we will bring you live coverage tonight from baltimore. earlier today, house minority leader kevin mccarthy held a news conference from the house republican retreat. in baltimore, maryland. >> good afternoon. i mark strand. i'm the president of the congressional institute. i'm very pleased to welcome you to the 2019 house republican member retreat. the congressional institute has sponsored this planning conference since 1987. we believe it is critically important for members of congress to be able to get together and discuss important issues of -- that americans are concerned about. health care, strong and vibrant economy, and innovative technology ideas. the congressional institute is involved in congressional reform. we have looked at reform ideas to make the budget process effective another solutions strengthened in congress or you can find our research and information about congress on our website,

congressionalinstitute.org. it is a brand-new website. if you want to give us input, i would love to hear it. youus know how we can help report on congressional operations and reform measures. it's my great and distinct honor to introduce the house republican leader, kevin mccarthy. mr. mccarthy: thank you again. this is our weekly press conference. i brought a couple guests. our republican leader, jim jordan who serves on judiciary as well. and soon to be one of our newest members and additions to the republican caucus who won in north carolina, dan bishop. press does not apply for you, dan. i want to thank baltimore for having us back. we have had our conference here many times before and we thank the city for having that. today in the next couple days we will be discussing different policies, looking at from the

21st century going all the way from our economics, from the strength within rebuilding our military, but also our domestic issues, when it comes to privacy, when it comes to the environment. we will be doing breakout sessions with a number of members getting together to work on the policies moving forward. this week was an interesting week when it came to washington. i think it is a clear sign -- actually, foretelling of what will happen for the next 18 months. let me walk you through this week. this week we watched two special elections in north carolina. both of them won by a republican. some of you i know right something different but you ought to analyze this race. in 2018, this race was won by less than 100 votes on the question -- there were questions whether votes were harvested so they had another election. democrats were able to hold the same candidates, able to kennett -- to campaign for 17 months.

that candidate had all the odds in advantages towards them. we had to come from behind. we had dan bishop who has been representing the area and the statehouse, come from behind. not only did he win, he improved by more than 400%. the president made a considerable difference in his race coming in, when you watch the turnout, the movement in numbers, a week away to what they ended up on election day. you watched counties in which the democrat nominee last time actually carried but lost, this time. we improved by two percentage points. if you simply add two percentage points across, that is 13 more seats with only six more to go to win a majority. the difference between being in the minority and majority is roughly 116,000 votes overall. i think it is really foretelling of what's happening. let's look at what's happening inside congress itself. we have a speaker at a press conference today that refuses to

answer questions of what's happening to her chairman and judicial committee because they don't know what's happening. seu have a majority leader who response ability it is to manage the committee, has a different definition of what is happening in the judiciary committee than the chairman themselves. i've told you many times before. chairman nadler, if you was a chairman on our side of the aisle, the way he handles this committee, we would have removed him from that committee long ago. his inability to run a simple committee, his inability to know and explain what is moving forward. chairman nadler, when he came -- campaign to become chairman, and i will quote what he said, he said he would be "the strongest member to lead an impeachment after the election." even though the facts don't play that way, chairman nadler continues to try to move that way. we watched a new poll that came out through democrat voters. democrat voters know more about the democrats investigation than anything legislative they passed. i challenge the country to name

me one thing this new democrat majority has solved. name me one problem they have been able to solve. they have an internal battle with pretty much is an internal war. we watched, it was just a few new freshmen fighting with the speaker and the ideology of the party itself, and we found they won out. now we find all committee chairs cannot manage what is going on, nor do they know what's happening, nor do the members of the committee itself no. this is what the future holds. that is why today, the next day and the others we will be mapping out one, if fundamental agenda to show the public a better path and better way forward. that we can actually show the ability to continue to grow. when we watched today this economy, the strongest economy we had in more than 50 years, i will give you a few statistics. in the last 13 months, hourly wage has gone up 3% or higher. for those who are trying to make sure we raise their wages, we are able to accomplish that. showing a path to do that.

