Donald Trump doubles down on controversial comments

Republican presidential nominee on campaign strategy and rhetoric on 'The O'Reilly Factor'

This is a RUSH transcript from "The O'Reilly Factor," August 11, 2016. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
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ERIC BOLLING, FOX NEWS HOST: Hi, I'm Eric Bolling in for Bill O'Reilly. Thanks for watching us tonight. Let's get right to our top story. Donald Trump in the No Spin Zone.

The Republican presidential nominee joins us now by phone from Orlando. Now, Mr. Trump, I want to first ask you about this sound bite from yesterday that's been getting a ton of attention.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: ISIS is honoring President Obama. He is the founder of ISIS. He is the founder of ISIS. OK? He is the founder.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

He founded ISIS.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

And I would say the co-founder would be crooked Hillary Clinton.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLLING: And he doubled down on those comments in another view earlier today. But just a few hours ago, Hillary Clinton suggested that you were just repeating Vladimir Putin's talking points.

TRUMP (on the phone): Well, I didn't know about Putin saying anything about it but everybody knows that first of all we should have never and I have been saying from the beginning we should have never got into Iraq. But once we were in, we should have never left the way we left, Eric. We just left it open. And that's when ISIS really came about big league. And now they're in 28 different countries. The President has been trying to play down ISIS like it's not that big of a deal, like they are not as powerful.

We should knock them out. We should knock the hell out of them. He is not willing to do that. As far as I'm concerned, and I will say it and I will say it to anybody that wants to listen, he is a founder of ISIS. They must love him. Because without him you wouldn't have the threat, the horrible situation going on around the world with ISIS.

BOLLING: Some people are saying, maybe not founder but possibly he's an enabler. He might get some agreement even on the Democrat side.

TRUMP: Well, I call him a founder. Look, ISIS could have been knocked out, it could have been knocked out pretty swiftly. The way he got out. We shouldn't have been in Iraq but we shouldn't have gotten out the way we got out. Where he gave a date where he said this is when approximately and even in detail when we're leaving. Look, he has been as a president a disaster bad judgment.

But really bad judgment as said by Bernie Sanders, bad judgment is Hillary Clinton. Bernie Sanders said she suffers from bad judgment. She certainly does. You can throw Libya into the puzzle, you can throw plenty of other things into the puzzle. The two of them have been catastrophic for our country. And he is the founder and she is right there with him.

BOLLING: All right. Let's move on to another subject. We have a lot to get to. Hillary Clinton keep saying that these email scandals are old news yet we keep getting more and more information as thanks to FOIA requests more emails in this latest round tying the Clinton Foundation to her tenure at the State Department possibly quid pro quo. Your thoughts?

TRUMP: Well, the email scandal is such a disaster that if it was anybody else in this country other than her, they would have been in prison a long time ago. She got rid of 33,000 emails. It's unheard of. Whoever heard of that. He talks about a wedding and yoga class. She got rid of 33,000 emails and whether they were deleted or clean, the server, the whole thing is corrupt. And, frankly, I think anybody else other than her -- look at what happened to General Petraeus. Look at what happened to so many other people for doing so much less. Anybody other than her would have been put away a long time ago.

BOLLING: You know, and some of these emails are coming through FOIA requests which take an insane amount of time to get these things released but also some, you know, some hacking. Some Wikileaks, whatnot. Do you think there is an October surprise via email for Hillary Clinton?

TRUMP: I really don't know. But I can tell you when somebody loses 33,000, it's unbelievable. The number, the sheer magnitude, the number of emails and to have nothing happen when something like that happens, so I have no idea. We'll find out, I guess. But I have absolutely no idea.

BOLLING: All right. Hillary Clinton earlier today unveiled her economic policy plan. We have a little piece of sound. Take a listen. We want you to react to it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I'm running for president to build an economy that works for everyone, not just those at the top. And - -

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

Based on what we know from the Trump campaign, he wants America to work for him and his friends at the expense of everyone else.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLLING: Your thoughts on that? Do you want America to work for you and your friends at the expense of everyone else?

TRUMP: Well, it's totally false, as you understand. We are going to create jobs. We are lowering taxes. We are lowering business taxes. So that businesses instead of leaving the country and going to Mexico and every other place you can imagine they will stay in the United States and they will employ more people. We have to lower taxes. Our business taxes and our taxes are the highest in the world. Now, can you say for the major industrialized countries. But most people would say period the highest in the world.

We have -- so we have among the highest taxes in the world. We are losing our companies. We are losing our jobs. People are being laid off all over the place. I go through every state I'm all over. And I look at New York State. I look at the devastation of Upstate, New York City. And the devastation in places like Pennsylvania and Ohio and Michigan. Look what's going on with the car companies building these massive plants in Mexico.

And laying off people in Michigan and she doesn't know. I mean, she doesn't know. You just read "The Washington Post" from two days ago, the front page story of what she was going to do for New York, Upstate, New York and it's turned in to be total devastation. The only one that benefited was her crony friends that made money off of it. She was a disaster in terms of jobs for New York State.

