what specific taxprovisions will you change to ensure the wealthiest Americans paytheir fair share in taxes?
COOPER: Mr. Trump, you have two minutes.
TRUMP: Well, one thing I’d do is get rid of carried interest. Oneof the greatest provisions for people like me, to be honest withyou, I give up a lot when I run, because I knock out the tax code.And she could have done this years ago, by the way. She’s a UnitedStates — she was a United States senator.
She complains that Donald Trump took advantage of the tax code.Well, why didn’t she change it? Why didn’t you change it when youwere a senator? The reason you didn’t is that all your friends takethe same advantage that I do. And I do. You have provisions in thetax code that, frankly, we could change. But you wouldn’t changeit, because all of these people gave you the money so you can takenegative ads on Donald Trump.
But — and I say that about a lot of things. You know, I’ve heardHillary complaining about so many different things over the years.“I wish you would have done this.” But she’s been there for 30years she’s been doing this stuff. She never changed. And she neverwill change. She never will change.
We’re getting rid of carried interest provisions. I’m loweringtaxes actually, because I think it’s so important for corporations,because we have corporations leaving — massive corporations andlittle ones, little ones can’t form. We’re getting rid ofregulations which goes hand in hand with the lowering of thetaxes.
But we’re bringing the tax rate down from 35 percent to 15 percent.We’re cutting taxes for the middle class. And I will tell you, weare cutting them big league for the middle class.
And I will tell you, Hillary Clinton is raising your taxes, folks.You can look at me. She’s raising your taxes really high. And whatthat’s going to do is a disaster for the country. But she israising your taxes and I’m lowering your taxes. That in itself is abig difference. We are going to be thriving again. We have nogrowth in this country. There’s no growth. If China has a GDP of 7percent, it’s like a national catastrophe. We’re down at 1 percent.And that’s, like, no growth. And we’re going lower, in my opinion.And a lot of it has to do with the fact that our taxes are so high,just about the highest in the world. And I’m bringing them down toone of the lower in the world. And I think it’s so important — oneof the most important things we can do. But she is raisingeverybody’s taxes massively.
COOPER: Secretary Clinton, you have two minutes. The question was,what specific tax provisions will you change to ensure thewealthiest Americans pay their fair share of taxes?
CLINTON: Well, everything you’ve heard just now from Donald is nottrue. I’m sorry I have to keep saying this, but he lives in analternative reality. And it is sort of amusing to hear somebody whohasn’t paid federal income taxes in maybe 20 years talking aboutwhat he’s going to do.
But I’ll tell you what he’s going to do. His plan will give thewealthy and corporations the biggest tax cuts they’ve ever had,more than the Bush tax cuts by at least a factor of two. Donaldalways takes care of Donald and people like Donald, and this wouldbe a massive gift. And, indeed, the way that he talks about his taxcuts would end up raising taxes on middle-class families, millionsof middle-class families.
Now, here’s what I want to do. I have said nobody who makes lessthan $250,000 a year — and that’s the vast majority of Americans asyou know — will have their taxes raised, because I think we’ve gotto go where the money is. And the money is with people who havetaken advantage of every single break in the tax code.
And, yes, when I was a senator, I did vote to close corporateloopholes. I voted to close, I think, one of the loopholes he tookadvantage of when he claimed a billion-dollar loss that enabled himto avoid paying taxes.
I want to have a tax on people who are making a million dollars.It’s called the Buffett rule. Yes, Warren Buffett is the one who’sgone out and said somebody like him should not be paying a lowertax rate than his secretary. I want to have a surcharge on incomesabove $5 million.
We have to make up for lost times, because I want to invest in you.I want to invest in hard-working families. And I think it’s beenunfortunate, but it’s happened, that since the Great Recession, thegains have all gone to the top. And we need to reverse that.
People like Donald, who paid zero in taxes, zero for our vets, zerofor our military, zero for health and education, that is wrong.
COOPER: Thank you, Secretary.
CLINTON: And we’re going to make sure that nobody, no corporation,and no individual can get away without paying his fair share tosupport our country.
COOPER: Thank you. I want to give you — Mr. Trump, I want to giveyou the chance to respond. I just wanted to tell our viewers whatshe’s referring to. In the last month, taxes were the number-oneissue on Facebook for the first time in the campaign. The New YorkTimes published three pages of your 1995 tax returns. They show youclaimed a $916 million loss, which means you could have avoidedpaying personal federal income taxes for years. You’ve said you paystate taxes, employee taxes, real estate taxes, property taxes. Youhave not answered, though, a simple question. Did you use that $916million loss to avoid paying personal federal income taxes foryears?
TRUMP: Of course I do. Of course I do. And so do all of her donors,or most of her donors. I know many of her donors. Her donors tookmassive tax write-offs.
COOPER: So have you (inaudible) personal federal income tax?
