he was in the right place at the right time. we are, too. we are grateful you spent the evening with us. good night from washington, i'm shannon. ♪ ♪ >> tucker: president trump is about to speak in fargo, north dakota, good evening and welcome to "tucker carlson tonight." it was a drama-packed newsday today thanks to the supreme court kennedy. he announced his retirement this afternoon which gives the president at the chance to appoint a second justice which could result in a big change to the court's ideological makeup, as well as quite an ideological battle. kennedy was routinely the swing vote in the most contentious cases before the court. shannon bream posts "fox news at night" joins us tonight with an

overview of what this means. >> justice kennedy gave us the ultimate head fake this morning. they had gaveled the term done and said we will see you back on the bench in october. we didn't get an announcement so we let our guard down just a little bit and suddenly before 2:00 p.m. eastern, there was a shock wave. kennedy is letting the president is going to step down. and, that obviously would have sent all of us into the rumor mill overdrive. kennedy's letter to the president was very simple, talking about the highest honor it was to serve on the court, calling it "a privilege to seek and help us to know and defend the constitution and the law that must always confirm to its mandate and promises" kennedy was a conservative on some issues but left of center on abortion and lgbt rights. tonight, the left is in full meltdown mode in some corners bowing to block any senate moves to try to fill some kennedy's seat before the midterm.

here is the senate's top democrat, chuck schumer. >> americans should make it clear that they will not tolerate a nominee chosen from president trump's preordained list selected by powerful special interests who will reverse the progress we have made over the decades. >> senator and likely 2020 presidential hopeful kamala harris said we should not vote on confirmation until they voted at the ballot box. the president's list of potential nominees are complete nonstarters, they are conservative ideologues instead of mainstream jurists. we cannot and will not accept them to serve on the highest court in the land which is supposed to stand for equal protection under the law and justice for all. not sure how that will work since republicans do control the senate. by the way, i have one of the short-listers joining me tonight at 11:00 p.m., senator mike lee. i will ask him how he feels about being called a nonstarter and complete conservative ideologue, tucker.

>> tucker: interesting to see how democrats plan to stop that. shannon bream will be covering this every day until it happens. good to see you. so who are the top contenders? who is on the list that senator schumer referred to? carrie severino is policy director at the crisis network. thank you for coming on. before we get to the list, let me ask you as a factual matter, is it possible for democrats to prevent the president from installing a new supreme court justice? >> right now the republicans control the senate, they have 51 votes and that's all they need. what i predict is begin a nominee who is basically judge gorsuch 2.0. same playbook, great judicial experience and is fair and balanced, bipartisan and broad public support. i don't see how they could possibly get the votes to stop a nominee like that and that

excellent because that's exactly why the american people put president trump in this position tonight, they wanted someone who would be honoring the constitutional laws that way. >> tucker: so you are confident that with senator mccain out dealing with his illness, the president would get the full support of every republican in the senate and there would be enough republicans present for a quorum to get this through? >> obviously with such a narrow margin, you have to make sure everyone is there. you can't have everyone out on a trip or out sick. however, these are the best of the best. if you look at this list of nominees, and i know we are going to, and some of the brightest legal minds in the country. >> tucker: who is on it? so who is on the list? >> shannon: aside from mike lee, everyone else has records on the judiciary. you have people who have served on the state supreme courts like john larson and david stross, both of them were on state supreme courts and now on federal courts. don willet, same thing in the texas supreme court.

you have people who had experience in district courts as well like melissa parr, and then people who spent years at like brett cavanaugh in the d.c. circuit. lots of extremes and administrative law and one of the longer records of the judges. so these are some of the stars of the federal and state judiciaries. i think any one of them would be an amazing replacement for justice kennedy. >> tucker: brett cavanaugh is an impressive guy, for sure. thank you for that overview, i appreciate it. one of the top democrats in the house of representatives, and fact that a man who many thought would succeed at nancy pelosi as speaker of the house should democrats win in the fall lost his primary last night. he is congressman joe crowley and he was widely expected to be house speaker and exterior of democrats retook the house. as we said, he was on his way out and he was toppled by a 28-year-old self-identified socialist called alexandria ocasio-cortez.

