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tv   Cuomo Prime Time  CNN  July 17, 2020 10:00pm-11:00pm PDT

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today. >> our time is short. i appreciate it so much, thank you april and dana bash. i want to leave you with the words from his family. he was a stalwart champion in the ongoing struggle to demand respect and worth for every human being. he dedicated his life to nonviolent activism, and struggled for equal justice in america. he will be deeply missed. perfect words to leave you on. john lewis, dead at the age of 80. i am chris cuomo. welcome to primetime. yeah, your clock is right. i'm in for anderson. we have a jam-packed two-hour show for you tonight. big guest. we have a trump with us this evening, mary trump. fresh off the heels of her uncle's first tweet about her
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new tell-all book that is selling like hotcakes. nearly a million copies on just it's first day. the president finally weighed in on it tonight. that was going to be my starting angle, that i can't believe he hasn't said anything and typical fashion, he takes down his niece just like anybody else that says something he doesn't like. but what is her response? you're going to hear from mary trump about what it's like to grow up in that family, what the family was like, what donald trump is a product of and something else. you know, you hear clinicians all the time talk about the president and what they think he is and isn't. but they don't know him. they haven't been around him. they don't know anybody who is really around him on a regular basis. mary trump is a psychologist, and has been around him, and knows the people that watched him grow up. that is powerful insight. so how does she, if not diagnose, explain her uncle's behavior? the first niece is about to take us on an illuminating trip
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inside the mind of the man that she calls dangerous, with a grotesque indifference to the lives of others. she'll go deep into why she thinks her uncle has been ignoring the biggest crisis on his watch. he keeps proving her point again and again. here he is today playing down the need for what will help save us. dismissing masks, and the need for a national mask mandate. listen. >> no, i want people to have a certain freedom and i don't believe in that, no. and i don't agree with the statement that if everybody wear a mask, everything disappears. dr. fauci said don't wear a mask. our surgeon general, terrific guy, said don't wear a mask. everybody said don't wear a mask. all of a sudden, now everybody needs to wear a mask. and as you know, masks cause problems, too. >> they used to say the earth was flat. then they got smarter and realized it was round, or do you not accept that, either? they said didn't wear masks when they didn't know what they were
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talking about in terms of the real risks of how this thing gets spread and the concerns about ppe. and you know what else they were? wrong. that happens. you know what you do when you're wrong and you find out that you were wrong? you correct it. you correct it. it's not a weakness. it's a strength. so now where are we? what problems do masks cause? political problems for him. right? that's the problem. there is zero downside to masks. only what he perceives as a political downside to him. the shame that he will play to his own favor when he knows it's making you sick. there's a leaked white house task force document that recommends mask wearing and other stepped-up measures for 18 states in the so-called virus red zone. why isn't the president calling for them?
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we are in pandemic pandemonium. the response, where is it? kellyanne, my friend, we've done amazing things with states. why are they all complaining? the only way we get through this is together. we've all known that from the beginning. we just didn't know how alone we were, separated from those on high in the federal government. so back with us tonight, let's get with dr. ashish jha of the harvard global health institute. let's once again set the table with what makes sense and what he can still do. good to see you, doc. >> thanks for having me on, chris. >> masks are a problem. you can put them on wrong. they can go over your eyes. you can't see, you fall down a flight of stairs. can't taste with them, hard to eat with them unless there's a hole in them. can't wear them. what are the real risks at all of wearing a mask?
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>> no. there are no real risks. i was going to say, theoretically, but for normal people, even people with lung disease, masks are very safe. >> what is he talking about? he talks to cats like you all the time theoretically, to use your word. he's got the task force. what could they have told him or is he just making this up? >> i think he's making it up because i know the people on the task force and they are saying to the american people, you should be wearing a mask. the evidence is overwhelmingly clear that people should be wearing a mask when they are outside their home. so i don't know where the president is getting his information or if he's making it up but it is clearly incorrect and not based on science. >> so they put together, i guess the task force about what should happen in these 18 states, and all these different protocols.