TRUMP: A lot of my — excuse me, Anderson — a lot of my write- offwas depreciation and other things that Hillary as a senatorallowed. And she’ll always allow it, because the people that giveher all this money, they want it. That’s why.
See, I understand the tax code better than anybody that’s ever runfor president. Hillary Clinton — and it’s extremely complex —Hillary Clinton has friends that want all of these provisions,including they want the carried interest provision, which is veryimportant to Wall Street people. But they really want the carriedinterest provision, which I believe Hillary’s leaving. Veryinteresting why she’s leaving carried interest.
But I will tell you that, number one, I pay tremendous numbers oftaxes. I absolutely used it. And so did Warren Buffett and so didGeorge Soros and so did many of the other people that Hillary isgetting money from. Now, I won’t mention their names, becausethey’re rich, but they’re not famous. So we won’t make themfamous.
COOPER: So can you — can you say how many years you have avoidedpaying personal federal income taxes?
TRUMP: No, but I pay tax, and I pay federal tax, too. But I have awrite-off, a lot of it’s depreciation, which is a wonderful charge.I love depreciation. You know, she’s given it to us.
Hey, if she had a problem — for 30 years she’s been doing this,Anderson. I say it all the time. She talks about health care. Whydidn’t she do something about it? She talks about taxes. Why didn’tshe do something about it? She doesn’t do anything about anythingother than talk. With her, it’s all talk and no action.
COOPER: In the past…
TRUMP: And, again, Bernie Sanders, it’s really bad judgment. Shehas made bad judgment not only on taxes. She’s made bad judgmentson Libya, on Syria, on Iraq. I mean, her and Obama, whether youlike it or not, the way they got out of Iraq, the vacuum they’veleft, that’s why ISIS formed in the first place. They started fromthat little area, and now they’re in 32 different nations, Hillary.Congratulations. Great job.
COOPER: Secretary — I want you to be able to respond, SecretaryClinton.
CLINTON: Well, here we go again. I’ve been in favor of getting ridof carried interest for years, starting when I was a senator fromNew York. But that’s not the point here.
TRUMP: Why didn’t you do it? Why didn’t you do it?
COOPER: Allow her to respond.
CLINTON: Because I was a senator with a Republican president.
TRUMP: Oh, really?
CLINTON: I will be the president and we will get it done. That’sexactly right.
TRUMP: You could have done it, if you were an effective — if youwere an effective senator, you could have done it. If you were aneffective senator, you could have done it. But you were not aneffective senator.
COOPER: Please allow her to respond. She didn’t interrupt you.
CLINTON: You know, under our Constitution, presidents havesomething called veto power. Look, he has now said repeatedly, “30years this and 30 years that.” So let me talk about my 30 years inpublic service. I’m very glad to do so.
Eight million kids every year have health insurance, because when Iwas first lady I worked with Democrats and Republicans to createthe Children’s Health Insurance Program. Hundreds of thousands ofkids now have a chance to be adopted because I worked to change ouradoption and foster care system. After 9/11, I went to work withRepublican mayor, governor and president to rebuild New York and toget health care for our first responders who were suffering becausethey had run toward danger and gotten sickened by it. Hundreds ofthousands of National Guard and Reserve members have health carebecause of work that I did, and children have safer medicinesbecause I was able to pass a law that required the dosing to bemore carefully done.
When I was secretary of state, I went around the world advocatingfor our country, but also advocating for women’s rights, to makesure that women had a decent chance to have a better life andnegotiated a treaty with Russia to lower nuclear weapons. Fourhundred pieces of legislation have my name on it as a sponsor orcosponsor when I was a senator for eight years.
I worked very hard and was very proud to be re-elected in New Yorkby an even bigger margin than I had been elected the first time.And as president, I will take that work, that bipartisan work, thatfinding common ground, because you have to be able to get alongwith people to get things done in Washington.
COOPER: Thank you, secretary.
CLINTON: I’ve proven that I can, and for 30 years, I’ve producedresults for people.
COOPER: Thank you, secretary.
RADDATZ: We’re going to move on to Syria. Both of you havementioned that.
TRUMP: She said a lot of things that were false. I mean, I think weshould be allowed to maybe…
RADDATZ: No, we can — no, Mr. Trump, we’re going to go on. This isabout the audience.
TRUMP: Excuse me. Because she has been a disaster as a senator. Adisaster.
RADDATZ: Mr. Trump, we’re going to move on. The heart-breakingvideo of a 5-year-old Syrian boy named Omran sitting in anambulance after being pulled from the rubble after an air strike inAleppo focused the world’s attention on the horrors of the war inSyria, with 136 million views on Facebook alone.
But there are much worse images coming out of Aleppo every day now,where in the past few weeks alone, 400 people have been killed, atleast 100 of them children. Just days ago, the State Departmentcalled for a war crimes investigation of the Syrian regime ofBashar al-Assad and its ally, Russia, for their bombardment ofAleppo.