women between the age of 25 and 54, the participation rate in the economy is 76.3%, the highest participation rate we have found in more than 15 years. you see now we have joined -- been joined by our dear friend doug collins, a dear friend. let me turn to jim jordan, our leader when it comes to the oversight committee and a member of judiciary committee as well. jim? rep. jordan: let me thank kevin for his leadership and doug on the committee, and then of course congratulate dan. it was a big night. what a contrast between greg murphy and dan bishop. on tuesday evening. what you saw, and i will let doug a jump in, but what you saw in the judiciary committee this week. two days ago, they boasted to take away america's second amendment rights without them doing anything wrong, and they voted to allow that to happen in

a court proceeding where the person who is losing their rights doesn't get to show up and defend themselves. later, we had the crazy scenario we had today where is it impeachment, not an inquiry? jerry nadler doesn't want to talk about it but wants to go after the president. impeachment, investigation or that is straightforward. the reason they want to do this, change the rules in the middle of the game, nine months into a new congress, is nothing else has worked for them. the michael cohen hearing was a flop for them. cayman lyda seven dimes under the -- under oath. watched the bob mueller hearing. we know that was a flop. they got to come up with some way to go after this president because they are determined it to do it even though the country knows we shouldn't do it. even though the country says don't do it. they are bound and determined to do that. so they change the rules on the middle of the game. understand the issue here, the

president was falsely accused of conspiring with foreign states to be in the election. you know how we found nothing -- he found nothing? he told us that in the deposition. batista leaks information against special counsel. what does he come and say? no ordination between the trump campaign and russia influence the election. 32 months, putting the country through this, and what do democrats want to do? change the rules so they can keep investigating and go after the president. it's ridiculous. it's wrong. everyone in the country understands that. unfortunately, the chairman of the judiciary committee doesn't. what we should do is look how the false accusations started. the good news is, and thank the lord for this, bill barr is doing exactly that. but we can help on the committee. the ranking member understands this is something we should push for. why don't we have the inspector

general who by the way issued a scathing report of mr. comey two weeks ago, but two days ago when we asked mr. nadler when we were to get an opportunity to , when we would be able to ask him about his report, jerry nadler says i don't know, i haven't thought about that. stop and think about that. this is the chair of they do share committee. -- chair of the judiciary committee. that's the response we get from him. the minority leader is right when he says what a contrast between what democrats have done this week and what we saw on election night with the big wins in north carolina. i appreciate the leadership of the leader, and congratulate dan. i will welcome to the podium the ranking member of the judiciary committee, mr. cohen. been one of those days

on the judiciary committee. one great week though. congratulations. we know what is happening. this is one of the things we are seeing. for those of us who travel the country, once you go outside of washington, d.c., it was not as gloom and doom. everywhere else, there seems to be optimism. there's jobs, these things happening. people are excited about that. let me touch base on what happened this morning which was a sad continuum of what has happened for the last eight months. toce they had the ability have the majority. we have continued now today, if anybody could follow the pretzel logic of the committee this morning, especially the chairman, saying we are investigating, we have been investigating. let me make it clear to you. i know many of you have written articles. if you say any of this is new rules today, that's wrong. plain and simple, it is not new rules. these are rules that have been part of the committee structure forever.

they are some play choosing to use them now. they are packaging them together to make it seem like it is something more. this is important because when most people across the country only get their news by either a quick line, a quick headline, or a quick momentary look at the screen, they are not going to look past. the democrats know this. they know they will not look past impeachment. everyone will think something is going. the reality is they are pulling the sham. this is nothing more than a filter on social media. instagram, snapchat, whatever you want to use. it is a filter to say i look better than what i am. when you pull away the core of chairman nadler and the rest of his committee, there is nothing there. it is the biggest empty suits you want to have. they won't admit that they have nothing to go on. in fact, if you don't believe me, let's look at a history lesson. in june, chairman nadler said when the robert mueller report has definite impeachable offenses in it, robert mueller testifies in july.

