Trump Unhinged: On Kavanaugh, Rosenstein, Canada, George Washington & More

Who on Donald Trump’s staff thought this was a good idea? Trump decided to hold a freewheeling news conference, only the second lengthy one he has held since taking off office. The hour and twenty-minute long event is being called “weird,” “rambling,” “not coherent,” but as the Washington Post’s Josh Dawsey said the “presser was Trump at his core.”

Here is some of what was covered.

ON ACCUSATIONS AGAINST KAVANAUGH

“This is one of the highest quality people that I have ever met. and everybody that knows him says the same thing. And these are all false, to me. These are false accusations in certain cases, and certain cases even the media agrees with that. I can only say that what they have done to this man is incredible.”

“I only say this — 36 years. No charge. No nothing.”

ON WHY TRUMP TAKES THE ACCUSATIONS PERSONALLY

“I’ve had a lot of false charges made against me. I‘m a very famous person. unfortunately. I‘ve been a famous person for a long time. But I’ve had a lot of false charges made against me. Really false charges. I know friends that have had false charges. People want fame, they want money, they want whatever. So when I see it, I view it differently than somebody sitting home watching television where they say, oh, Judge Kavanaugh, this or that. It’s happened to me many times.”

ON GEORGE WASHINGTON

“Look, if we brought George Washington here and we said, we have George Washington, the Democrats would vote against him. Just so you understand. And he may have had a bad past, who knows, you know?” 

ON ROD ROSENSTEIN 

“We’ve had a good talk. He said he never said it. He said he doesn’t believe it. He said he has a lot of respect for me. And he was very nice and we’ll see. And he’s a member of the Trump Administration. In that sense. It’s the justice department. I would certainly prefer not doing that. There was no collusion. There was no obstruction.”

HIS TREATMENT OF THE MEDIA

ON PEOPLE LAUGHING AT HIM AT THE UN

ON TURNING DOWN A MEETING WITH CANADIAN PRIME MINISTER JUSTIN TRUDEAU

“We’re very unhappy with the negotiations and the negotiating style of Canada. We don’t like their representative very much. They have taken advantage — I love Canada, by the way. I have so many friends. I have everybody. So many friends. but that has nothing to do with this.”

ON NORTH KOREA

ON IRAN

Watch the full news conference above.