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Trump at Signing Ceremony for S.153, The Supporting Veterans in STEM Careers Act
Complete with an anecdote about someone crying -- Bloomberg.
REMARKS
Remarks by President Trump at Signing Ceremony for S.153, The Supporting Veterans in STEM Careers Act
VETERANS
Issued on: February 12, 2020
Oval Office
February 11, 2020
4:13 P.M. EST
THE PRESIDENT: Okay. Thank you very much. We are today signing the Supporting Veterans in STEM Careers Act. It’s a big deal and the people behind me have been so involved — our senators, our congressmen. We’re missing a few great senators because we’re approving, I think, five judges today. And Marco Rubio was very much involved in this process and helped everybody very much and so I want to thank him.
{snip}
Q Mr. President, do you know who “anonymous” is?
THE PRESIDENT: I don’t want to say, but you’d be surprised. You would be surprised, but I don’t want to say.
Q Then can you talk a little bit more about some of the recent departures from the White House, including the Vindman twins and —
THE PRESIDENT: No, well —
Q — and pending departures?
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah, I obviously wasn’t happy with the job he did. First of all, he reported a false call. That wasn’t what was said on the call. What was said on the call was totally appropriate. And I call it a “perfect call.” I always will call it a “perfect call.” And it wasn’t one call; it was two calls. There were two perfect calls. There was no setup. There was no anything. And he reported it totally differently.
And then they all went wild when I said that we have transcripts of the calls. And they turned out to be totally accurate transcripts. And if anybody felt there was any changes, we let them make it because it didn’t matter. So we had accurate — totally accurate transcripts. And it turned out that what he reported was very different.
And also, when you look at Vindman’s — the person he reports to — said horrible things: avoided the chain of command, leaked, did a lot of bad things. And so we sent him on his way to a much different location and the military can handle him any way they want. General Milley has him now. I congratulate General Milley. He can have him, but — and his brother also.
So we’ll — we’ll find out what happened. I mean, we’ll find out. But he reported very inaccurate things. You understand that, John. When you look at his report and then when you look at what, actually, the exact the words – fortunately, I had the words, because otherwise we would have had a lot of people lying. And we were able to do it. So fortunately, we had transcripts of those calls.
I think you guys all agree with that. Right?
PARTICIPANT: Yes, it was.
THE PRESIDENT: Wasn’t it nice? After they said these horrible things and made up these horrible, horrible lies about what was said in the call — and then I said, “Here is the call.” I had a transcript. If I didn’t have a transcript, it would’ve been my word against their word.
But there were other people on that call. There were many people on that call — Mike Pompeo. And I know that. When I speak to the head of state of countries, presidents, prime ministers, etcetera — there are always a lot of people on those calls, especially form the other countries, I imagine. I don’t know that for a fact, but I know for a fact that we have a lot of people on those calls.
Who would say something wrong? I wouldn’t say it wrong anyway, but who would say it wrong when you have — when a call is loaded up with, you know, sometimes as many as 25 people, sometimes as many as 3 or 4 or 2. But there’s always people on those calls. I fully know that. But that was a perfect call, and it wasn’t reported the way it was reported — like, “oh it was so terrible.” That was a very nice call. That was a very friendly call.
A couple of things: The President, as you know, of Ukraine stated very strongly that there was no pressure, there was no anything, there was nothing wrong. And it was really a very sad state of affairs that our country wasted that much time on nothing — on nothing. And I want to thank our three senators that are here for agreeing with me.
I mean, you had one grandstander. He’s always been a grandstander.
Q Are there more departures to come?
THE PRESIDENT: Oh, sure. Oh, sure. Absolutely.
Q Mr. President, when you say that —
THE PRESIDENT: There always are.
Q When you — when you say that the military can deal with Vindman any way that they want, are you sugg- —
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah, no, well, that’s up to them.
Q Are you suggesting he should face —
THE PRESIDENT: He is now — he’s — he’s over with the military.
Q Do you think he needs to face disciplinary action?
THE PRESIDENT: That’s going to be up to the military. We’ll have to see. But if you look at what happened, I mean, they’re going to certainly, I would imagine, take a look at that. But, no, I think what he did was just reported a false call.
If you look at what he said, and then — and I’ll tell you, the one worse was — you look at Shifty Schiff. Take a look at what he did. He made up my conversation. And then we dropped the transcript, and he almost had a heart attack.