then in august, the chairman sends out a letter saying you guys have anything to impeach on? because we don't have anything anymore. now you have jamie raskin from marilyn coming up and saying, you know, mueller was a small part of what we were investigating. how many of you with a straight face, how many of you believe that they thought mueller was a small part of what they do? it was not. today as we go forward, here is where we are at. they are wanting to have this idea they can have it both ways, that they want to pacify those on our committee and their base because i feel sorry for chairman nadler. he took the mantle of what they didn't know, that they couldn't do. and that was impeachment. he took the mantle and said we will go after donald trump because we hate donald trump and now we have the majority, and we have all this stuff to help impeach him. now after eight months, going on nine, he has nothing except smoke and mirrors. a dog and pony show.

the dog and pony's left, and now we've got nothing but a show. and that's what happened today. thanks. rep. mccarthy: thank you, doug. as i mentioned earlier, there were two special elections. the one everyone was watching to was north carolina. those constituents have not been represented since we have been seated. dan bishop got in the race later. the democrats had the same opponent. financially had an advantage over us, at the end of the day of this tuesday, improved by more than two percentage points. i want to remind you of one thing. we have fewer seats to gain to get to the majority than the democrats had two years ago. there are 31 democrats who sit in seats that president trump carried. 13 of them, by more than six points. there is one thing i would be concerned about, if i was a democrat. the management of the floor today. tell me how was a democrat going to go back and ask for a reelection on what they achieved? all they achieved our investigations that have gone

nowhere, that found out were lies. they lot -- they watched a party move where speaker pelosi was furthest to the left and now she is considered a moderate and her new socialist democratic party. she has the title but no longer the power of how to manage a floor. she has committee chairman she cannot understand what they are doing in committees, especially when it comes to chairman nadler. the majority leader doesn't even know what the committee is doing in the own prep -- in their own press conference. democratswe do now, spent millions of dollars in a belief that they could win an election. when you watch who turned out in the selection, it was not just republicans voting for dan bishop. there were a lot of democrats he did not like what they saw inside congress and gave a vote to dan bishop. that's how it was 2% higher. 400% increase in the turnout of the final election vote. to the new member for congressman elect, dan bishop of

north carolina. [applause] i could get use to that. i'm not at all surprised. we have press in north carolina as well. i'm delighted to be here. to know, it's interesting hear the content of your report because the contrast that i offered voters in north carolina nine is exactly the contrast that is being described by these members of congress today. hand, aon the one vision of america with a booming economy and more jobs and border security and lower taxes and continuation of american exceptionalism. on the other hand, what i heard more than anything else from voters as i passed through the district, and we have a lot of democrats in our district, and i heard it from a lot of democrats, is that what the socialist democratic party is

articulating, not only stuns them, it frights them -- frightens them. beingly on the subject of consumed with the idea of destroying this president. but also, which we are hearing more detail about today, but also their policy proposals which are outlandish. and the people of the ninth district -- and mr. leader, i think the point that makes clearest, the situation we were in electorally, in addition to the fact that my opponent was running for 20 months and was the beneficiary of 16, $17 million of expenditures from the farthest left sources in america, outside the district, outside the state. we also had a period of six weeks where we had a relatively level playing field in this race.

we not only caught him with the help of president trump and vice president pence, and great support from here, and we caught him and we passed him. and we had a, under those circumstances, a very clear victory. so i'm delighted to be here. 85% ofalso say, about the members of this conference -- congress financially supported our campaign. the help from here and the the various parts of the conservative movement that worked together and in the same direction in this campaign was a marvelous thing to behold, and the result was one that i think ought to resound across the country. thanks very much. rep. mccarthy: we have some questions now. yes, sir? >> [inaudible]

what do you see happening in the next few months on antitrust issues? back in congress. there will be information requests that will come out. this is a part we need to look at. you mentioned bipartisan. i know from the committee and the oversight will be looking at this. from the judiciary perspective, it is time we look at the antitrust perspective and not just say we need to break people up. but actually see what they are like in the marketplace. are they keeping people out of the marketplace from an antitrust perspective? and how they operate in a new economy. everything that is disruptive and big is not necessarily bad. does it become bad if they act in ways that is contrary to the market and contrary to the privacy issues most americans fail? i think you will see more of that. the unfortunate part is we are so preoccupied with taking