So this next question comes through social media through Facebook.Diane from Pennsylvania asks, if you were president, what would youdo about Syria and the humanitarian crisis in Aleppo? Isn’t it alot like the Holocaust when the U.S. waited too long before wehelped? Secretary Clinton, we will begin with your two minutes.
CLINTON: Well, the situation in Syria is catastrophic. And everyday that goes by, we see the results of the regime by Assad inpartnership with the Iranians on the ground, the Russians in theair, bombarding places, in particular Aleppo, where there arehundreds of thousands of people, probably about 250,000 still left.And there is a determined effort by the Russian air force todestroy Aleppo in order to eliminate the last of the Syrian rebelswho are really holding out against the Assad regime.
Russia hasn’t paid any attention to ISIS. They’re interested inkeeping Assad in power. So I, when I was secretary of state,advocated and I advocate today a no-fly zone and safe zones. Weneed some leverage with the Russians, because they are not going tocome to the negotiating table for a diplomatic resolution, unlessthere is some leverage over them. And we have to work more closelywith our partners and allies on the ground.
But I want to emphasize that what is at stake here is the ambitionsand the aggressiveness of Russia. Russia has decided that it’s allin, in Syria. And they’ve also decided who they want to see becomepresident of the United States, too, and it’s not me. I’ve stood upto Russia. I’ve taken on Putin and others, and I would do that aspresident.
I think wherever we can cooperate with Russia, that’s fine. And Idid as secretary of state. That’s how we got a treaty reducingnuclear weapons. It’s how we got the sanctions on Iran that put alid on the Iranian nuclear program without firing a single shot. SoI would go to the negotiating table with more leverage than we havenow. But I do support the effort to investigate for crimes, warcrimes committed by the Syrians and the Russians and try to holdthem accountable.
RADDATZ: Thank you, Secretary Clinton. Mr. Trump?
TRUMP: First of all, she was there as secretary of state with theso-called line in the sand, which…
CLINTON: No, I wasn’t. I was gone. I hate to interrupt you, but atsome point…
TRUMP: OK. But you were in contact — excuse me. You were…
CLINTON: At some point, we need to do some fact-checking here.
TRUMP: You were in total contact with the White House, and perhaps,sadly, Obama probably still listened to you. I don’t think he wouldbe listening to you very much anymore.
Obama draws the line in the sand. It was laughed at all over theworld what happened.
Now, with that being said, she talks tough against Russia. But ournuclear program has fallen way behind, and they’ve gone wild withtheir nuclear program. Not good. Our government shouldn’t haveallowed that to happen. Russia is new in terms of nuclear. We areold. We’re tired. We’re exhausted in terms of nuclear. A very badthing.
Now, she talks tough, she talks really tough against Putin andagainst Assad. She talks in favor of the rebels. She doesn’t evenknow who the rebels are. You know, every time we take rebels,whether it’s in Iraq or anywhere else, we’re arming people. And youknow what happens? They end up being worse than the people.
Look at what she did in Libya with Gadhafi. Gadhafi’s out. It’s amess. And, by the way, ISIS has a good chunk of their oil. I’m sureyou probably have heard that. It was a disaster. Because the factis, almost everything she’s done in foreign policy has been amistake and it’s been a disaster.
But if you look at Russia, just take a look at Russia, and look atwhat they did this week, where I agree, she wasn’t there, butpossibly she’s consulted. We sign a peace treaty. Everyone’s allexcited. Well, what Russia did with Assad and, by the way, withIran, who you made very powerful with the dumbest deal perhaps I’veever seen in the history of deal-making, the Iran deal, with the$150 billion, with the $1.7 billion in cash, which is enough tofill up this room.
But look at that deal. Iran now and Russia are now against us. Soshe wants to fight. She wants to fight for rebels. There’s only oneproblem. You don’t even know who the rebels are. So what’s thepurpose?
RADDATZ: Mr. Trump, Mr. Trump, your two minutes is up.
TRUMP: And one thing I have to say.
RADDATZ: Your two minutes is up.
TRUMP: I don’t like Assad at all, but Assad is killing ISIS. Russiais killing ISIS. And Iran is killing ISIS. And those three have nowlined up because of our weak foreign policy.
RADDATZ: Mr. Trump, let me repeat the question. If you werepresident…
(LAUGHTER)
… what would you do about Syria and the humanitarian crisis inAleppo? And I want to remind you what your running mate said. Hesaid provocations by Russia need to be met with American strengthand that if Russia continues to be involved in air strikes alongwith the Syrian government forces of Assad, the United States ofAmerica should be prepared to use military force to strike themilitary targets of the Assad regime.
TRUMP: OK. He and I haven’t spoken, and I disagree. I disagree.
RADDATZ: You disagree with your running mate?