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why aren't we hearing anything about it? >> yeah, so, chris, i reviewed the document. it's really good. it's science based. it makes good recommendations and what is puzzling to me is two things. first of all, they haven't made the document public. what the right thing to do is should not be some secret, and second, governors, many of them, not all of them, are ignoring the advice of the white house's own coronavirus task force and i find that baffling as well. >> look, people don't have the sophistication that we have on the task force level. look at the georgia governor, right? right when this was getting bad and he was pushed about what to do, he admitted he had just learned that you can be asymptomatic but contagious. the guy isn't a scientist and doesn't have better heads around him or didn't then. so that made a little sense, that's why you need federal guidance, right? >> look, we don't expect our political leaders to be public health experts or pandemic experts. we expect them to rely on experts and then make decisions and it just seems to me like a lot of political leaders have
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decided to defy experts and try to kind of go it alone with the virus. it not going to work out. it's not working out well for people in those states. >> and also, nobody is saying, if there were to be a national mask mandate, that wouldn't mean me and you in our little closets right now where we're shooting the show. it would be when you're in public, if you're in communities where they have some kind of threshold level of cases, you know, they're playing it like everybody has to wear a mask everywhere at all times. has anybody suggested that? >> no, and look, we know when masks are really useful. when you're outside of the home, especially if you're in indoor public settings like a retail shop. that's when it becomes really, really important. and anytime you're in any gathering outdoors it's important. that's when you should be wearing a mask. you don't need to wear one at home. i don't. >> fauci said the other day it's a mixed bag when you talk about reopening. there are situations the states and cities essentially officially did it well enough. here it says perfectly correctly
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but i don't think that exists to be honest. i think he was being too generous. the citizenry, the people themselves did not abide by what those recommendations were from the state and the city. that's true. the question is why they're not. people move to convenience and personal advantage. this idea that people are all good, i think we can have a really big discussion about it. i think people are basically self-interested. that's why we need leadership to tell them why it's in their self-interest. how messed up did we get by this mask masquerade at the federal level. >> i'm going to disagree on part of this. i do think most people are good, and trying to do the right thing. part of the problem is there a massive misinformation campaign. while public health people said wear a mask, do social distancing, there is a large campaign, as you know, of people who are saying masks are mind control and we don't need social distancing, and i think they are genuinely good people who get
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confused by this and we've got to find ways of stopping that misinformation. it's going to be very hard to fight a pandemic if all that misinformation is happening, as well. >> i'll let you take over my social media for the day and you'll understand where i'm coming from, in terms of how i see different slices of humanity, but of course, you're right. when we look at the social responsibility, as i say every night, obviously, if i believed otherwise, i would be frustrated in my own efforts. the key is the we. people have the power on two levels. one is not germane to your discussion, which is outrage. people have to let those in power pay a price for making the wrong moves right now. that's not your beat. but in terms of spreading a culture of containment, we need that right now because it's not too late for us to have some good results with schools in the fall, right? >> yeah, look, in terms of schools in the fall, the window is getting narrow here and if we all act smartly and we all act to protect our society, yeah, absolutely we can get our act back together and we can open up
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schools safely. everyone has to wear masks like we got to avoid large indoor gatherings, push on testing. the same formula we've been talking about for a couple months now, if we do all of that and if individuals behave well in that context, then i think we can get a lot of our lives back and while the pandemic is going to be with us, we won't be suffering the casualties we're suffering right now. >> testing. now, we're still not where we need to be but we have to be a little more specific. there are a lot of tests in lots of different places and lots of people are getting tested. okay? so what do you mean when you say it's still not what we need? anecdotally, i have way too many people telling me, cuomo, what the hell, man? i can't get my test result back, it's four days, six days, eight days, ten days. even in new york. why the variability? needs to be done? >> there are two sets of issues. one is, there is plenty of testing available in new york,
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but they are using the national labs, the quests and others, and those guys are getting slammed by all the tests that they have to do in arizona and texas and florida. so lag times are seven, ten days at which point -- >> no good. >> it's becoming pretty useless. >> no good if you want to reopen schools because those communities have to adjust because you know who doesn't want to wait? somebody that wants to know whether or not to send their kid to school tomorrow. when someone has lice and you know this already, i don't care how much you pay for school, the kids get lice. you know it in like 15 seconds because they have it all over the place and the warnings go out and that's nothing. this actually matters so we got to get a better system. ashish jha, doc, thank you very much. have a great weekend. be healthy. be happy. >> thank you, chris. we got to look at the places being hit hardest, not only because of the extreme situations but because of the instruction in them. what lessons are learned. what aren't learned. texas, two days now they have hit a new daily record for deaths.