during the primary, ocasio-cortez attacked crowley for his race, saying that as a white man he was not fit to represent the district. she explicitly said, the election was "about race." can you say things like that now? apparently you can and win. charlie hurt is an editor at "the washington times" ." there have always been bigots in the country, for sure. but you didn't see people running for office saying, don't vote for the other guy, because of his skin color. when did that become allowed? and why didn't anyone say anything about it? >> it's absolutely staggering. and you are right, you would never hear anybody in decent company say that but increasingly it's been something that is accepted coming from the left. and you know, ever since the beginning of the whole tea party movement, we have been sort of waiting for a similar reckoning to hit the democratic party. i think that is what we are seeing now and all along, the question has been, how bad would it be?

you know, you look at some of these candidates that republicans put up, the tea party candidates, they weren't the best candidates. they were a little rough around the edges and at the end of the day they were constitutionalists like mike we. may be annoying but they loved the country. these people are communists. and that's a real problem. democrats will have to contend with this. this is not going to be the last sitting democrat who is going to get ousted by some socialist who wants free stuff for everybody that comes out of nowhere. >> tucker: this candidate in queens ran explicitly against i.c.e. and called for a south african style truth and reconciliation commission to go through the sins of i.c.e., human rights abuses. are we going to see democrats run on that platform?

>> absolutely. and this is the coddling that we have seen from the democratic leadership going on years now. we will start seeing actual mainstream democrats in congress pushing this lie about i.c.e. and my goodness, what do you expect when they talk about things, when they accuse i.c.e. agents and border patrol agents of being like nazi? >> tucker: i know politico just two days ago said crowley was a shoe in, and an automatic win. so i don't want to pretend that i know where the electorate is on everything, but it doesn't seem to me that if you ran in a general election on abolishing a law enforcement agency on protecting our borders, could you win without? >> maybe in 2014 the sort of candidate can win there, but i guarantee you anywhere also across the country will not be able to win on this.

and all of this plays right into the hand of donald trump. i would argue that donald trump got himself elected this week. it's crazy stuff like this and the maxine waters stuff and by haranguing people in public, it's all playing into trump's hands. >> it all seems that way. and speaking of the president, here he is in fargo, north dakota. good to see you. ♪ and i won't forget the men who died who gave that right to me ♪ ♪ and i'm going to stand up next to you and defend her still today ♪ ♪ but there ain't no doubt, i love this land! god bless the usa! ♪

♪ and i won't forget the men who died, who gave that right to me ♪ ♪ and i gladly stand up next to you, and defend her still today, but there ain't no doubt, i love this land! god bless the usa! ♪ [chanting "usa!"]

>> president trump: hello fargo, we love you. what a place. thank you very much, this is an honor. you know, i wish we could have had this stage back about a hundred yards to see how many people come up this place is packed. the only thing more packed is outside, trying to get in. they are having a hard time, they can't get in, it's full. you know, we had the chance for a 24,000 seat arena, and we should have taken it. the problem is, if we didn't quite get there, they would say, he didn't fill up the arena.

he didn't fill it up. that's what they would say, he didn't fill that arena of 24,000 seats. we would have filled it in retrospect but, that's okay. thank you very much. i am thrilled to be here in the great state of north dakota with so many hardworking american patriots. i want to congratulate -- you know i'm going to do this, but i want to say, i want to congratulate the north dakota state bison. i shouldn't tell you this. but when i was coming out, they were talking about bison.

i said, i thought it was a s. and they said it's pronounced, "bison." but that is a great group of winners. it's a great group of winners. we are honored to be joined by many of your wonderful north dakota leaders. the governor and a great guy, doug burgum, and his wife, first lady of north dakota, catherine burgum. where are you? >> president trump: your former governor, ed shaver. nice guy. and a friend of mine who employs a lot of people, very

successful guy, he puts a straw in the ground and oil comes out. these companies spend billions looking for oil and they don't find anything. harold hamm. where is harold? wears harold? if i want to find oil, i will call harold. here's the straw, harold. north dakota republican party chairman, great guy and very helpful, rick berg. a man who is so incredibly helpful to me and to you, to everybody, a special person that works so hard.

