Donald Trump is mad at me. He thinks I’ve treated him “very badly.” But he returned my call on Friday night on his way to a rally in Colorado and agreed to do a lightning round on the Democratic convention. He began, naturally, by bragging about his convention ratings and bounce, but then we got down to specifics.
On Michael Bloomberg’s speech suggesting Trump is not “sane” and mocking him as a con man:
“A guy who didn’t have the guts to run for president. Little Michael. He doesn’t know anything about me. But he never had the guts to run. He probably wished he did but he didn’t. He spent millions of dollars on polling but he was missing one thing: guts. Little Michael.”
On President Obama calling him “not really a facts guy” and a businessman who left a trail of lawsuits and people who were unpaid and felt cheated:
“Obama gave a good speech but not nearly as good as the press would have you believe. Whether it’s good or bad, the press will say it’s fantastic. In many ways, I like Obama. It’s hard to define. There’s something about him I do like. I’m embarrassed to admit it. I give him a lot of credit. It’s very unique and very hard to do and I give him tremendous credit. He became a two-term president of the United States. He’s got some quality going.”
On Bill Clinton’s reminiscences about his storybook romance with “that girl,” Hillary:
“He left out the most exciting chapter by far.”
On Michelle Obama, who said you can’t boil down the issues a president faces to 140 characters:
“She gave a very good speech.”
On Chelsea’s introduction of her mother:
“I thought Chelsea was excellent. I thought she was very good. She’s very friendly with Ivanka. They like each other and they should continue to be friends. My children were the stars of my convention.”
On the poignant appearance of Muslim lawyer Khizr Khan and his wife, whose son, Humayun, an Army captain, posthumously received a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart and was buried at Arlington National Cemetery after he was killed by a suicide bomber in Iraq in 2004. As his wife, Ghazala, stood silently by his side, Khan held up a copy of the Constitution and asked Trump if he had ever read it and said, “You have sacrificed nothing.”
“I’d like to hear his wife say something.”
On Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe saying that Hillary would turn around as president and support the trade deal:
“He is the only person closer to Hillary Clinton than Bill. I know Terry very well. And he said that Hillary is saying she’s against the Trans-Pacific Partnership now, but if she gets in, don’t worry, she’ll go back to supporting it. She went from calling it the gold standard to going against it. But if she gets in, she’ll change a comma or something and support it again.
On the hack of D.N.C. emails, with the Russians as the suspected perpetrators:
“Emails in general are terrible. There’s no security. It happens so often. I’m old-fashioned. I put a letter in an envelope and have it hand delivered. My son is 10 years old, and he has grown up computer literate. They start using computers before they can walk. His computer was locked and he unlocked it. And I said, ‘Barron, how did you do that?’ And he said, ‘I won’t tell you, Dad.’”
On former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright talking about how Trump may be “the Siberian candidate,” a puppet of Vladimir Putin:
“Madeleine Albright. Talking about a name from the past. Putin said I was a genius. I do say this: Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we actually could get along with Russia and China and some other countries that we don’t get along with, and then we go out and knock the hell out of ISIS? Wouldn’t it be nice if we cleaned that mess up? Wouldn’t it be smart?”
On Missouri Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill telling Andrea Mitchell on MSNBC that Trump inviting a foreign government to hack our government “violates the Logan Act and he should be investigated.” (The Logan Act, passed in 1799, bars private citizens from negotiating with foreign governments without permission.)
“I said it as sarcasm. There were 200 reporters asking me questions and I wanted to be sarcastic, comparing their questions on the D.N.C. hacking to the fact that Hillary Clinton wiped out 33,000 emails through deletion or otherwise. It’s so ridiculous.”
On retired four-star Gen. John Allen hollering, alluding to Trump, that “our international relations will not be reduced to a business transaction” and that “our armed forces will not become an instrument of torture, and they will not be engaged in murder, or carry out other illegal activities”:
“He’s a failed general. He was fighting ISIS? He’s not Gen. George Patton. He’s talking about me and he knows nothing about me. I have a general — General Flynn. I’ll take him any day.”
On Tim Kaine’s speech taunting, “Hey, Donald, what are you hiding?” about Trump’s refusal to release his tax returns:
“I never met the guy. I never saw the guy. He proposed raising taxes in Virginia in his first week by $4 billion. He’s the exact opposite of Bernie Sanders from just about every standpoint. Sanders people will not vote for Hillary. I will release my tax returns after the audit.
On Bryan Cranston of “Breaking Bad” and L.B.J. “All the Way” fame contending that Trump doesn’t really want to be president:
“I want to make America great again. I can do it. She can’t.”
On Joe Biden’s speech saying Trump was full of “malarkey” and had “no clue”:
“He tried very hard. He took some shots at me, but I’m fine. I’m getting used to it.”
On Bernie Sanders:
“I think he wanted to go home and go to sleep. I’d like to hear his wife say something. He could have left one of the great legacies, but he made a deal and now he has buyer’s remorse.”
On Anthony Weiner being in the convention hall in bright red pants, calling Trump’s convention “a Dumpster fire”:
“I think he’s a pervert. It’s dangerous to allow him on the convention floor.”
On Roger Ailes getting fired as head of Fox News over cascading sexual harassment allegations:
“Roger’s a friend of mine.”
On his friend Bill O’Reilly getting criticized for saying — after Michelle spoke about the wonder of her daughters growing up in a White House built by slaves — that those slaves were well fed:
“One thing about Bill, he’ll find a way to be just fine.”
On Hillary’s big night:
“I’m feeling she’s not going to get in. I have a strong feeling about it. I don’t think she has what it takes. I watched her last night. It was hard to watch. I was falling asleep. It beats Sominex every time. She could barely beat Bernie. The system is rigged. It’s a terrible thing.”