Didn’t he say eight “quid pro quos”? Think of it. So eight times I said the same thing, according to Shifty Schiff. If I ever did that — so you say it once. Now you say it again. We’re talking about a man that I never even met before. Now you say it a third time, a fourth time, a fifth time, a sixth time, seven times, eight times. Eight times he said that I asked for the exact same thing in one call.
After the third time, they’d have to take you away, okay? He’s a sick person. Schiff is a very corrupt politician and he’s a sick person. So he made up — totally made up. And because he’s shielded, which a lot of people didn’t know — but because he’s shielded by the halls of Congress — you know, in terms of what he says — you can say anything you want.
He made up a story; it was total fiction. And then at the end, he said, “Don’t call me, I’ll call you.” That’s a mob statement. Very famous statement in numerous movies, one in particular. That’s a mob statement. “Don’t call me, I’ll call you.” He said that I said that. He said that I said, eight times, “quid pro quo.” Well, there were no times “quid pro quo.” Nothing. That whole thing was corrupt and a disgrace.
And Romney is a disgrace for voting against. He’s a disgrace.
Okay. Anybody else?
Q Mr. President, can I ask you to elaborate a little bit more on stop-and-frisk? It’s going to big a big issue in the coming days.
THE PRESIDENT: Sure.
Q Do you support that policy? And is it, as you said in a tweet —
THE PRESIDENT: I support anything we can do to get down crime and to get rid of drugs. But I think when a man is with stop-and-frisk his whole life, and then he decides to go Democrat, and he goes to a church and he’s practically crying — he looked like hell. He’s practically crying, saying how — what a horrible thing he did. I think that’s so disingenuous. You know what I’m talking about, fellas. That was so — of Bloomberg.
Look, he’s a lightweight. He’s a lightweight. You’re going to find that out. He’s also one of the worst debaters I’ve ever seen. And his presence is zero. So he will spend his three, four, five million dollars. Maybe they will take it away. Frankly, I’d rather run against Bloomberg than Bernie Sanders, because Sanders has real followers — whether you like him or not, whether you agree with him or not. I happen to think it’s terrible what he says. But he has followers. Bloomberg is just buying his way in.
But we’re going to find out what happens. We’re going to find out. But when you watch — go back to the church, where he apologized for everything he ever did, practically — and he looked pathetic. Our country doesn’t need that kind of leadership. Thank you all very much.
{snip}
END
4:46 P.M. EST
Remarks by President Trump at Signing Ceremony for S.153, The Supporting Veterans in STEM Careers Act
VETERANS
Issued on: February 12, 2020
Oval Office
February 11, 2020
4:13 P.M. EST
THE PRESIDENT: Okay. Thank you very much. We are today signing the Supporting Veterans in STEM Careers Act. It’s a big deal and the people behind me have been so involved — our senators, our congressmen. We’re missing a few great senators because we’re approving, I think, five judges today. And Marco Rubio was very much involved in this process and helped everybody very much and so I want to thank him.
{snip}
Q Mr. President, do you know who “anonymous” is?
THE PRESIDENT: I don’t want to say, but you’d be surprised. You would be surprised, but I don’t want to say.
Q Then can you talk a little bit more about some of the recent departures from the White House, including the Vindman twins and —
THE PRESIDENT: No, well —
Q — and pending departures?
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah, I obviously wasn’t happy with the job he did. First of all, he reported a false call. That wasn’t what was said on the call. What was said on the call was totally appropriate. And I call it a “perfect call.” I always will call it a “perfect call.” And it wasn’t one call; it was two calls. There were two perfect calls. There was no setup. There was no anything. And he reported it totally differently.
And then they all went wild when I said that we have transcripts of the calls. And they turned out to be totally accurate transcripts. And if anybody felt there was any changes, we let them make it because it didn’t matter. So we had accurate — totally accurate transcripts. And it turned out that what he reported was very different.
And also, when you look at Vindman’s — the person he reports to — said horrible things: avoided the chain of command, leaked, did a lot of bad things. And so we sent him on his way to a much different location and the military can handle him any way they want. General Milley has him now. I congratulate General Milley. He can have him, but — and his brother also.
So we’ll — we’ll find out what happened. I mean, we’ll find out. But he reported very inaccurate things. You understand that, John. When you look at his report and then when you look at what, actually, the exact the words – fortunately, I had the words, because otherwise we would have had a lot of people lying. And we were able to do it. So fortunately, we had transcripts of those calls.
I think you guys all agree with that. Right?
PARTICIPANT: Yes, it was.