i call him all action, no talk. don't we like that? all action. senator john holton, he is fantastic. and i also want to thank kelly armstrong who is running for congress, he's going to win. kelly, thank you. we also have these big supporters, do you ever see those guys with the pillows on fox? "my pillow" guy, mike lindell. where is mike? he is the greatest. i've never seen so many ads for so long, and i think he gets them for like peanuts. first of all, he does make a

great product, i actually use them believe it or not. he has been a supporter from day one. and i said, i want you to be my ad-buyer. because he makes a great deals. so i asked him, would you be my ad-buyer? the "my pillow" guy. and he's been with us from the very beginning, along with many other folks. we've had a great journey together and we are making progress like nobody thought possible. finally, the person we are all here tonight to support, a special person, an incredible person, the next united states senator from the great state of north dakota, kevin kramer. come on out.

good guy. >> thank you, mr. president . all i can say is, mr. president, on behalf of all of the thousands of people in this arena and the tens of thousands outside of the arena, who live in flyover country is, thank you for not forgetting. thank you for not forgetting us. and for all the farmers and the manufacturers and the families

and the energy workers, thank you for rolling back all of those regulations so they cannot only keep their jobs but create more jobs. and mr. president, on behalf of the middle-class working families represented in this room and throughout the heartland, thank you for cutting their taxes so they can keep more of their hard-earned money right here. and mr. president, on behalf of the most vulnerable forgotten people, the unborn babies, thank you for standing for life. thank you.

and on these very important north dakota values, you never have to wonder where i will be because i will always be with them and with you. 100% of the time. thank you and god bless you, welcome to north dakota. [chanting "usa!" >> president trump: i have to tell you, that's pretty good. he did good. he loves you, i will tell you that.

he loves the state and loves the people. and we need to kevin kramer to replace liberal democrat heidi heitkamp. when heidi ran for office, and she promised to be in independent vote for the people of north dakota. instead she went to washington and immediately joined chuck. you know who chuck is? and nancy. and now they have a new leader. who is the new leader? maxine waters is their new leader. maxine waters, i think she's taking over. she said, trump, i never thought i was taking over the republican party, they only say that to cause problems. but maxine waters is taking over the democratic party. heidi voted no on the obamacare

repeal, and unfortunately she wouldn't vote. and another person didn't vote. we had it done. another person campaigned for eight years, to repeal and replace, and we were a little surprised when the sun went down. but you see what happened. we have come up with an incredible plan. we have gotten rid of the individual mandate, which is terrible. it has been gutted. but remember this, individual mandate where we have the privilege of paying a lot of money for the second privilege of not having to pay for not getting health care. what kind of a deal is that? so you pay in order to not have to pay because you didn't want the health care because it was no good anyway.

through our secretary of labor, alex acosta came out with the association plan, which is phenomenal. millions and millions of people are signing up. we are coming out with that plan in two weeks and we are coming out with so many health care plans that are so much better than anything we've ever seen before. competitive. and obamacare is essentially dead. i would have been happier with a nice "yes" vote, instead of a "no" vote, and, if we didn't. sometimes you work under pressure, and do better. right? i think most of the people in this room under pressure, they end up doing better.

there are those people. we want to know those people. heidi voted no on our massive tax cuts for a north dakota family. she voted no. not one democrat voted to cut your taxes and the other day nancy pelosi said you have to raise your taxes. what's that all about? she wants to raise your taxes. heidi voted no on legislation to stop late term abortions. heidi voted in favor of the deadly, very, very dangerous horrible sanctuary cities. you need a senator who doesn't just talk like they are from north dakota, but votes like they are from north dakota. that's what you need.

so a vote from any democrat in november is a vote for schumer, pelosi and maxine. maxine, she is a beauty. i mean she practically was telling people the other day, could you imagine if i said the things she said? "we demand that he immediately drop out of the race." can you imagine seriously if i said that, or somebody else said that? horrible, what she said. now they want to censure her. let's see where that goes, folks. her own party was talking about censure, let's see where that goes. heidi was also against us from the very beginning of the travel ban, a common sense policy to improve our vetting and our

national security and i'm proud to report that just yesterday, the supreme court upheld the travel ban and our authority to keep america safe. [cheering] >> president trump: by the way way, lots of media back here. if crooked hillary would have won this election, and if she

would have came here which was about a 0% chance after the election, she would have 200 people in a conference room in the small hotel. you know, the saddest thing, we, i, was making them rich. they never had ratings like this. when the nfl is down 20%, it's the flag but also the fact that everybody is watching us on the different cable networks. because frankly, they find us more exciting than the nfl and a hell of a lot more dangerous. and is there any better place to be on a nice, beautiful evening in north dakota than at a trump rally, right? we're having a good time. and i wish those cameras would circle the room to see how many thousands of people are here.