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it's getting so bad some areas don't have enough room to hold the bodies. remember seeing that in new york, how frightening that was? we thought we were past it. we're right back there again. the mayor of san antonio, the crisis so bad, refrigerated trucks are once again in play. why? next. my money should work as hard as i do. that's why i use my freedom unlimited card to buy heavier weights online. got it! go time! with freedom unlimited, you're always earning. i should've purchased lighter weights! moms love that land o' frost premium sliced meats have no by-products. [conference phone] baloney! [conference phone] has joined the call. hey baloney here. i thought this was a no by-products call? land o' frost premium. a slice above. and its mission is to make sleep... feel cool. so, no more night sweats. no more nocturnal baking.
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that secret report prepared for the white house coronavirus
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task force talks about 18 states in the red zones. i don't know why it's secret. i don't know why i'm calling it that. it should be public, shouldn't it? don't they work for us? one of the biggest states in a red zone is texas. 174 deaths reported there alone. what does the number mean in context? it's a new high. the previous high was just yesterday. what does that tell you? they're in a bad spot. you have well over 300,000 cases tonight after more than 10,000 more were reported. some areas are ordering more body bags. in san antonio, you've seen images like this. we remember this from new york. refrigerator trucks brought in to deal with overcrowded morgues. it's a terrible reality. now the question is, does it have to be that way? our next guest, the mayor of an san antonio, i want his take. thank you for joining us, i'm sorry it's during this time but i am happy to afford you the opportunity. >> good to be with you, chris, thanks. >> why is this happening? >> it's happening because we're
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seeing an incredible acceleration of cases throughout our city, throughout our state and that goes right into our hospital system and the cases are not only increasing in number but in severity. so we've had our hospitals begin to plan for their surge management, which means not only the work that is being done on the floor and in the icus and ventilators but also what happens, unfortunately, at end of life, which we're seeing too much of. >> is it about the reopening? everything is lag with covid. takes time to get sick. and then to hospitalization and anything worse. so you got lag, it can be anywhere from ten days to two or so weeks. is this about reopening too quickly, in the wrong way? >> we opened before the data suggested we should. we opened faster than the data suggested we should, and then we had political leaders in our state and obviously in our nation who were saying that, you know, wearing masks and other
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things the public health professionals were doing are political statements. so it created a perfect storm to where starting about memorial day, we saw a very swift acceleration of cases that tracked back to that particular date, and it has only increased the number just about every urban center in our state and rural areas are getting hit hard which impacts the hospitals and urban communities as well. >> when you're in the middle of a crisis, people say there is no time for blame. let's just figure this out and don't let yourself be led by emotion. i disagree with both. i think right now is the perfect time for blame and outrage because those are the only two factors that will stop the status quo. abbott pretending to have strength, the governor of texas, pretending it's strong to say we won't go back. we won't close anything down. don't worry. shouldn't that be the worry, that he is closed-minded to the reality that safety is strength?