TRUMP: I think you have to knock out ISIS. Right now, Syria isfighting ISIS. We have people that want to fight both at the sametime. But Syria is no longer Syria. Syria is Russia and it’s Iran,who she made strong and Kerry and Obama made into a very powerfulnation and a very rich nation, very, very quickly, very, veryquickly.
I believe we have to get ISIS. We have to worry about ISIS beforewe can get too much more involved. She had a chance to do somethingwith Syria. They had a chance. And that was the line. And shedidn’t.
RADDATZ: What do you think will happen if Aleppo falls?
TRUMP: I think Aleppo is a disaster, humanitarian-wise.
RADDATZ: What do you think will happen if it falls?
TRUMP: I think that it basically has fallen. OK? It basically hasfallen. Let me tell you something. You take a look at Mosul. Thebiggest problem I have with the stupidity of our foreign policy, wehave Mosul. They think a lot of the ISIS leaders are in Mosul. Sowe have announcements coming out of Washington and coming out ofIraq, we will be attacking Mosul in three weeks or four weeks.
Well, all of these bad leaders from ISIS are leaving Mosul. Whycan’t they do it quietly? Why can’t they do the attack, make it asneak attack, and after the attack is made, inform the Americanpublic that we’ve knocked out the leaders, we’ve had a tremendoussuccess? People leave. Why do they have to say we’re going to beattacking Mosul within the next four to six weeks, which is whatthey’re saying? How stupid is our country? RADDATZ: There aresometimes reasons the military does that. Psychologicalwarfare.
TRUMP: I can’t think of any. I can’t think of any. And I’m prettygood at it.
RADDATZ: It might be to help get civilians out.
TRUMP: And we have General Flynn. And we have — look, I have 200generals and admirals who endorsed me. I have 21 CongressionalMedal of Honor recipients who endorsed me. We talk about it all thetime. They understand, why can’t they do something secretively,where they go in and they knock out the leadership? How — why wouldthese people stay there? I’ve been reading now…
RADDATZ: Tell me what your strategy is.
TRUMP: … for weeks — I’ve been reading now for weeks about Mosul,that it’s the harbor of where — you know, between Raqqa and Mosul,this is where they think the ISIS leaders are. Why would they besaying — they’re not staying there anymore. They’re gone. Becauseeverybody’s talking about how Iraq, which is us with ourleadership, goes in to fight Mosul.
Now, with these 200 admirals and generals, they can’t believe it.All I say is this. General George Patton, General Douglas MacArthurare spinning in their grave at the stupidity of what we’re doing inthe Middle East.
RADDATZ: I’m going to go to Secretary Clinton. Secretary Clinton,you want Assad to go. You advocated arming rebels, but it lookslike that may be too late for Aleppo. You talk about diplomaticefforts. Those have failed. Cease-fires have failed. Would youintroduce the threat of U.S. military force beyond a no-fly zoneagainst the Assad regime to back up diplomacy?
CLINTON: I would not use American ground forces in Syria. I thinkthat would be a very serious mistake. I don’t think American troopsshould be holding territory, which is what they would have to do asan occupying force. I don’t think that is a smart strategy.
I do think the use of special forces, which we’re using, the use ofenablers and trainers in Iraq, which has had some positive effects,are very much in our interests, and so I do support what ishappening, but let me just…
RADDATZ: But what would you do differently than President Obama isdoing?
CLINTON: Well, Martha, I hope that by the time I — if I’mfortunate…
TRUMP: Everything.
CLINTON: I hope by the time I am president that we will have pushedISIS out of Iraq. I do think that there is a good chance that wecan take Mosul. And, you know, Donald says he knows more about ISISthan the generals. No, he doesn’t.
There are a lot of very important planning going on, and some of itis to signal to the Sunnis in the area, as well as KurdishPeshmerga fighters, that we all need to be in this. And that takesa lot of planning and preparation.
I would go after Baghdadi. I would specifically target Baghdadi,because I think our targeting of Al Qaida leaders — and I wasinvolved in a lot of those operations, highly classified ones —made a difference. So I think that could help.
I would also consider arming the Kurds. The Kurds have been ourbest partners in Syria, as well as Iraq. And I know there’s a lotof concern about that in some circles, but I think they should havethe equipment they need so that Kurdish and Arab fighters on theground are the principal way that we take Raqqa after pushing ISISout of Iraq.
RADDATZ: Thank you very much. We’re going to move on…
TRUMP: You know what’s funny? She went over a minute over, and youdon’t stop her. When I go one second over, it’s like a bigdeal.
RADDATZ: You had many answers.
TRUMP: It’s really — it’s really very interesting.
COOPER: We’ve got a question over here from James Carter. Mr.Carter?
QUESTION: My question is, do you believe you can be a devotedpresident to all the people in the United States?
COOPER: That question begins for Mr. Trump.
