President Donald Trump sat down with Fox News’ Laura Ingraham on Monday night to discuss the recent shooting in Pittsburgh, the number of suspicious packages mailed to media outlets and notable Democratic leaders in recent weeks and the migrant caravan currently heading toward the U.S.’ southern border.
“I’m just going to pay my respects and going to the hospital to see the officers and some of the people who were so badly hurt,” Trump said of his planned visit to Pittsburgh on Tuesday.
When asked about his recent rally on the day of the shooting, during which he played the song “Happy” by Pharrell Williams, the president said, “Rallies are meant to be fun.” Earlier on Monday, Williams sent Trump a legal threat for using the song.
Trump went on to say that tragedies should not stop events from unfolding as they typically would. “Frankly, I think that’s the way it should be. You can’t let these people disrupt anymore than they already have. They are disgraceful,” the president said of the shooter.
When Ingraham asked Trump about comments made by some calling him anti-Semitic, the president replied, “I just received an award from the state of Israel … thanking me for moving the embassy to Jerusalem. How many presidents said they were going to but never did it?” He also said that the shooter in Pittsburgh was “not a Trump fan” because of how he viewed Trump’s relationship with Israel.
On the issue of the media and Trump’s labeling of “fake news” as an enemy of the people, the president told Ingraham, “You have news out there that is so fake, and I can do the greatest thing ever, North Korea as an example.”
He went on to say, “We have a lot of supporters … they know that they’re lying. I watched Meet the Press this weekend, everything was so falsely put.”
As to the alleged bomber who sent packages to CNN last week and was found to be a Trump supporter, the president said, “Look, he was insane a long time before this.” He went on to link the recent activity to the shooting of Congressman Steve Scalise in 2017. “Bernie Sanders had a fan who shot a very good friend of ours, Steve Scalise … and you don’t see [Sanders’] name in the headlines,” Trump said.
While speaking about the migrant caravan, the president said they are “not getting in” and that they are “wasting their time.”
“We’re going to have tents, they’re going to be very nice and they’re going to wait and if they don’t get asylum, they get out,” Trump said.
The president was also asked about who he’d like to run against in 2020. “So far I like them all, I don’t see anyone I wouldn’t mind running against,” he said.