things from american people and investigating this president, that this often gets overshadowed. i would just add one aside, this may be one of the few areas where you can get -- you saw this with the attorneys general in town this week, this may be one of the areas where the congress can work together. mr. cummings and i are working on and our staff more importantly, are working on facial recognition issues. there was strong bipartisan support in the committee to look at this issue. i am optimistic but i think now we are in this stage of getting the facts and making sure the american people understand what's going on. >> this is one of the topics in our retreat. there is a lot of concern. we want to make sure there's competition. we sit back and it has come to the points, just because you are not big, doesn't mean you are anticompetitive. should amazon should have been able -- why didn't sears become amazon? they have a competition.

i'm concerned about privacy. what are people gathering about our own information? i believe in the conservative philosophy of private property. when it comes to privacy, shouldn't we know exactly what someone is able to gain? if they monetize it, shouldn't we receive that information? we should also be able to move it and be able to delete it. those are simple basis as of how we should deal with privacy. these are the issues we will be discussing within the policy. i'm hopeful we can find a bipartisan answer for this. many fine -- many times, i see the democrats take it like a daughter frank. either they want to break it up or make it a utility. then you get no innovation. you also have no protection for your privacy. yes, ma'am? >> do you think impeachment can work towards the gop and the president's advantage? do you want to see a vote on impeachment and have democrats go on the record on this issue? >> they have often failed going on the floor. no one would want to see

impeachment for a personal, political gain outside from chairman nadler. this is not something to play with. america is too important to play a political game like this. i think the american public expects us to go to congress. we have problems to solve and we should work on them. the entire time and the whole reason why nadler ran for this position is because he said he would be the very best in impeachment. there is no reason to move forward with it. the american public doesn't want it. the only person who tries to continue to drive it is the chairman, even when you talk to their own leadership, they don't know what he's doing. if you watch the way he handles the committee, from the most basic committee, if he was a chairman within the republican conference, we would have removed and from this inability on how to move a committee in a proper way. yes, sir? >> in discussions with the white house, what has president trump shared with you about what he would support? >> there are a number of issues he's talked about.

the number one thing he wants to find is if there is a way that we can solve these devastating actions that take place to never happen again. the president has acted before. i traveled with the president when we flew out when what took place in las vegas. my community itself lost more lives in las vegas than the entire state of nevada. what we found was a bump stock. a bump stock that was approved from and administration before him, from the obama administration. this president acted. we no longer have a bound stock. we watched another shooting in texas at a church, that an individual is, able to have a weapon and they never should have, simply because the national instant criminal background check should have picked on it -- picked up on it. our own military failed in the way -- we passed legislation that modernized it. what the president is doing is gathering all the information. he had a number of us to the white house. i know he did a call yesterday

with bipartisan senators. he is gathering information and he told me he will come back with finding the ways to find a solution. he knows there's a problem and he wants to solve it. >> [inaudible] related to background checks? >> he wants to make sure whatever we do solves the problem. he is gathering all the information, which you should do at the very beginning. the attorney general was in the meeting as well looking at ways, how do we make sure that this never happens again? how do we protect law-abiding citizens on their rights as well? that is what he is doing and he will come forward with where he's going. i know there are a number of things he's looking at. i think it will be very shortly. on theident's comments city of baltimore and -- aresman's cummings those comments are appropriate? do you think the president needs

to apologize for them in any way tonight? >> look, i think the president made a good case of why many major cities have challenges. if you want to take the president's comments, you can go to the former mayor of baltimore. you can go to what congressman cummings said before about his own community. these are challenges we want to see a change. this is something the president has been working on. when you look at the opportunities sounds that were passed, this is a clear, contrast on the government trying to solve a problem for 20 years and had not do it, it is transforming communities. we are finding what is happening faster. i think the president made a case, why do we accept the challenges and ignore them? when i look at california, i look at the homelessness, affordability, the challenges are happening throughout the cities, san francisco is now losing conventions on how they deal with it. that is a direct contrast into our policies. i think the president coming here symbolizes that yes, he