TRUMP: Absolutely. I mean, she calls our people deplorable, a largegroup, and irredeemable. I will be a president for all of ourpeople. And I’ll be a president that will turn our inner citiesaround and will give strength to people and will give economics topeople and will bring jobs back.
Because NAFTA, signed by her husband, is perhaps the greatestdisaster trade deal in the history of the world. Not in thiscountry. It stripped us of manufacturing jobs. We lost our jobs. Welost our money. We lost our plants. It is a disaster. And now shewants to sign TPP, even though she says now she’s for it. Shecalled it the gold standard. And by the way, at the last debate,she lied, because it turned out that she did say the gold standardand she said she didn’t say it. They actually said that she lied.OK? And she lied. But she’s lied about a lot of things.
TRUMP: I would be a president for all of the people, African-Americans, the inner cities. Devastating what’s happening to ourinner cities. She’s been talking about it for years. As usual, shetalks about it, nothing happens. She doesn’t get it done.
Same with the Latino Americans, the Hispanic Americans. The sameexact thing. They talk, they don’t get it done. You go into theinner cities and — you see it’s 45 percent poverty. African-Americans now 45 percent poverty in the inner cities. The educationis a disaster. Jobs are essentially nonexistent.
I mean, it’s — you know, and I’ve been saying at big speeches whereI have 20,000 and 30,000 people, what do you have to lose? It can’tget any worse. And she’s been talking about the inner cities for 25years. Nothing’s going to ever happen.
Let me tell you, if she’s president of the United States, nothing’sgoing to happen. It’s just going to be talk. And all of herfriends, the taxes we were talking about, and I would just get itby osmosis. She’s not doing any me favors. But by doing all theothers’ favors, she’s doing me favors.
COOPER: Mr. Trump, thank you.
TRUMP: But I will tell you, she’s all talk. It doesn’t get done.All you have to do is take a look at her Senate run. Take a look atupstate New York.
COOPER: Your two minutes is up. Secretary Clinton, two minutes?
TRUMP: It turned out to be a disaster.
COOPER: You have two minutes, Secretary Clinton.
CLINTON: Well, 67 percent of the people voted to re-elect me when Iran for my second term, and I was very proud and very humbled bythat.
Mr. Carter, I have tried my entire life to do what I can to supportchildren and families. You know, right out of law school, I went towork for the Children’s Defense Fund. And Donald talks a lot about,you know, the 30 years I’ve been in public service. I’m proud ofthat. You know, I started off as a young lawyer working againstdiscrimination against African-American children in schools and inthe criminal justice system. I worked to make sure that kids withdisabilities could get a public education, something that I carevery much about. I have worked with Latinos — one of my first jobsin politics was down in south Texas registering Latino citizens tobe able to vote. So I have a deep devotion, to use your absolutelycorrect word, to making sure that an every American feels like heor she has a place in our country.
And I think when you look at the letters that I get, a lot ofpeople are worried that maybe they wouldn’t have a place in DonaldTrump’s America. They write me, and one woman wrote me about herson, Felix. She adopted him from Ethiopia when he was a toddler.He’s 10 years old now. This is the only one country he’s everknown. And he listens to Donald on TV and he said to his mother oneday, will he send me back to Ethiopia if he gets elected?
You know, children listen to what is being said. To go back to thevery, very first question. And there’s a lot of fear — in fact,teachers and parents are calling it the Trump effect. Bullying isup. A lot of people are feeling, you know, uneasy. A lot of kidsare expressing their concerns.
So, first and foremost, I will do everything I can to reach out toeverybody.
COOPER: Your time, Secretary Clinton.
CLINTON: Democrats, Republicans, independents, people across ourcountry. If you don’t vote for me, I still want to be yourpresident.
COOPER: Your two minutes is up.
CLINTON: I want to be the best president I can be for everyAmerican.
COOPER: Secretary Clinton, your two minutes is up. I want to followup on something that Donald Trump actually said to you, a commentyou made last month. You said that half of Donald Trump’ssupporters are, quote, “deplorables, racist, sexist, homophobic,xenophobic, Islamophobic.” You later said you regretted sayinghalf. You didn’t express regret for using the term “deplorables.”To Mr. Carter’s question, how can you unite a country if you’vewritten off tens of millions of Americans?
CLINTON: Well, within hours I said that I was sorry about the way Italked about that, because my argument is not with his supporters.It’s with him and with the hateful and divisive campaign that hehas run, and the inciting of violence at his rallies, and the verybrutal kinds of comments about not just women, but all Americans,all kinds of Americans.
And what he has said about African-Americans and Latinos, aboutMuslims, about POWs, about immigrants, about people withdisabilities, he’s never apologized for. And so I do think that alot of the tone and tenor that he has said — I’m proud of thecampaign that Bernie Sanders and I ran. We ran a campaign based onissues, not insults. And he is supporting me 100 percent.
COOPER: Thank you.
