Here Are the Worst Quotes From The Daily Caller’s Trash Fire of a Donald Trump Interview
This week, Donald Trump gave an interview to The Daily Caller, the right-wing nonsense machine co-founded by Tucker Carlson, and you’ve likely seen some pull-quotes making the rounds. As with most Trump interviews, many of the quotes are entirely mockable and meme-able. And we should laugh. His words are garbage and they don’t make any sense. But they make even less sense, and yet are somehow still menacingly destructive, when you look through the actual, lengthy transcript of the interview.
There’s a lot of garbage there, and you shouldn’t have to sift through it. It will hurt your brain. So here are just some of the very worst things he said in this super softball interview with a fawningly sympathetic outlet.
First off, he legitimately thinks he’s saved journalism.
I mean, look, I remember picking up before I announced for president, I picked up The New York Times and I said to somebody, ‘Boy, this paper is dead, look at it.’ The paper was dead. It was like a leaflet that you hand out at the supermarket, and now it’s a vibrant paper.
But you look at the stories, many of the stories on the front page are about me. You know, all my life I told this story, had stories on the front page. A few, not a big deal. Which wasn’t bad, you know, maybe seven, but, you know, a few. And, you know, now if I have a few each day it’s surprisingly low.
But it has made a big difference.
He pretty much admitted that his choice of replacement for Attorney General is based entirely on the candidate’s stance on Robert Mueller’s investigation.
THE DAILY CALLER: Could you tell us where your thinking is currently on the attorney general position? I know you’re happy with Matthew Whitaker, do you have any names? Chris Christie —
POTUS: Matthew Whitaker is a very respected man. He’s — and he’s, very importantly, he’s respected within DOJ. I heard he got a very good decision, I haven’t seen it. Kellyanne, did I hear that?
WHITE HOUSE ADVISER KELLYANNE CONWAY: 20 pages.
POTUS: A 20-page?
THE DAILY CALLER: It just came out right before this, sir.
POTUS: Well, I heard it was a very strong opinion. Uh, which is good. But [Whitaker] is just somebody that’s very respected.
I knew him only as he pertained, you know, as he was with Jeff Sessions. And, you know, look, as far as I’m concerned this is an investigation that should have never been brought. It should have never been had.
It’s something that should have never been brought. It’s an illegal investigation. And you know, it’s very interesting because when you talk about not Senate confirmed, well, Mueller’s not Senate confirmed.
THE DAILY CALLER: Right.
POTUS: He’s heading this whole big thing, he’s not Senate confirmed.
So anyway, I have a lot of respect for Matt Whitaker, based primarily on reputation. And I think he’s really — I think a lot of people are starting to come out very much in favor of him during this period of time.
People have been making fun of his words on voting fraud, given that he thinks that 1. You need ID to buy cereal, and 2. People engage in voting fraud by putting on a hat.
Those facts are, indeed, hilarious. But the rest of the words on voting fraud are troublesome, both for their intent and for the reminder that our president doesn’t know how to speak in complete sentences. See what you can make of this:
You can only put in a number of people that are registered voters or live there. Now they’re, I guess they were trying to take illegal voters but these are — I’ve been saying, this is a problem all over the country, by the way. This is what I’ve been saying.
This is a problem in California that’s so bad of illegals voting. This is a California problem and if you notice, almost every race — I was watching today — out of like 11 races that are in question they’re gonna win all of them.
The Republicans don’t win and that’s because of potentially illegal votes, which is what I’ve been saying for a long time. I have no doubt about it. And I’ve seen it, I’ve had friends talk about it when people get in line that have absolutely no right to vote and they go around in circles. Sometimes they go to their car, put on a different hat, put on a different shirt, come in and vote again. Nobody takes anything. It’s really a disgrace what’s going on.
The disgrace is that, voter ID. If you buy, you know, a box of cereal, if you do anything, you have a voter ID.
Well, over here, the only thing you don’t is if you’re a voter of the United States. A voter in the United States of America. I think it’s a disgrace what’s going on. Really a disgrace. And they try to shame everybody by calling them racist or calling them something, anything they can think of, when you say you want voter ID. But voter ID is a very important thing.
If you look at what happened in New Hampshire, where thousands of people came up and voted from a very liberal part of Massachusetts and they came up in buses and they voted. I said, ‘what’s going on over here,’ my people said, ‘you won New Hampshire easily except they have tremendous numbers of buses coming up.’ They’re pouring up by the hundreds, buses of people getting out, voting. Then they’re supposed to go back within 90 days. And of the people that are supposed to go back, almost none of them do. In other words, they go back after the vote is over. They go back — and I think it’s like three percent — I mean, almost nobody goes back to show that, you know, that they were allowed to vote. And so what do you do? Recall the election. Recall the election. I mean, there, you should be able to recall the election.
Yes, according to Donald Trump, voter fraud is happening by the bus-full in liberal-leaning areas, and all those elections must be recalled. But in other places, like Georgia and Florida, he says it’s a disgrace that people (like Oprah and Michelle Obama, by name) are “trying to play around with the votes.” He knows the Democrats are cheating in those areas because his rallies there were so big.
But personally, this is the quote that really got me, where Trump is asked about the recent protest outside of Tucker Carlson’s home, and his response is basically to call for violence.
THE DAILY CALLER: Tucker Carlson had his house attacked, he had a mob outside of his house while his wife was home. They cracked the door — what is this violence? Where does it come from? Do you have a message for Tucker and his family?
POTUS: I do, I spoke to Tucker and I think Tucker’s a great guy and I think it’s terrible, they were actually trying to break down the door.
THE DAILY CALLER: How do you think the police should handle Antifa, generally?
POTUS: These people, like the Antifa you’re talking about, the Antifa — they better hope that the opposition to Antifa decides not to mobilize. Because if they do, they’re much tougher. Much stronger. Potentially much more violent. And Antifa’s going to be in big trouble. But so far they haven’t done that, and that’s a good thing.
But they better hope that the other side doesn’t mobilize, you understand what I’m saying. Because if you look, the other side is the military, it’s the police, it’s a lot of very strong, a lot of very tough people. Tougher than them. And smarter than them. And they’re sitting back and watching and they’re getting angrier and angrier.
“They better hope that the opposition to Antifa decides not to mobilize.” Does Trump know that Antifa mobilized in reaction to that opposition, namely extremism as it manifests in racism, anti-Semitism, and misogyny? What Trump is saying here is that anti-fascist protestors had better watch out, or right-wing extremists are going to “mobilize” with violence. Does anyone’s mind not immediately flash to the tragedies in Charlottesville? That’s essentially what Trump is describing. Protestors gathered to counter a gathering of Nazis, and the Nazis retaliated in “tougher,” “stronger,” “more violent” ways.
It’s no wonder Trump wouldn’t condemn their actions then; he’s still celebrating them now.
(image: Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
Want more stories like this? Become a subscriber and support the site!
—The Mary Sue has a strict comment policy that forbids, but is not limited to, personal insults toward anyone, hate speech, and trolling.—
Have a tip we should know? tips@themarysue.com