cares about baltimore, the people who live in baltimore, and he does not accept that you have to stay in poverty. he has found from his entire life how to bring people out of poverty, give them a better opportunity, and that is what he is doing in his job as president and why he is coming to baltimore as well. with great tv, we represent many viewers who are farmers or in agriculture heavy communities paired we want to ask if congress will be discussing farmers who are concerned with trade discussions with china? >> i happened to come from the number one act community county and the entire nation. agriculture is important to us. we want to make sure we have markets we can sell in. we want to make sure that we have a water we can produce. we want to make sure we have a society that we can grow and feed, not just america, but the world. we know it is a safer product going forward. when you sit and talk to the our cultural community, they know what china has done in the past.

they are supporting this president to get an agreement. know thisched -- i discussion is getting closer, i have watched that we were at a point that we could come to an agreement. it was xi jinping who packed -- who backed away to what he agreed to. the president is committed to this. i was with the president earlier this week with lighthizer, many chin, and the president discussing how we can solve this problem. i know when i go out to the farm community, there's no one that supported farmers more than this president trump. caucusmembers of your are fighting here they are having an explosive fight now. one is a member of your -- pretty explosive fight on twitter right now. he is calling her a warmonger, she is insulting his approval ratings. do you think this speaks to a split in the party that is rupturing over it?

>> it is simply that. people can have a discussion about policy that is healthy. the difference is when it comes to the democratic party, you have got new freshmen members who are now primary the number two, the chairman of ways and means, the number four, the chairman of appropriations, the social justice who believes they have to purify their party because they want to become social democrats. that is a battle and that is a war and a problem the democrats have. the republicans have never been more united. don't take my word, take members on the stage. look at the polling itself with this president. no president, not even ronald reagan had as much support in the party as president trump. i don't have any problem with having a debate of ideas, and actually disagreeing on ideas. at the end of the day, they understand they agree more. they want tomorrow better than today. >> any of your colleagues

expressed concern to you about the manner in which john bolton was ousted from the white house? rep. mccarthy: i have not heard that. the president has a right to have people who work for him, that he feels gives the best information and works best together. would you want to have somebody work for you that if you are not working well together, you are having disagreements with, there are a lot of people who sit inside that white house that will give the president different opinion than the president has. he wants to gather all the information. if he couldn't work well for him, i want somebody in there that he can. >> can you give us a preview? if you have the speaker's gavel, what is the top of your legislative agenda? >> first thing we would do is make sure our debt is taken care of. this is continuing to grow. we have a majority that has taken over the democrats, the first thing they did was not pass a budget. we passed a budget just as we

did before to put us on a path balance. we would make sure our entitlements are protected for our future generation. every great society is collapsed when they have overextended themselves. we would hope that we would solve the billing before it took us to win the majority. with the democrats, we don't know if they are able to pass anything in the process of where we go. we look to environment in the future. you will see a number of bills we will produce. 90% of all plastic that goes to the ocean comes from 10 rivers in the world, not one of them in america, but i think the ocean is for the entire world. we have an opportunity to solve a problem. you will find a number of bills we produce going forward. we have companies i can extract co2 in the air. why wouldn't we incentivize the ability to do it? dan crenshaw has a bill that would be out of committee about the only problem is it has a dan crenshaw's name on it as an author. we would not play games. we would find ways to unite the country to put us in a path to be stronger. we continue to build our military to make sure we are

safe, not only here but around the world. there are a number of items we would go through. technology, are we were. -- are we prepared for the 21st century? there are a number of items we go with. that is our discussion and breakout sessions paired last question. yes, ma'am? i would like to ask you about the administration's plan to reform the housing finance system. ite free-market critics say might be better to get rid of them altogether. do you agree? rep. mccarthy: i think the white house and administration, along with patrick mchenry, is something that they will study for some time. we watched it at a time where america had to bail them out. we want to make sure they are secure but also we want to make sure that those who need to have capital for a home have the lowest rate possible and be able to prosper and build homes as they wish.