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>> you know, i think you said it right on the last segment, chris. we have to learn from our mistakes and being unable to admit mistakes, whatever level they occur, will only increase the misery that we're in. and so, you know, it is true. there is no -- there is nothing less useful than the runway behind you but if you're not able to assess what's happened with the data and change your behaviors, then we're up a creek and so, you know, we're waiting for that kind of guidance at the federal level, obviously, with a mask order that i think would help and even here at the local level in a state that really is kind of wavering on school openings, we're just now beginning to find some guidance and so it is all about making sure we're listening to the public health professionals who are examining this and following their guidance and learning from the things that went wrong. >> schools. how is it looking? >> well, we just issued an order
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today that there will be no in-person instruction until at least after labor day. but most importantly, when schools begin to come back into session, they won't start until our health professionals suggest that the triggers that we need to see in place, such as positivity rate and our ability to track and test folks in the community has been hit. that's one of the things that has been lacking in our approach so far is, we've got to go through some gating criteria. make sure we have an an environment that keeps healthy people from getting sick. >> san antonio is a thriving metropolis. lots of people, lots of land area. what is the response from the citizenry, breaking it into a very simple ratio, the i hate you for doing this versus i don't like it but i get we have to do this. what's the ratio? >> you know, it's hard to say. i think if you're looking for public sentiment on social media, you can get a very dim view of the world, but if you walk around my city, people want
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to help each other. we're a city of compassion, of understanding, a place where people take care of each other and they are able to see with the increasing number of sick people and increasing number of deaths in the community, those represent lives lived, loved ones lost, mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, uncles that we no longer have with us. if we work together on simple things, minor inconveniences of avoiding mass gatherings and keeping six feet away from people and ultimately wearing a mask, we can help save lives in our community. >> i mean, look, if those tractor-trailers don't send the message to people, nothing will. i hate you have to have those in your city. i understand what the calculus is. i understand the considerations and really the respect for the dead that they suggest in an unusual way but that's what the situation is now. you can only have so many people in the funeral homes, especially when you can't have ceremonies. so i get it.
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if that doesn't send the message, i don't know what will. any time you want to make the case for what is happening in san antonio, that is probably a laboratory for what is happening in the country. >> thanks for all you do. >> god bless and be safe. ahead, this is a big interview with mary trump. she is responding to the president in realtime. he broke his silence. it was odd that he hadn't said anything about this book sooner but he slammed her tonight. what does she think is behind it? what does it mean to her? on covid, don't let anybody mislead you, the records being set left and right for cases are real. the w.h.o. says the number of cases worldwide reached a new high thursday. here, not only did we reach a new record for cases yesterday, it was the ninth record high in just the past month. what does that suggest?
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the chief doctor, sanjay gupta, on this hidden task force report. what is that about? and the numbers, what will make them move the right way? next.
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why would we have anything considered a secret document if it's made by the white house task force to give guidance to these 18 states that are in a coronavirus red zone meaning they reported new cases above 100 per 100,000 population. and a test positivity result above 10%. the report recommends those places roll back reopening. publicly, the administration says the exact opposite. i guess i just answered my own question.
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sanjay gupta, is it as simple as that, that because you have trump blasting this b.s. message about us being okay that the task force is having to report, bury the guidance kept away from these states? >> yeah, i think it's basically as simple as that. in fact, if you look at this buried report, a lot of it reflects what the gating criteria were to reopen states in the first place. you remember those gating criteria. they had different phases, phase one, phase two, phase three, phase four, and they were ignored, almost, chris, from the very start. so now, you know, you have this report that comes out and says based on the criteria, this is what you should be doing. if you've had a five-day increase in numbers and seeing a certain amount of viral spread, you need to go back to an earlier phase. it's all there in the original gating criteria, just with a little more specifics on what these various states should do.
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so for example, here in georgia where i am, if you look at the criteria, a statewide mask ordinance should go in place. that's again according to the gating criteria that came out of the white house originally as part of the reopening plan. and instead, you have a situation now, as you well know, chris, where the governor is suing the mayor in this city -- >> what is that about, by the way? is there any good argument he would have? i know you're not a lawyer, but is there any good argument? >> i mean, the argument, he extended the emergency for the state until the end of the month. >> right. >> he does wear a mask, governor kemp. in fact, president trump came and visited, kemp had a mask on, the president did not. but when the mayor said we need to make this a mandatory thing, mask ordinance, he basically said you can't do that, it can't be enforced, i will sue you if you do. that was it.
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so he's basically saying, look, you can't enforce it so why make it an ordinance. the problem is, chris, this is something they talk about specifically in the criteria, there are many places unless there is some sort of a mandate, some people may not take it seriously. if you have a certain amount of viral spread, you have to do it. it's important for the health of the community. it's a tiresome and controversial issue. people are debating it even though from a public health standpoint, they speak with one voice on this. right now especially, given that the numbers are growing, masks are something that can significantly help. >> you know, applying a very simple bft analysis, but for trump, how did masks become a controversial thing? their best argument is because of you, gupta. you guys screwed it up early on and said don't wear a mask. we need them for the ppe people and maybe you're going to touch your face and make yourself sick. so that's it.