THE PRESIDENT: Wasn’t it nice? After they said these horrible things and made up these horrible, horrible lies about what was said in the call — and then I said, “Here is the call.” I had a transcript. If I didn’t have a transcript, it would’ve been my word against their word.
But there were other people on that call. There were many people on that call — Mike Pompeo. And I know that. When I speak to the head of state of countries, presidents, prime ministers, etcetera — there are always a lot of people on those calls, especially form the other countries, I imagine. I don’t know that for a fact, but I know for a fact that we have a lot of people on those calls.
Who would say something wrong? I wouldn’t say it wrong anyway, but who would say it wrong when you have — when a call is loaded up with, you know, sometimes as many as 25 people, sometimes as many as 3 or 4 or 2. But there’s always people on those calls. I fully know that. But that was a perfect call, and it wasn’t reported the way it was reported — like, “oh it was so terrible.” That was a very nice call. That was a very friendly call.
A couple of things: The President, as you know, of Ukraine stated very strongly that there was no pressure, there was no anything, there was nothing wrong. And it was really a very sad state of affairs that our country wasted that much time on nothing — on nothing. And I want to thank our three senators that are here for agreeing with me.
I mean, you had one grandstander. He’s always been a grandstander.
Q Are there more departures to come?
THE PRESIDENT: Oh, sure. Oh, sure. Absolutely.
Q Mr. President, when you say that —
THE PRESIDENT: There always are.
Q When you — when you say that the military can deal with Vindman any way that they want, are you sugg- —
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah, no, well, that’s up to them.
Q Are you suggesting he should face —
THE PRESIDENT: He is now — he’s — he’s over with the military.
Q Do you think he needs to face disciplinary action?
THE PRESIDENT: That’s going to be up to the military. We’ll have to see. But if you look at what happened, I mean, they’re going to certainly, I would imagine, take a look at that. But, no, I think what he did was just reported a false call.
If you look at what he said, and then — and I’ll tell you, the one worse was — you look at Shifty Schiff. Take a look at what he did. He made up my conversation. And then we dropped the transcript, and he almost had a heart attack.
Didn’t he say eight “quid pro quos”? Think of it. So eight times I said the same thing, according to Shifty Schiff. If I ever did that — so you say it once. Now you say it again. We’re talking about a man that I never even met before. Now you say it a third time, a fourth time, a fifth time, a sixth time, seven times, eight times. Eight times he said that I asked for the exact same thing in one call.
After the third time, they’d have to take you away, okay? He’s a sick person. Schiff is a very corrupt politician and he’s a sick person. So he made up — totally made up. And because he’s shielded, which a lot of people didn’t know — but because he’s shielded by the halls of Congress — you know, in terms of what he says — you can say anything you want.
He made up a story; it was total fiction. And then at the end, he said, “Don’t call me, I’ll call you.” That’s a mob statement. Very famous statement in numerous movies, one in particular. That’s a mob statement. “Don’t call me, I’ll call you.” He said that I said that. He said that I said, eight times, “quid pro quo.” Well, there were no times “quid pro quo.” Nothing. That whole thing was corrupt and a disgrace.
And Romney is a disgrace for voting against. He’s a disgrace.
Okay. Anybody else?
Q Mr. President, can I ask you to elaborate a little bit more on stop-and-frisk? It’s going to big a big issue in the coming days.
THE PRESIDENT: Sure.
Q Do you support that policy? And is it, as you said in a tweet —
THE PRESIDENT: I support anything we can do to get down crime and to get rid of drugs. But I think when a man is with stop-and-frisk his whole life, and then he decides to go Democrat, and he goes to a church and he’s practically crying — he looked like hell. He’s practically crying, saying how — what a horrible thing he did. I think that’s so disingenuous. You know what I’m talking about, fellas. That was so — of Bloomberg.
Look, he’s a lightweight. He’s a lightweight. You’re going to find that out. He’s also one of the worst debaters I’ve ever seen. And his presence is zero. So he will spend his three, four, five million dollars. Maybe they will take it away. Frankly, I’d rather run against Bloomberg than Bernie Sanders, because Sanders has real followers — whether you like him or not, whether you agree with him or not. I happen to think it’s terrible what he says. But he has followers. Bloomberg is just buying his way in.
But we’re going to find out what happens. We’re going to find out. But when you watch — go back to the church, where he apologized for everything he ever did, practically — and he looked pathetic. Our country doesn’t need that kind of leadership. Thank you all very much.
{snip}
END
4:46 P.M. EST
2 replies
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= new reply since forum marked as read