this is an area we want to look and protect the taxpayers. we want the individuals to have the lowest rates to go. it is not something you can ignore. it is not something that you would say that you can't deal with at all. there are a lot of ideas and that is another issue that we will be discussing at the retreat. i look forward to talking to you throughout the retreat. i think you will be at some of our speeches are we have the president speaking type it some people might want to watch the democrat convention, not sure what they will promise tonight. they are very supportive of making sure those who are here illegally to have health care outside of americans themselves. there are a lot of problems we can solve and work closely together. i'm excited to have the president here after coming off, adding two new republicans that will be sworn in next week. building on an economy, the strongest it has been in 50 years. and the unique part about this economy is not an economy that is billed for one person.

doesn't that your gender, color of age, the color of your skin or age. it is helping all and we want to build on that and make america stronger. if there is one thing that we should do, inside congress, we should pass the usmca. very pass usmca, at a minimum, there would be 180 thousand more americans working. gdp would go up by more than one point. you know what would be more important? we would be stronger going into negotiations with china. if you watched last month or new -- our new number one trader is mexico. number two is canada. surpassing china. this is something that's making america stronger. i believe it's only one person holding the power of whether that comes up, the speaker of the house. they are more concerned about tearing this president down instead of building america up. i hope that's debated tonight inside the democrats as well. thank you.

[captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2019] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] president trump expected here in baltimore, maryland tonight to the house republicans who have been gathered here for their yearly retreat. this is the first republican retreat from -- since the gop lost its majority in 20 midterm elections. the group heard today from vice president mike pence and secretary of state mike pompeo. you can join us tomorrow at eight a.m. eastern for more live coverage over on cspan 2. waiting here on c-span for president trump in baltimore. >> ♪ cry and the night if it helps i simply love you life itselflove

guess that's why they call it the blues time on my hands could be time spent with you laughing like children living like lovers rolling like thunder under the covers and i guess that's why they call it the blues and i guess that's why they call it the blues and i guess that's why they call it the blues ♪

yourwell, you've got diamond and you've got your pretty clothes and the shofar drives your car you let everybody know but don't play with me -- announcer: awaiting president trump in baltimore, maryland tonight. house republicans have been gathered here for their yearly retreat. while we wait for his remarks, we will look at his remarks as he departed the white house earlier today.

president trump: thank you, everybody. the stock market is up again. we're very close to a new high. it would be over 100 times, i believe, you'll check it, but many, many times we set the record. so we're very honored by that. we're having a tremendous couple of weeks. a lot of good things happening. i got a call from heads of china the call was directed to my people actually they asked whether or not it would be possible to delay the hit on the tariffs up 30% from 25%, would it be possible to take it off the october 1 date. we gave them two weeks in honor of president xi, we gave them a two-week reprieve.

so we'll be doing tariffs on october 15 instead of october 5, or october 1. they were going to be set on october 1. we're moving it to october 15. because they're having their 70th anniversary. and i will do that, again, in honor of president xi. that's it. any questions? reporter: [inaudible] president trump: i wouldn't. i think he's fantastic. i spoke to mike pompeo about that. he decided, he and i -- i get along with him so well, we have a lot of the same views. a couple of little different views, but he likes the idea of having somebody in there with them. i do too. i think they'll have an answer for you. we have 15 candidates, everybody wants it badly, as you can imagine. we'll probably next week sometime make that decision. we look forward to that

reporter: [inaudible] pres. trump: we have at least 10 more. a lot of people want the job. it's a great job. it's a lot of fun to work with donald trump. it's very easy to work with me. you know why it's easy? i make all the decision you don't have to work. reporter: you called baltimore at one point, what's your message to the people of baltimore as you head to baltimore? pres. trump: we're going to baltimore right now, i look forward to it. we'll be with the republican congressmen. i think it's going to be a very successful evening where we had a tremendous election on tuesday. and you saw the results on tuesday night. one gentleman was dan bishop, he was not doing so well, three or four weeks ago. we got the message out, he won the election. he was losing substantially and he ended up winning fairly