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it was over right there. you guys gave the first guidance, that's the last guidance and now it's all screwed up after that, it's your fault. >> yeah, well, the reality is that as we learn more about this virus, specifically that it can spread asymptomatically, you think of respiratory viruses, as you get sicker, you become more contagious. what we learned about this virus, it's very interesting, even before you become sick is when you're most symptomatic and you probably don't know you have it. you have to behave like you have the virus. testing is inadequate, we never got ahead on testing so people don't know so if you can be asymptomatic and spread it, now it's clear that masks were necessary for everybody because anybody could have the virus because we don't test enough. all these things are dominos that build one on the other. the original sin is we minimize this problem. number two is we never got ahead on testing, we're still not
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ahead on testing. in the middle of july, we're behind on it. when we learned about asymptomatic spread on top of that, you had to start thinking about the most basic public health measures that can make a difference. you know, typically for healthy people, you don't need a mask and frankly, that's still true. if you know you're healthy and you absolutely don't have the virus and you're healthy, you can make the argument you don't need a mask. but for the vast majority of america, that's not the case. we don't know if we have the virus or not. you've already had it. you're in a different position, right now today, chris, i couldn't tell you for certain whether or not i have it. my family went to go get tested a couple of weeks ago and waited eight to nine hours and it took several days to get the results back. that's a problem. >> big problem. >> what are they going to do in the meantime? wear a mask. >> especially school season. let me tell you something, no parent is going to wait seven, eight days to find out whether or not they should send their kid to school. if somebody has lice in school, they are on you in half an hour, they start telling you we have a case of lice. they have to have the same kind of protocol in place for covid and nobody does.
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>> nobody does. and the average time of waiting has gone up in this country, not down. an interesting study came out, you may have seen it, chris, maybe you talked about it, if it takes longer than five days, it no longer has an impact on slowing the spread of the pandemic. sure, you may still want to know whether you have it but if it takes longer than five days, the problem is people will, you know, during that time, during those five days continue to spread the virus. not knowing whether or not they are positive. so that's a problem. not only the number of tests but the speed at which they come back and by the way, chris, you and i talked about this early on. you kind of pounded on this issue early on, we're not doing enough testing. it's still the case and the problem hasn't gotten better and i think this is a solvable problem. this is a fixable thing. we could have widespread rapid accurate testing in all sorts of locations around the country and it wouldn't 100% solve the pandemic but it would go a long way towards giving people
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physical and psychological confidence moving forward. >> look, you and i have to deal with this, i shouldn't compare myself to you but on a poor man's level, i deal with the virus 24/7 every day, people talking to me about needing tests and being sick and what they have and don't. the difference in someone's quality of life when they know they are sick versus not sick is huge. and just as we learned from philosophy long ago, anticipation of illness is worse than the illness itself for a lot of people and this waiting is killing public sentiment. because when you're like, wait a minute, i'm going to wait nine hours to get the test and then wait days to get the result and meanwhile you want me locked in my house? forget it. >> could you possibly infect your family? the people you love. your community in those days? there is a guilt that goes with this, as well. which is why, by the way, masks go a long way towards that. this is a little strand of rna. as scary as this is, this is a
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little strand of rna pretty easily contained by a mask, can't jump that far. doesn't like to be outdoors. i mean, this shouldn't be that hard. i mean, you know, other countries around the world, i always hesitate to draw comparisons because i think we should be good for who we are, not in comparison to someone else, but they have gotten it right in so many places and what did they have? they didn't have anything. >> they will. they had will, leadership, and resolve. and when i say resolve, i don't mean resolve to sell goya beans. rgb, pancreatic cancer back. the treatment they say is satisfactory. we do not have to tell anybody how serious pancreatic cancer is nor how lucky and rare it is the justice got through a first wave, but what does this mean to you that there is a cancer reoccurrence in terms of what it means for the justice's quality of life? >> well, you know, chris, i'm concerned about this. we can show, you know, as much as we've heard about her over the years about her time on the