because you know on the screen i looked, all you can see are those few beautiful, wonderful people. i don't know who the hell -- you have a nice group over there and i know you have mike and some others, they are going to be so famous. that little group. that's all you see on camera. would you please turn to the group? no, i just looked at the screen

and i said to my people, how many people are here? they said, 6,000 in the arena, but we are going to have to unfortunately walk 15,000 or 18,000 people that couldn't get in. i said, you gotta be kidding. because on the screen it looks like there isn't that exactly 30 people. what is this? the late great cecil b demille would not have set it up this way, i will tell you that. the travel ban ruling underscores just how critical it is to confirm judges who will support our constitution. our great, great constitution. justice anthony kennedy, a very special guy also just announced a little while ago his retirement from the united states supreme court. [cheers and applause]

>> great man. and i'm very honored that he chose to do it during my term in office, because he felt confident in me to make the right choice and carry on his great legacy. that's why he did it. and i'd like to take a moment to show our great appreciation for justice kennedy's lifetime of distinguished service, terrific man. we were thrilled to a .1 of kennedy's former clerks to the supreme court. did you ever hear of justice neil gorsuch? [cheers and applause] >> he's doing great.

he's a star. justice kennedy is a star, and we would appreciate it. we really have to take our hats off to justice kennedy, thank you very much. and remember this, we have to pick a great one that is going to be there for 40 years or 45 years. we need intellect, we need so many things. we go, you know, there is so many elements that goes into the making of a great justice of the supreme court. heidi will vote no to any pick we make for the supreme court. she will be told to do so. and because of this she will be forced to vote, yes. who knows. justice kennedy's retirement makes the issue of senate control, one of the vital issues

of our time. the most important thing we can do. democrats want judges who will rewrite the constitution, anyway they want to do it, and take away your second amendment. erase your borders and throw open the jailhouse doors, and destroy your freedoms. we must elect more republicans, we have to do that. and the problem is in the senate, we have 51. we don't have enough. we lose one if somebody gets a bad cold. let's assume they come in for a cold and it's worse than that. it's a very tough situation and we need more republicans especially in the senate. and i think we will be able to do it.

they keep talking about this blue wave. their blue wave is really sputtering badly. the red wave is happening, just look what happened last night. [cheers and applause] >> famous people. they are going to be so famous tomorrow. you were in that little group of people behind the president. yeah. they are going to be famous people, those people. republicans want strong borders and no crime, very simple. not complex. democrats want open borders and crime, crime, crime happens automatically when you have those open borders.

the democrats wants the country to be overrun. and everybody comes in including the violent gang, ms-13, which nancy pelosi has gone out and wants to protect. we don't want to protect them. two weeks ago, you remember that? republicans love our military, our vets and our police. the democrats are always fighting against funding for the military and funding for law enforcement. figure that one out. democrats are launching vicious smears against our border patrol agents and incredible i.c.e. officers. every day the men and women of scene nine and the cbc work long hours in the most dangerous conditions you can imagine to defend our families and to defend our communities and defend our borders and defend us.

[cheers and applause] >> and i will tell you what. you know, far fewer people are coming through, as much as i complain, coming through our southern border. now it's getting worse because we have so much opportunity here we have done so well, and we want people to come into the country and we want them to come into our country based on merit. not picked out of a jar. and we are sending ms-13 out by the thousands. we are liberating towns in long island. we are sending ms-13 out. you know, our i.c.e. officers, they're tough. i gotta say it, they are mean

but they have heart. i grew up right next to long island and these are towns that i have known all my life. they are being liberated like a foreign power. our i.c.e. goes in there, they grab them by the neck, we get them the hill out of our countr country. [cheers and applause] and the democrats are constantly complaining that we are too rough on i.c.e. can you believe it? you see what they are doing? they don't need guns, they like knives because knives are much more painful. they cut people up in small pieces. beautiful young women walking home from school and the democrats complain that we are treating them too rough.