easily. dan bishop. and greg murphy within by lots more than was expect. -- won by a lot more than was expect. he won by many points. a lot of people thought that would be a close race. so we won two seats in congress on thursday. and i guess the press didn't talk about it too much, they would have if they lost. but they won. the republicans had a great night on tuesday. reporter: are you considering any kind of interim deal with the chinese where they make a commitment on intellectual property? president trump: something that people talk about, i'd rather get the whole deal done. we've taken in many, many billions of $s of tariffs. i'd rather get the entire chinese -- look if we're going to do the deal, let's get it done. a lot of people are talking about it. i see a lot of analysts say an interim deal, meaning we'll do pieces of it, the easy ones first. but there's no easy or hard. there's a deal or not a deal. but it's something we would

consider, i guess. but we're very -- we're doing very well. we're doing very well. i did a little bit of a delay in hon nor of president xi because it's their 70th anniversary. in china. reporter: mr. president, what do you expect out of the debate tonight? president trump: it's too bad i'm going to miss it. i'll have to have it somehow taped, i didn't tell them about that, maybe it is not that important. it is important. it's going to be very interesting. i look forward to going home, i'll have to watch it as a rerun. many of you are coming to baltimore with me. i don't expect too much difference. i mean, three people that are leading, i sort of think that those three people will take it to the end. it's going to be one of those three, i think. but you never know in politics, do we? you know better than i. never know in politics. reporter: who do you think your strongest opponent is? president trump: i think they

all have their weaknesses and their strengths. i think that they're very different. certainly have a lot of different voices up there. but it would look to me like it would be elizabeth warren and looks like joe maybe will be able to get there maybe not. i don't know. and certainly bernie is there. he's number three. but i think that's the -- they're so far in the lead, the three of them. if you remember, i'm sure you forget my republican primaries, i went to the lead at the very beginning and stayed there. if you don't make a really major mistake, he should be able to make it. i would imagine biden would be able to make it. if he doesn't make any major mistakes. we'll see. reporter: the man you called my african-american at your rally in 2016 he said he's leaving the republican because you're pursuing a prowhite reaction. what is your reaction to that?

what do you say to him? he's a supporter of yours. now he's not anymore. president trump: i don't know who you are talking about. reporter: the man you pointed out that you called, my african-american. president trump: we have tremendous african-american support. i'm at an all-time high. i don't think i've ever had the support i have now. i think i'll do very well with african-americans. african-american support has been the best we've had and i think a lot of it has to do with the fact that from an employment and unemployment both, employment and unemployment -- reporter: do you think he's wrong? president trump: i think this. i think this. very simple. we have the best numbers we've ever had for african-americans in terms of employment and unemployment. so i think we're going to do very well. reporter: have you made any decisions on guns or ethanol today? president trump: we had a big meeting on guns and we had a big meeting on ethanol. we had a great meeting with chuck grassley, joni ernst, mike

brown. we had -- kim was there. iowa. kim was there. we had some terrific people. john thune. we had a meeting on ethanol. we had a meeting on guns. separately and different people. i think we made some good progress on background checks and guns. i think we had a great meeting on ethanol for the farmers. i think we had our ethanol meeting was great meet, let's -- meeting, let's see what happens. but there's been nobody better to farmers than donald trump, that i can tell you. i think we made a lot of progress on ethanol. i think we made a lot of progress on guns, yes. reporter: [inaudible] president trump: at some point, yes. certainly they want to meet. they'd like to meet. i think it's something that will happen. we'll see. kim jong-un, i think something can happen, yes. reporter: on the military.

