Interview with Lesley Stahl of CBS News "60 Minutes"

STAHL: Are you ready for some tough questions?

THE PRESIDENT: You're gonna be fair?

STAHL: Are you g--

THE PRESIDENT: Just be-

STAHL: I'm gonna be fair.

THE PRESIDENT: Just be fair.

STAHL: But you're okay with some tough questions?

THE PRESIDENT: No, I'm not. I mean--

STAHL: (LAUGH) You're not okay with tough questions?

THE PRESIDENT: I want them to be fair. You-- you don't ask Biden tough questions.

THE PRESIDENT: Okay. Are you ready--

STAHL: You ready? Everybody ready? So we have the pandemic. On your watch, we've had racial strife, we've had looting. Why do you want this job? Why do you wanna be president again?

President Donald Trump: Because we've done a great job and it's not finished yet. And when I finish, this country will be in a position like it hasn't been maybe ever. The economy is already roaring back. And-- other people aren't gonna bring it back, certainly the person that we're dealing with is not gonna bring it back. They're gonna raise taxes.

Lesley Stahl: Let me ask you what you think your-- the biggest domestic priority is for you right now.

THE PRESIDENT: Well--

STAHL: Or next year.

THE PRESIDENT: Ultimately, le-- let me-- and I-- I'll tell ya, it was happening. We created the greatest economy in the history of our country. And the other side was--

STAHL: You know that-- you know--

THE PRESIDENT: --coming in-

STAHL: --that's not true.

THE PRESIDENT: It is totally true.

STAHL: No.

It isn't, but President Trump did have an impressive string of economic accomplishments.

President Donald Trump: We had the best stock market price ever and we're getting close to that price again. The unemployment numbers for African Americans, for Asian Americans, for Hispanic Americans. Virtually every number was the best. And what was happening is things were coming together—

STAHL: I asked you what's the priority? I mean, those are all the good things--

THE PRESIDENT: The priority now--

STAHL: --what do you have to solve?

THE PRESIDENT --is to get back to normal. Get back to where we were. To have the economy rage and be great with jobs and everybody be happy. And that's where we're going, and that's--

STAHL: And--

THE PRESIDENT --where we're heading.

STAHL: And who is our biggest foreign adversary?

THE PRESIDENT I would say China. They're an adversary. They're a--

STAHL: They're the biggest?

THE PRESIDENT --competitor. They're a foe in many ways, but they're an adversary. I think what happened was disgraceful, should never have happened. Should-- they should never have allowed this plague to get out of China and go throughout the world. 188 countries. Should never have happened.

STAHL: Four years ago, you were behind in the polls, as you are now, and you pulled it out. But this time, you have kind of a double migraine. You have unemployment claims going up. You have COVID cases going up. I mean, it's like the gods have suddenly decided-- decided to conspire against you--

President Donald Trump: I don't think so at all, no. I think we've done--

STAHL: Well, what about the--

THE PRESIDENT: --a great job with COVID.

STAHL: Sir, excuse me, cases are up in about 40 states.

THE PRESIDENT Okay-- you know why cases are up also? Because we do more testing. The fake news media loves to say cases are up. The fact is, we've done a very, very good job--

STAHL: Cases are up.

THE PRESIDENT: We have done-- that's right because we're doing so much testing.

There is increased testing, but according to the COVID Tracking Project, that doesn't account for all of the rise in new cases sweeping the country, or the 40% increase in hospitalizations in the past month.

STAHL: When you're out there saying we've turned the corner, this thing is disappearing--

THE PRESIDENT: That's right. We have turned--

STAHL: --and people can see--

THE PRESIDENT:--the corner. We have turned the corner.

STAHL: --people can see cases going up all over the-- in the Midwest, in the Mountain West, record numbers of cases--

THE PRESIDENT:We have turned the corner.

STAHL: --in some states.

THE PRESIDENT: We understand the disease. We understand the elderly, and we are taking care of them like nobody's ever taken care of 'em. So we are taking care of our people.

STAHL: Okay. Let me-- let me ask you something about suburban women.

THE PRESIDENT: Yeah.

President Trump at a rally: Suburban women will you please like me? Please, please. I saved your damn neighborhood, okay?

Lesley Stahl: You said the other day to suburban women, 'Will you please like me? Please, please--'

THE PRESIDENT: Oh, I didn't say that. You know, that's so misleading, the way y-- I say jokingly, 'Suburban women, you should love me because I'm giving you security.' And I got rid of the worst regulation-- see, the way you said that--

STAHL: Yeah?

THE PRESIDENT:--is why people think of you and everyone else as fake news. I said kiddingly, 'Suburban women, you should love me.' I got rid of a regulation--

STAHL: You said, quote--

THE PRESIDENT:--that would bring low-income housing into suburbia that is destroying-- that would destroy suburbia. And I said that in a joking way. The way you have it, it's like, 'Oh,' like I'm begging. I w-- I'm kidding. Play it, and I'm kidding. That is such a misleading question, Lesley.

STAHL: But you're behind with suburban women in the polls.

THE PRESIDENT: I doubt it. I doubt it. I really doubt it.

STAHL: One of the reasons is that they don't feel you're being upfront about the pandemic. Are you deliberately downplaying it?