we are getting them the hill ou out, as i said, by the thousands. [cheers and applause] just days ago, a brave border agent was shot multiple times while protecting our border. every day, border agents are keeping drugs, crime and gangs from entering our country. we are going to get that wall built. we have already started it, $1.6 billion. [chanting "build the wall!" it's already begun, and it's beautiful. and i will tell you why, they

may not want to talk about it in california but those people in san diego are very happy with donald trump, i'm building that wall and they are so happy. they are so happy. in recent days we have heard of shameless attacks on these courageous law enforcement officers. extremist democrat politicians have called for a complete elimination of i.c.e. you know what would happen to parts of our country? it would be overrun with the worst criminal elements you have ever seen. left-wing activists are trying to block i.c.e. officers from doing their jobs and publicly posting their home addresses, putting these incredible people and their families in harm's way. [boos] these radical democratic protesters, they really want anarchy.

but the only response they will find from our government is very strong law and order. [cheers and applause] we will not tolerate attacks on our law enforcement. we will protect our law enforcement like they protect us. we will always stand proudly with our brave heroes of i.c.e., the border patrol, the sheriffs, the police, yes, the firemen. the firemen are sometimes under attack if you can believe it. and these are our people and we have their backs. thanks to republican leadership, america is winning again, and america is being respected again all over the world.

we are respected again. [cheers and applause] >> all over the world we are respected again. you know, all those red hats and white hats, make america great again. right? make america great again. and that's what we are doing. and what are we going to say in two and a half years for the next campaign? it's called, "keep america great!! we gained $7,000,000,000,000.000000000000,

with a t! trillian! i have wealthy friends like harold hamm that don't even know what i you trillion represents. and i say harold, how many billion are in a trillion? and i'm not sure if harold could answer that. but i'll tell you what. we gained tremendous worth, economic worth, and other worth. more important worth, we are respected again, we are putting america first. we are making great trade deals. $7 trillion, incorporated of what that is. people don't realize this. we will get along with china, and we will get along with european union which has barriers from our farmers and our people selling product into the european union. last year with the european union -- and we love the european union.

we love the countries of the european union. but the european of course was set up to take advantage of the united states, to attack our piggy bank. right? and you know what, we can't let that happen. last year with european union we lost $151 billion on trade. we had a trade deficit of $151 billion because they sent the mercedes in, they send the bmws income if they send the products in. they said, no thank you, we don't like your product. that's not the way it works. for all those free traders out there, that's not free trade, that's stupid trade. [cheers and applause] >> so i said to them, as the great harold hamm would say because to him it's a natural thing, and to some of the people in here it's natural. i said to them very simply, if

you treat us that way and you don't take down your barriers, you know they call them "nonmonetary barriers." they are barriers, just like charging a big tariff. they charge us many times tariff if we sent them a car, which they don't want and they practically don't take. on the assumption that it got through, they charge us many, many times what we charge them. and i said look, if you are not going to treat us fairly, our workers or farmers fairly, if you are not taking our farm products like we take your farm product, then we are going to tax all of those beautiful mercedes-benzs that are coming in and we will tax the bmws that our coming in. [cheers and applause] and we are already taxing through tariffs they are steel

and their aluminum. and by the way, do you see what's happening with our steel industry and the last four months? it's booming again, folks. it's booming. united states steel is opening up six plants through expansion and new. i was in south carolina the other night, where, by the way, a great candidate won very easily. you know, our track record is extraordinarily good. right? that's why i'm here. that's why i'm here. but they just announced today, i get there and they have a steel company called georgetown. it's been closed for four years. they announced the day before i got to south carolina that georgetown steel is reopening and hiring 600 people. [cheers and applause] not so complicated. we put tariffs on solar panels because china was flooding the market and it wasn't good stuff.