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bench but we have gotten to know her medical history, as well. in '99, she had colon cancer surgery and pancreatic cancer treatment in 2009 and in the interim stuff done on her heart and lungs. the last two lines, august 2019, she had another pancreatic cancer treatment. it was unclear at this point was this new recurrence, we know she got immunotherapy. what we're learning today, chris, is that immune know therapy did not work. in may of 2019 when she had a gull bladder treatment, what we know today is she also started another form of chemotherapy at that point. this is more of a palliative chemotherapy, not typically curative. it may shrink tumors and reduce pain. i always hate talking about this like this, but it's not the sort of thing you're giving with the
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hopes that you're going to cure somebody. every patient is different. people respond differently. you saw her statement today, said it does seem to be working. she is having a response, but i think she's 87 years old. she had two recurrences seemingly of this pancreatic cancer. she's getting this chemotherapy, which is mainly designed to try and palliate as opposed to cure. so we'll see. >> you have to believe in this situation, her age and stage, you would focus on this entirely. the fact that she's staying on the bench and, you know, you got to take her at her word if she feels up to it, she's up to it. but it shows again in a different context, how important her seat is that she's literally putting her life on the line to stay there. dr. sanjay gupta, i love you, have a great weekend. >> you, too, buddy. take care. >> you probably haven't thought about rgb in that way. but think about it. you're her age, you have family, you have people you want to be with. the job matters, sure.
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she has an unusual job but she's putting her life on the line to stay in that seat tells you how much she values the position and what it means for the future of jurisprudence in this country. nearly a million people have bought mary trump's book. the niece of president trump has a runaway best seller on her hands but it's way more than that to me. she's a psychologist who has been around the president for a lot of his life. what does she see in him? does she know about him that informs how he is for us? mary trump, in-depth conversation, next. you're first. first to respond. first to put others' lives before your own. and in an emergency, you need a network that puts you first.
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mary trump, it's a big deal. why? she's the president's niece, so as a niece, she's been around him for a long time when cameras
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aren't around, when people speak freely. and is also a record-breaking best author because of her book. it's what this book does. you haven't seen something like this before. because it's a look at the man, the man in the context of his own family and in a history of dirty business, too much and never enough is the title. how my family created the world's most dangerous man. nearly a million copies in a single day. it's number one on amazon's best seller's list. this comes because the trump family lost a court battle to keep the book under wraps, a lawsuit mary trump says was completely motivated by her uncle donald and mary trump said she's the source for "the new york times" story about trump's engagement in tax schemes. she was freed from a restraining order to discuss the book. this is the longest interview i believe she's done and it's worth it. she joins us now on "prime time."
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mary trump, welcome to "prime time." >> thanks, chris, great to be here. >> appreciate you taking the opportunity. i was going to start the interview by saying you're in pretty rare air. you wrote something about the president that is certainly critical in certain aspects and he hadn't said anything back. that just changed moments ago. he lumped you in with john bolton, referring to what he calls the book of the month club. he calls john bolton a lowlife and a dummy. you do well by comparison. he says next up is mary trump, a seldom seen niece who knows little about me, says untruthful things about my wonderful parents who couldn't stand her and me and violated her nda, non-disclosure agreement. she also broke the law by giving out my tax returns. she's a mess. response? >> it's hard to know where to start. so i'll start with the easy stuff first. a court ruled that i did not break the nda, which is why i'm able to be here with you this evening.