CLINTON: Because we talked about what we wanted to do. We mighthave had some differences, and we had a lot of debates…
COOPER: Thank you, Secretary.
TRUMP: … but we believed that we could make the country better. AndI was proud of that.
COOPER: I want to give you a minute to respond.
TRUMP: We have a divided nation. We have a very divided nation. Youlook at Charlotte. You look at Baltimore. You look at the violencethat’s taking place in the inner cities, Chicago, you take a lookat Washington, D.C.
We have an increase in murder within our cities, the biggest in 45years. We have a divided nation, because people like her — andbelieve me, she has tremendous hate in her heart. And when she saiddeplorables, she meant it. And when she said irredeemable, they’reirredeemable, you didn’t mention that, but when she said they’reirredeemable, to me that might have been even worse.
COOPER: She said some of them are irredeemable.
TRUMP: She’s got tremendous — she’s got tremendous hatred. And thiscountry cannot take another four years of Barack Obama, and that’swhat you’re getting with her.
COOPER: Mr. Trump, let me follow up with you. In 2008, you wrote inone of your books that the most important characteristic of a goodleader is discipline. You said, if a leader doesn’t have it, quote,“he or she won’t be one for very long.” In the days after the firstdebate, you sent out a series of tweets from 3 a.m. to 5 a.m.,including one that told people to check out a sex tape. Is that thediscipline of a good leader?
TRUMP: No, there wasn’t check out a sex tape. It was just take alook at the person that she built up to be this wonderful GirlScout who was no Girl Scout.
COOPER: You mentioned sex tape.
TRUMP: By the way, just so you understand, when she said 3 o’clockin the morning, take a look at Benghazi. She said who is going toanswer the call at 3 o’clock in the morning? Guess what? She didn’tanswer it, because when Ambassador Stevens…
COOPER: The question is, is that the discipline of a goodleader?
TRUMP: … 600 — wait a minute, Anderson, 600 times. Well, she saidshe was awake at 3 o’clock in the morning, and she also sent atweet out at 3 o’clock in the morning, but I won’t even mentionthat. But she said she’ll be awake. Who’s going — the famous thing,we’re going to answer our call at 3 o’clock in the morning. Guesswhat happened? Ambassador Stevens — Ambassador Stevens sent 600requests for help. And the only one she talked to was SidneyBlumenthal, who’s her friend and not a good guy, by the way. So,you know, she shouldn’t be talking about that.
Now, tweeting happens to be a modern day form of communication. Imean, you can like it or not like it. I have, between Facebook andTwitter, I have almost 25 million people. It’s a very effective wayof communication. So you can put it down, but it is a veryeffective form of communication. I’m not un-proud of it, to behonest with you.
COOPER: Secretary Clinton, does Mr. Trump have the discipline to bea good leader?
CLINTON: No.
TRUMP: I’m shocked to hear that.
(LAUGHTER)
CLINTON: Well, it’s not only my opinion. It’s the opinion of manyothers, national security experts, Republicans, former Republicanmembers of Congress. But it’s in part because those of us who havehad the great privilege of seeing this job up close and know howdifficult it is, and it’s not just because I watched my husbandtake a $300 billion deficit and turn it into a $200 billionsurplus, and 23 million new jobs were created, and incomes went upfor everybody. Everybody. African-American incomes went up 33percent.
And it’s not just because I worked with George W. Bush after 9/11,and I was very proud that when I told him what the city needed,what we needed to recover, he said you’ve got it, and he neverwavered. He stuck with me.
And I have worked and I admire President Obama. He inherited theworst financial crisis since the Great Depression. That was aterrible time for our country.
COOPER: We have to move along.
CLINTON: Nine million people lost their jobs.
RADDATZ: Secretary Clinton, we have to…
CLINTON: Five million homes were lost.
RADDATZ: Secretary Clinton, we’re moving.
CLINTON: And $13 trillion in family wealth was wiped out. We areback on the right track. He would send us back into recession withhis tax plans that benefit the wealthiest of Americans.
RADDATZ: Secretary Clinton, we are moving to an audience question.We’re almost out of time. We have another… TRUMP: We have theslowest growth since 1929.
RADDATZ: We’re moving to an audience question.
TRUMP: It is — our country has the slowest growth and jobs are adisaster.
RADDATZ: Mr. Trump, Secretary Clinton, we want to get to theaudience. Thank you very much both of you.
(LAUGHTER)
We have another audience question. Beth Miller has a question forboth candidates.
QUESTION: Good evening. Perhaps the most important aspect of thiselection is the Supreme Court justice. What would you prioritize asthe most important aspect of selecting a Supreme Court justice?
RADDATZ: We begin with your two minutes, Secretary Clinton.
CLINTON: Thank you. Well, you’re right. This is one of the mostimportant issues in this election. I want to appoint Supreme Courtjustices who understand the way the world really works, who havereal-life experience, who have not just been in a big law firm andmaybe clerked for a judge and then gotten on the bench, but, youknow, maybe they tried some more cases, they actually understandwhat people are up against.