a senator says you are putting national security at risk. democrats are calling for a vote to overturn your national decision. what is your response? pres. trump: the border is being built. we need the wall for purposes of national security. the military is behind it all the way. any project that may delay, it is only a delay, they will get built. the wall is something that we need. we will be building hundreds of miles of wall. we had a supreme court decision which was outstanding. we also had a supreme court decision yesterday on asylum. that was a very big decision. it was a 7-2 decision. the asylum decision was very big. we had a very good decision on the wall and wall funding. the wall is going up as we speak. we intend to have approximately, maybe something short of 500 miles of wall. that would be almost everything that we need. about 500 miles is what we need. we will be close to that by the

end of next year. reporter: [inaudible] pres. trump: no, i'm not. we have done the best job of any president in 2.5 years in office. our economy is incredible. rules, regulation, everything we have rolled back, have led to a resurgence in the economy. if you look at all of the things we have done for the military, if you look at what we have done for the vets, if you look at everything we have done from an economic standpoint to a national security standpoint, i think our country is in one of the best conditions it has ever been in. i think the economy may be the strongest it has ever been in the history of our country. people know we are doing a great job. they do play politics and they continue to play politics, and a lot of people think that's the only way. you know what? most people think that helps

things. it really is an embarrassment to our country. we have done a great job. reporter: [inaudible] pres. trump: we are going to see. i think north korea would like to meet. i think you have probably heard that. i can tell you iran wants to meet. and china wants to make a deal. we have a lot of interesting things going on. reporter: [inaudible] pres. trump: i haven't seen the andrew mccabe situation. i really don't know about it yet. i heard it was big news before. i have not been able to find out exactly what happened with andrew mccabe. something happened, it was very big, it was breaking as i walked out. i have not seen it yet. reporter: what exactly have you and the first lady said about a

vaping? pres. trump: we haven't said anything except don't vaped. -- vape. i don't like vaping. reporter: [inaudible] pres. trump: i don't think she's scared of anything. i think she's a smart woman. i think she knows exactly what she's doing. we have the strongest economy in the history of our country. we are ready to break the record again. our stock market, we broke the record on jobs, african-american, we broke the record again, you know that. if you look at hispanic american, asian american, the best employment and unemployment numbers in the history of our country. with women, 71% -- 71 years, think of this, 71 years, the best numbers in 71 years. no, i think we've done a great job. there are those that say the best job in the history of our country for the first 2.5 years. pretty much that's the story. reporter: [inaudible] pres. trump: we had a big meeting today on guns. we had a big meeting today on

ethanol. both meetings went very well. a lot of progress was made. i believe on the background checks and various things having to do with guns, we are dealing with the democrats. and we are dealing very well. it seems like they would like to do something. i can speak for republicans, they would like to do something. we will see what can happen. but we are always protecting our second amendment. i want to make it clear. our second amendment will be protected fully. reporter: [inaudible] pres. trump: we are dealing on venezuela right now. it's going to be a very interesting period of time. we are also trying to help a lot of venezuelans who are dying. they have no food, no water. we are trying to help a lot of them who have escaped, so to speak, in columbia and different places. we are trying to help those people that have been able to get out.

we are dealing with a lot of things having to do with venezuela. my attitude on venezuela is a very tough one. frankly, my attitude on cuba is a very tough one. and in a way, they go hand-in-hand because cuba has always made it possible for venezuela to do what they are doing and frankly, that is ending now. likewise, venezuela, through the oil, took care of cuba. a lot of that is ending right now. reporter: [inaudible] pres. trump: i don't believe that. i don't think the israelis were spying on the -- on us. i really would find that hard to believe. my relationship with israel has been great. you look at golan heights, you look at jerusalem, moving the embassy to jerusalem, becoming the capital, you look at even the iran deal, what has happened with iran, iran is a much different country now than it was 2.5 years ago. it is in a much different position.

no, i don't believe that. i wouldn't believe that story. anything's possible but i don't believe that. reporter: are there any democrats debating tonight that you have respect for? pres. trump: i respect all of them. reporter: all of them? pres. trump: i respect everyone. let me tell you, it takes a lot of courage to run for office. i respect all of them. see that? i'm getting to be much better as a politician. you never thought you would hear that answer. reporter: [inaudible] pres. trump: i think so. it depends on the democrats. it depends on whether or not the democrats want to take your guns away because it is a possibility not this is just a ploy to take your guns away or whether or not it is meaningful. if it is meaningful, we will make a deal. if this is a movement by the democrats to take your guns away, it will never happen. we will never let that happen. we will always be there for our second amendment. we are going to see. if the democrats want to make a deal, we c