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i never had donald's tax returns in my possession so i could not have released them to anybody. the documents i had were legally mine, which i obtained through discovery during the lawsuit i was engaged in with my family 20 years ago and were predominantly my grandfather's tax documents and his business' tax documents. as for being seldom seen, i guess for donald, that is one of the biggest insults you can hurl at somebody. i'm fine with it. >> why is it a big insult for him? >> i think he thinks being seen is something he values so i'm not entirely sure. >> do you know him? have you been around him enough to form an opinion? >> of course. he was my dad's younger brother. we spent huge amounts of time in
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the house growing up and donald was there frequently, and my uncles and aunts. of course we spent every holiday together pretty much until my grandfather died in 1999. >> and after that? >> you know, it's hard to stay together as a family after you've been disinherited and there has been a fairly bitter lawsuit so, yes, since 1999 there is very little contact but, you know, before then, he hired me to write his book for him, his second book. so that doesn't exactly square with my not being part of the family or my not having any knowledge of him and as for my grandparents not being able to stand me, i think if that were true, it says more about them
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than about me. certainly in the case of my grandmother, it was not true. we were very close. i really loved her and believed she loved me and, you know, my grandfather i don't think had real positive feelings towards anybody, except perhaps donald. >> the idea of she's a mess, other than trying to discredit the book and your credibility, what do you think he's referring to? >> i think it's just an attack he hurls predominantly at women and honestly, i'm in very good company. i think he said the same thing about nancy pelosi and i'm fine with that. >> let's take one step sideways. do you think, knowing your uncle the way you do, do you think he believes you violated the nda and do you think he believes
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the things he says or is it what he thinks is effective? >> you know, interestingly, i think both can be true at the same time. in this particular case, i honestly don't know because very often what he says and/or believes depends upon who has his ear in the moment. >> what does that mean? >> that means that if somebody close to him is spinning facts in a way that are easier for him to take or believe, then he will. i mean, a judge made a ruling. so if he's not believing the judge, the judge's decision, then clearly he's listening to somebody else. >> is it really that simple? a look inside how he was before he was president with somebody who was right there, mary trump. the president claims he knows little about her, but she's got plenty of examples and first-hand experiences about him.
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next.
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we're back now, one on one, with mary trump. the president's niece. >> inside the family, was he known as the smart one? >> no, not at all. >> how was he regarded, in your experience, when he wasn't around, i guess, more often than when he was? >> you know, growing up, it's very difficult to gage things like that because, you know, it's my dad. my aunts, my uncles, my grandparents. so there wouldn't have been any discussion along those lines, when i was a kid. what i did know, with absolute certainty, was that he was, absolutely, the preferred child.
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and because of that and because of how he was presented to the world, and within the family, it was very easy to believe that he was incredibly successful, on his own. so, it wasn't until much later that i was able to tease out the truth of, you know, the fact that he really had been supported by my grandfather, throughout. >> you answered quickly, when i said was he known as the smart one? you said no. why such a quick assessment? >> well, he hasn't changed much. and i think, you know, if -- if we only knew him now and extrapolated backwards, it would be pretty obvious. you know, he's not intellectual. he doesn't seem to have any interest in learning, you know, he has no intellectual curiosity. and being well-educated, does --
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does not make you well-informed. >> and when you were a kid and growing up, what do you remember about him, in terms of baring and how he was with you and others? >> he was supremely confident. he didn't have any reason not to be, really. he could be dismissive. you know? he wasn't very interested in hanging out with us a lot. you know, we would play ball in the backyard once in a while. but he had other, more important things to attend to. i mean, we got along. you know? and he wouldn't -- he wouldn't have hired me to write his book if, you know, he had hated me or thought badly of me. so -- but i think it is fair to say that we didn't really spend time together, until i was
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working for him, when i was in my 20s. >> couple things that jumped out at me looking in the book. it always matters to me, how somebody begins a book. not with their material, but often what they have in a preface and a quote, or something that suggests direction. you have a quote from le miz about what a soul is in darkness, sin may come. but the problem isn't the person who sins, it's the person who created the darkness. >> yeah. >> what does that quote mean to you, in the context of you and writing this book? >> well, i think the reason i decided to use that quote, ultimately, was because it worked on two very important levels that fit in really nicely with what i was trying to convey in the book. so in the context of my family, the person creating the darkness was my grandfather.
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and the person creating the sins in that darkness would have been donald. now, we're in a situation where it's donald and his enablers creating the darkness. and the rest of us are left to stumble around, as best we can. and sometimes, you know, doing the wrong things, because we're not being led we're not -- the truth is not being leveled at us. so it could be something as simple as wearing a mask. or as egregious as committing hate crimes, which seem to be, sadly, endorsed, to some degree, by this administration. >> so where does that leave mary trump? more with her, next. we'll be right back.
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