Because I think the current court has gone in the wrong direction.And so I would want to see the Supreme Court reverse CitizensUnited and get dark, unaccountable money out of our politics.Donald doesn’t agree with that.
I would like the Supreme Court to understand that voting rights arestill a big problem in many parts of our country, that we don’talways do everything we can to make it possible for people of colorand older people and young people to be able to exercise theirfranchise. I want a Supreme Court that will stick with Roe v. Wadeand a woman’s right to choose, and I want a Supreme Court that willstick with marriage equality.
Now, Donald has put forth the names of some people that he wouldconsider. And among the ones that he has suggested are people whowould reverse Roe v. Wade and reverse marriage equality. I thinkthat would be a terrible mistake and would take us backwards.
I want a Supreme Court that doesn’t always side with corporateinterests. I want a Supreme Court that understands because you’rewealthy and you can give more money to something doesn’t mean youhave any more rights or should have any more rights than anybodyelse.
So I have very clear views about what I want to see to kind ofchange the balance on the Supreme Court. And I regret deeply thatthe Senate has not done its job and they have not permitted a voteon the person that President Obama, a highly qualified person,they’ve not given him a vote to be able to be have the fullcomplement of nine Supreme Court justices. I think that was adereliction of duty.
I hope that they will see their way to doing it, but if I am sofortunate enough as to be president, I will immediately move tomake sure that we fill that, we have nine justices that get to workon behalf of our people.
RADDATZ: Thank you, Secretary Clinton. Thank you. You’re out oftime. Mr. Trump?
TRUMP: Justice Scalia, great judge, died recently. And we have avacancy. I am looking to appoint judges very much in the mold ofJustice Scalia. I’m looking for judges — and I’ve actually picked20 of them so that people would see, highly respected, highlythought of, and actually very beautifully reviewed by just abouteverybody.
But people that will respect the Constitution of the United States.And I think that this is so important. Also, the Second Amendment,which is totally under siege by people like Hillary Clinton.They’ll respect the Second Amendment and what it stands for, whatit represents. So important to me.
Now, Hillary mentioned something about contributions just so youunderstand. So I will have in my race more than $100 million put in— of my money, meaning I’m not taking all of this big money fromall of these different corporations like she’s doing. What I ask isthis.
So I’m putting in more than — by the time it’s finished, I’ll havemore than $100 million invested. Pretty much self-funding money.We’re raising money for the Republican Party, and we’re doingtremendously on the small donations, $61 average or so.
I ask Hillary, why doesn’t — she made $250 million by being inoffice. She used the power of her office to make a lot of money.Why isn’t she funding, not for $100 million, but why don’t you put$10 million or $20 million or $25 million or $30 million into yourown campaign?
It’s $30 million less for special interests that will tell youexactly what to do and it would really, I think, be a nice sign tothe American public. Why aren’t you putting some money in? You havea lot of it. You’ve made a lot of it because of the fact thatyou’ve been in office. Made a lot of it while you were secretary ofstate, actually. So why aren’t you putting money into your owncampaign? I’m just curious.
CLINTON: Well…
(CROSSTALK)
RADDATZ: Thank you very much. We’re going to get on to one morequestion.
CLINTON: The question was about the Supreme Court. And I just wantto quickly say, I respect the Second Amendment. But I believe thereshould be comprehensive background checks, and we should close thegun show loophole, and close the online loophole. COOPER: Thankyou.
RADDATZ: We have — we have one more question, Mrs. Clinton.
CLINTON: We have to save as many lives as we possibly can.
COOPER: We have one more question from Ken Bone about energypolicy. Ken?
QUESTION: What steps will your energy policy take to meet ourenergy needs, while at the same time remaining environmentallyfriendly and minimizing job loss for fossil power plantworkers?
COOPER: Mr. Trump, two minutes?
TRUMP: Absolutely. I think it’s such a great question, becauseenergy is under siege by the Obama administration. Under absolutelysiege. The EPA, Environmental Protection Agency, is killing theseenergy companies. And foreign companies are now coming in buyingour — buying so many of our different plants and then re-jiggeringthe plant so that they can take care of their oil.
We are killing — absolutely killing our energy business in thiscountry. Now, I’m all for alternative forms of energy, includingwind, including solar, et cetera. But we need much more than windand solar.
And you look at our miners. Hillary Clinton wants to put all theminers out of business. There is a thing called clean coal. Coalwill last for 1,000 years in this country. Now we have natural gasand so many other things because of technology. We haveunbelievable — we have found over the last seven years, we havefound tremendous wealth right under our feet. So good. Especiallywhen you have $20 trillion in debt.
I will bring our energy companies back. They’ll be able to compete.They’ll make money. They’ll pay off our national debt. They’ll payoff our tremendous budget deficits, which are tremendous. But weare putting our energy companies out of business. We have to bringback our workers.