we had 32 plants, two were open and they were barely breathing. they were mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. we put a 30% tax on solar panels coming into the united states. now those two plants are doing great, and they are talking about opening at least ten, 11 12, and they will probably have them all open pretty soon, and they will make high-quality panels and a lot of jobs. same thing with washing machines. sounds sort of tacky, washing machines. big business. they were dumping -- different countries, i don't even want to tell you this country but because i like this country. but sometimes our worst enemies are our so-called friends and allies, right? but they were dumping washing machines. we put a big tariff on, 30%. we are now making them back in our country.

but what else are we doing? because he would never hear this from fake news. what else are we doing? we are creating jobs number one, and we are taking in the billions and billions of dollars into our coffers. you know, there was a time when we had tariffs, because you had presidents like president mckinley and roosevelt and others. roosevelt won. who like the idea of foreign countries when they come in and want to take our wealth. they even protect them with their military, we get it every which way. so we want to just tell those number one, we've created a lot of jobs, number two what's

happening is, we are taking and billions and billions. we have a 25% tariff on steel, we are taking and billions and billions, creating jobs and, even if it wasn't perfect, we need a steel industry, we were going to have no steel plants. if something ever happened -- you know what i'm talking about. there are some industries -- we got a habit. the head of the united states steel called me the other day and he said, mr. president, i'd like to thank you. i've never seen anything like it. we haven't opened up a new plant in 32 years and now we are opening up seven of them. six of them extensions and we are going to build a new one. and that's just one company.

the heritage foundation reported that in just the first 500 days of our presidency -- not my presidency, it's our presidency. let's face it. you're the one that did it. you're the one that did it. although i have been a good student. i told john -- i told john and the whole group, and you know, some of them have been congressmen for like 25 or 30 years. they are asking me questions about politics. they said, i've only been doing this for two and a half years, don't ask me a question like that. but we've been good students, haven't we? the heritage foundation came out with a report and this was as of two months ago, we've already implemented 64% of our top agenda items, and that is at a much faster pace than even ronald reagan. that's pretty good.

right? and you don't hear this from the fake news. we've created 3.4 million new jobs since election day. 3.4. unemployment -- think of this one. unemployment claims are at a 45 year low, and it's going to 63, i believe, probably next month. african-american unemployment is at its lowest level in the history of our country. [cheers and applause] hispanic-american unemployment also is at the lowest point in the history of our country. unemployment among women.

women! remember, we were going to do so poorly with women. look at all the women here tonight. women for trump. they never take those cameras off my face. look at all the women. remember we were going to do so poorly with women? we did great with the women -- i wouldn't be standing here. my wife told me, you are going to do great with the women. it's hard to believe it, though with the kind of press that we get, do you agree? but you know what, they are so smart and when you hear those numbers, they are happy. and when you hear the numbers, i used to go into arenas and i would read the horrible statistics on crime and education and how badly people are being treated in hispanic

communities and african-american communities. you remember, i don't want to say, you've been voting for democrats for 100 years. you have these horrible -- look at my friend right there. great guy. thank you. my friends we've had these horrible, horrible statistics for years on crime and the educational abuse, and all of the things. i went in and i am reading them point after point, and i looked down at the audience. for 100 years they were with democrats. democrats thought they had automatic votes. and i thought, what do you have to lose?

what the hell do you have to lose? and i came off the stage, i will never forget it. i just said it, i didn't care. i came off the stage and my political reducer said, that is a horrible thing. i said what is a horrible thing? they said, what the hell do you have to lose? and i said but it's true. what do you have to lose? african-american unemployment is at the lowest level in history. [cheers and applause] thank you. thank you very much, thank you. so we keep going, and we keep striving, and when it's all over, nobody has done the job that we have all done. wages are rising. you know, for those of you that were with the campaign, which i think was probably about 130% of

you, you would hear me talking about wages. where a person would have a job 21 years ago, 19 years ago when we were doing the campaign. and they made more money 19 years ago, relatively speaking, by far, then they made two years ago, or actually one year ago. their wages were going along, they had one job, and now, they have two and three jobs. they would be working much harder and making much less money. and now for the first time in 22 years, wages are rising again. [cheers and applause] and even more importantly than that, is you have a choice of jobs. it's like, the va, we approved choice. they've been trying to do it for 45 years, choice.