BOLLING: You know, I read this thing and it reads almost like a socialist manifesto. Tax the makers, hand out to the takers. Couple of things. Free college. Expanding ObamaCare to a full public option for healthcare. Assistance to unions. It goes on and on. How in the world is she going to pay for that? Have you looked at her plan yet?

TRUMP: Well, you're going to have to double up taxes. People are going to have to pay twice what they are paying right now. And we already have the highest taxes. What she is doing and it's going to be a terrible plan. It's going to be like Obama where he used to say, you can keep your plan, you can keep your doctor. This is going to be a terrible plan. And all it's very simple. You're going to pay more than double the taxes you are paying right now with the kind of goodies she is throwing out.

So, she will throw out goodies on the table. What she doesn't say is that your taxes are going to be doubled. You will end up having nothing but heartache. Now, we are going to repeal and replace ObamaCare. People are going to pay much less money. They are going to pay so much less. They are going to have such a better plan. It's not working. ObamaCare is too expensive for people. Look at what's going on with premiums. Premiums are going up 17, 2025 and Texas through blue cross, blue shield it's gone up almost 50 percent. And by the way, Eric in November new numbers are going to come out on ObamaCare that are going to be election shattering number. And they want to delay it.

BOLLING: They've done nothing but go off.

(CROSSTALK)

Cost of them nothing but -- remember, bend the cost curve down. Boomeranged the other way. Next topic, I want to get to. Those are open letter penned by some 70 Republicans suggesting that Reince Priebus pull back funding maybe even pull back data from your campaign. Have you talked to Ryan? Any contact with Ryan? Any contact with the RNC? Any truth to any of this.

TRUMP: Sure, well, there is no truth. But I'm the one that's funding. I'm the one that's raising the money. And other people are getting to use the money that I raise. I'm putting up money for my own campaign. And as I did in the -- as you know, I funded my own primaries and I'm putting up money for my own campaign but I'm raising a lot of money for the Republican Party.

And you know, there is actually, if you think, I mean, sometimes somebody will say well, we're not going to support Trump. They are not going to support because these are not the people I want. Look at the mess. Eric, look at the mess our country is in by using these political hacks.

BOLLING: But Donald, I want to get to this though. Have you been in contact? Have you called --

TRUMP: Yes, I have. He just put out a press release. I mean, he just put out a tweet saying it's untrue. And I mean, if it is true, that's OK, too. Because all I have to do is stop funding the Republican Party. I'm the one raising the money for them. In fact, right now, I'm in Orlando. I'm going to a fundraiser for the Republican Party. So, if they want to do that, they can save me a lot of time and a lot of energy.

BOLLING: Yes. True, Donald. But one of the big things about the RNC is that they have this whole infrastructure of data and information and contacts, an email lists and mailing lists and phone numbers. That is something that is important to your campaign. That's not at risk.

TRUMP: Well, I don't know. I will let you know on the ninth, on November 9th. Meaning the 8th is your election and the 9th is when we find out whether or not that is all good. I think we're going to have tremendous voter turnout. We're going to have tremendous turnout from the evangelicals, from the miners, from the people that make our steel, from people that are getting killed by trade deals from. From unemployed people that have been just disseminated from the military who are with Trump 100 percent.

From our vets because I'm going to take care of the vets. They haven't been able to take care of the vets. You have to see the Obama Veterans Administration is a corrupt enterprise it's so bad. So I mean, you will see what happens. So, I don't know that we need to get out the vote. I think people that really want to vote, they will just get up and they're going to get out and they're going to vote for Trump. And we're going to make America great again.

BOLLING: All right. One more question before I let you go. I know you are on a busy schedule. A lot of people are asking on the left to see your tax returns, want you to release those. People on the right, also, want to see Hillary Clinton's medical records. That's been bubbling up in the news lately. Your thoughts on both very quickly.

TRUMP: Well, look, I'm in a routine audit, and every lawyer tells you including Greta who is a lawyer, but she said, you know, when you are under a routine audit, you don't give your tax returns. And when the audit is finished I would be please to give them. You are not going to learn. I have put in over 100 pages of documents. I have built one of the greatest companies in the country. I have put in over 100 pages of documents. Some of the great assets of the world.

And they already have that. You don't learn very much from tax returns. But when the audit is done, I have been under audit now for I think 15 years straight which is ridiculous because other people don't get audited. I know many rich people that are never audited. I have been audited for I think it's 15 years straight. So we have another one and when it's finished we will be glad to.

BOLLING: And what about Hillary's medical records. Do you want to see those or you don't care?

TRUMP: No, I don't want to get into that. I think it would be inappropriate for me to comment.

BOLLING: All right. We'll leave it right there, Mr. Trump. Thank you very much.

TRUMP: Thank you.

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