You take a look at what’s happening to steel and the cost of steeland China dumping vast amounts of steel all over the United States,which essentially is killing our steelworkers and our steelcompanies. We have to guard our energy companies. We have to makeit possible.
The EPA is so restrictive that they are putting our energycompanies out of business. And all you have to do is go to a greatplace like West Virginia or places like Ohio, which is phenomenal,or places like Pennsylvania and you see what they’re doing to thepeople, miners and others in the energy business. It’s adisgrace.
COOPER: Your time is up. Thank you.
TRUMP: It’s an absolute disgrace. COOPER: Secretary Clinton, twominutes.
CLINTON: And actually — well, that was very interesting. First ofall, China is illegally dumping steel in the United States andDonald Trump is buying it to build his buildings, puttingsteelworkers and American steel plants out of business. That’ssomething that I fought against as a senator and that I would havea trade prosecutor to make sure that we don’t get taken advantageof by China on steel or anything else.
You know, because it sounds like you’re in the business or you’reaware of people in the business — you know that we are now for thefirst time ever energy-independent. We are not dependent upon theMiddle East. But the Middle East still controls a lot of theprices. So the price of oil has been way down. And that has had adamaging effect on a lot of the oil companies, right? We are,however, producing a lot of natural gas, which serves as a bridgeto more renewable fuels. And I think that’s an importanttransition.
We’ve got to remain energy-independent. It gives us much more powerand freedom than to be worried about what goes on in the MiddleEast. We have enough worries over there without having to worryabout that.
So I have a comprehensive energy policy, but it really does includefighting climate change, because I think that is a serious problem.And I support moving toward more clean, renewable energy as quicklyas we can, because I think we can be the 21st century clean energysuperpower and create millions of new jobs and businesses.
But I also want to be sure that we don’t leave people behind.That’s why I’m the only candidate from the very beginning of thiscampaign who had a plan to help us revitalize coal country, becausethose coal miners and their fathers and their grandfathers, theydug that coal out. A lot of them lost their lives. They wereinjured, but they turned the lights on and they powered theirfactories. I don’t want to walk away from them. So we’ve got to dosomething for them.
COOPER: Secretary Clinton…
CLINTON: But the price of coal is down worldwide. So we have tolook at this comprehensively.
COOPER: Your time is up.
CLINTON: And that’s exactly what I have proposed. I hope you willgo to HillaryClinton.com and look at my entire policy.
COOPER: Time is up. We have time for one more…
RADDATZ: We have…
COOPER: One more audience question.
RADDATZ: We’ve sneaked in one more question, and it comes from KarlBecker.
QUESTION: Good evening. My question to both of you is, regardlessof the current rhetoric, would either of you name one positivething that you respect in one another?
(APPLAUSE)
RADDATZ: Mr. Trump, would you like to go first?
CLINTON: Well, I certainly will, because I think that’s a very fairand important question. Look, I respect his children. His childrenare incredibly able and devoted, and I think that says a lot aboutDonald. I don’t agree with nearly anything else he says or does,but I do respect that. And I think that is something that as amother and a grandmother is very important to me.
So I believe that this election has become in part so — soconflict-oriented, so intense because there’s a lot at stake. Thisis not an ordinary time, and this is not an ordinary election. Weare going to be choosing a president who will set policy for notjust four or eight years, but because of some of the importantdecisions we have to make here at home and around the world, fromthe Supreme Court to energy and so much else, and so there is a lotat stake. It’s one of the most consequential elections that we’vehad.
And that’s why I’ve tried to put forth specific policies and plans,trying to get it off of the personal and put it on to what it is Iwant to do as president. And that’s why I hope people will check onthat for themselves so that they can see that, yes, I’ve spent 30years, actually maybe a little more, working to help kids andfamilies. And I want to take all that experience to the White Houseand do that every single day.
RADDATZ: Mr. Trump?
TRUMP: Well, I consider her statement about my children to be avery nice compliment. I don’t know if it was meant to be acompliment, but it is a great — I’m very proud of my children. Andthey’ve done a wonderful job, and they’ve been wonderful, wonderfulkids. So I consider that a compliment.
I will say this about Hillary. She doesn’t quit. She doesn’t giveup. I respect that. I tell it like it is. She’s a fighter. Idisagree with much of what she’s fighting for. I do disagree withher judgment in many cases. But she does fight hard, and shedoesn’t quit, and she doesn’t give up. And I consider that to be avery good trait.
RADDATZ: Thanks to both of you.
COOPER: We want to thank both the candidates. We want to thank theuniversity here. This concludes the town hall meeting. Our thanksto the candidates, the commission, Washington University, and toeverybody who watched.
RADDATZ: Please tune in on October 19th for the final presidentialdebate that will take place at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.Good night, everyone.
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