you have choice in a job, but the vets -- you have great vets in north dakota. remember i used to say about the vets, i would read where the vets would be online for 13 days, 18 days, three weeks, seven days, and then they would start off and they wouldn't be in bad shape. then sometimes it would take so long before seeing a doctor that they would be terminally ill. things that could have been taken care of. and i said, without knowing anything, i thought it was a most brilliant policy i had ever heard. i said, why don't they just go

to a doctor -- local -- that's looking for the business that would be a very good doctor, who will specify great doctors. go to the doctor, and it would be much less expensive and it they would be all set. right? [cheers and applause] and i thought that was so brilliant, i thought, i am so smart. i'm the smartest person. my uncle was a great professor at mit for 40 years. can you believe that? 40 years. but i said, i'm smarter than anybody. i'm smarter. and you know what, i will tell you, i came in and said that to a group of people that were professionals and had been working with the vets for a long time, and they said we know about that. we've been trying to get it approved for 30 years. i was so disappointed because i thought it was my idea. but do you know what i was good at? i was good at getting it done, i got it done. that's what i'm good at. [cheers and applause] >> we got it done. they've been trying to get it

done for 40 years. i was so disappointed, i thought it was my idea. and you know we have another thing -- accountability with the vets. you had people that were protected, whether it was civil service or unions, you couldn't fire them. they could be sadists, sick and we had sadists, sick people. we had people that would steal and rob, people that didn't work hard. and there was no accountability. for 40 years they tried to get the va accountability act passed. i got it passed, and now you look at the guy that did it and you say, jim smith, you have done of hell of a lousy job.

you are late and you don't treat our vets right. jim, i'm sorry, you are fired. get out of here. you are fired. [cheers and applause] so those two things, they just approved it. the accountability was a couple months ago and john helped so much. i will tell you, john helped so much. he was a leader. [applause] >> thank you. he was the leader on both. everybody said, you can't get accountability done. and i said why, i have too much power, too many unions that just don't want it done? people in arizona robbed $300,000 and everybody agreed they robbed the money, but they couldn't fire the people. so now you have accountability done and even more important -- i'm not sure, but even more important, va choice. now you go see a doctor when you

have to wait in line. okay? optimism among america's great manufacturers has hit 95% the highest number by far in the history of the survey, which is a very old survey. we would have eliminated record numbers of job-killing regulations. [applause] as the tax cuts are the regulations. our country was joking, and let me tell you, if our opponent, our wonderful opponent -- when is she going to get over at? windows that she over it?

[crowd chanting "lock her up"] when do they get over it? but you know, it is pretty amazing, point after point, guilty, guilty, guilty. oh, she's okay. and then they go after us for a russian hoax. it's the witch hunt, hoax. isn't that incredible? you talk about the double standard. you talk about a double standard. nobody even looks at her. nobody even looks. i don't think, unless we are going to be surprised someday. we'll see how that works out. i'll tell you what, what's happened is somewhat of a miracle, because we weren't expected to win but every time i go out, we would have crowds like this, we went to michigan, we went to wisconsin, we went to places that haven't been done.

i think wisconsin was 1952, dwight eisenhower, and we won wisconsin. [cheers and applause] and wisconsin, i went there, and i said, i think we're going to win this state. people said to me, oh, sir, it won't happen. i said, why? look at the crowds we are getting, look at the people, look at the size outside of the house, i heard -- maybe it's not true -- that bill clinton, president bill clinton, went back, and he went through michigan, and he said, you better get the people in michigan because there is a trump -like pence sign at every house. you better get people out. they said, oh, no. our statistics show that michigan cannot be won by the republicans. let me tell you what happened. our plan -- car plans are moving into michigan, jobs are moving into michigan. michigan is very happy with your

president. they should have listened to bill clinton. they should have listened. and we just had our highest poll numbers. i watch these fakers back there, they'll be talking. [boos] >> sean: "hannity." as you see, the president speaking live at a rally in fargo, north dakota, . my opening monologue immediately thereafter. we'll continue with the president. >> president trump: how bad is that, an interloper? now they say -- and you will admit -- anything comes out, a big poll, a number of polls, that he is the most powerful, most popular republican in the history of the party. a little while ago i was an interloper. [cheers and applause] they came out more popular than a man like