THE PRESIDENT:–we're rounding the corner. We're doing well. We're doing well. We understand the disease. We've done a good job. We've done maybe a great job. What we haven't done a good job on is convincing people like you because you're really quite impossible to convince, but that's okay. And the economy now is coming back and it's coming back very strongly, and people see that, Lesley.

STAHL: There are more unemployment claims-- I mean, the economy has kind of--

THE PRESIDENT:Lesley, we just picked up--

STAHL: --stalled a little bit.

President Donald Trump: --11.4 million jobs. It's the largest number in the history of our country--

It is true that of the 22 million jobs lost since February, 11.4 million have been restored. Yet, unemployment claims are running at historically high levels. But the president sees the economy as his strongest suit.

President Donald Trump: Gallup did a poll, 56% of the people said that they're better off now, during a pandemic, than they were during Obama and Biden. 56%. It was a record number.

STAHL: Can we go back for one second to the pandemic, because-- you called Dr. Fauci and other health officials idiots.

THE PRESIDENT: Where did I call him an idiot?

STAHL: You called them 'idiots.' I wonder if you think--

THE PRESIDENT: Well, he's been wrong a lot. I like him, but he's been wrong a lot.

STAHL: --I-- I wonder if you think that masks don't work.

THE PRESIDENT: I feel masks possibly work. But certainly you want to stay away a certain distance, socially distance, et cetera. But I would say a mask works. And I have nothing against masks. And I tell people to wear masks. I have no problem--

STAHL: Well, tell me then about these rallies you've been having--

THE PRESIDENT: A lotta people are wearing masks, and they're outside.

STAHL: --with people-- a lot of people-- aren't. I'm-- I'm watching all these people jammed in together, and I'm seeing most of them without masks. And I'm wondering the message that you're sending with these pictures coming across television--

THE PRESIDENT:Take a look. Yesterday we were in Arizona, record-setting rallies. Numbers of people like nobody's seen before.

Lesley Stahl: You used to have bigger rallies.

THE PRESIDENT: No, these are much bigger than I ever had--

STAHL: Okay, I don't wanna bicker over that.

THE PRESIDENT: You know, you're-- you're--

STAHL: Tell me about the mask wearing.

THE PRESIDENT:--so negative. You're so negative. These are the biggest rallies we've ever had. You just come in here with that negative attitude. These are the biggest rallies we've ever had.

STAHL: But I can't believe, after what happened in the Rose Garden here, after the announcement, with all the people getting sick--

THE PRESIDENT: Yeah.

STAHL: --that you are not being more strongly encouraging about wearing masks--

THE PRESIDENT:I am.

STAHL: --at your rallies-

THE PRESIDENT: I tell people to wear masks--

STAHL: But you don't.

THE PRESIDENT: Lesley, we hand out thousands of masks at every rally.

STAHL: But you look out and they're not wearing them. You don't get up there and say, 'Look. You know, come on. I don't want you to--'

THE PRESIDENT: What's your-- what's your next--

STAHL: --'get sick.'

THE PRESIDENT:--question, Lesley? We're outside. The rallies are bigger than they've ever been. There's more enthusiasm than we've ever had. There has never been anything like what you're witnessing now, and you'll see that soon.

STAHL: Okay, I'll ask you another health question, okay? Told you. Okay. You promised that there was gonna be a new health package, a health care plan.

THE PRESIDENT: Yeah.

STAHL: You said that it was, 'Gonna be great,' you said 'It's ready,' 'It's gonna be ready--'

THE PRESIDENT: It will be.

STAHL: 'It'll be here in two weeks.' 'It's gonna be like nothing you've ever seen before.' And of course we haven't seen it. So why didn't you develop a health plan?

THE PRESIDENT: It is developed, it is fully developed. It's going to be announced very soon--

STAHL: When?

THE PRESIDENT: When we see what happens with Obamacare.

STAHL: If the Supreme Court ends this-- Obamacare--

THE PRESIDENT: Well, we're gonna have to see what happens. I think-- I hope that they end it. It'll be so good if they end it--

STAHL: And if they end it people with preexisting conditions will be stranded. And that's just a fact.

THE PRESIDENT: No, no. It's wrong.

STAHL: No--

THE PRESIDENT: It's wrong. A new plan will happen.

STAHL: But will--

THE PRESIDENT: And we won't do anything-- will and is. We won't do anything and no plan unless we have preexisting conditions covered.

With little more than a week till the election, the president has been barnstorming the swing states where the polls are tight, including Florida, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and in Michigan.

STAHL: Can you characterize your supporters?

THE PRESIDENT: Yeah, I think I can. People that love our country. More than anything else and they like to see our country thrive.

STAHL: But do you think that when you hold rallies and encourage people to say, 'Lock her up,' the way you---

THE PRESIDENT: I don't encourage them. They say it.

STAHL: And you enjoy it-- You don't say, 'Don't do that--'

THE PRESIDENT: Hillary Clinton, let-- let me just tell you-- Hillary Clinton deleted, she deleted 33,000 emails after she got a subpoena from the United States Congress.

STAHL: But why is this still an issue? Why do people, they're not gonna vote on that--

THE PRESIDENT: I think it's an issue. To me it's an issue.

STAHL: She ran last time.

THE PRESIDENT: Excuse me. When they say 'Lock her up,' it's not me. They say it. It starts, it-- it ends up being--

STAHL: You encourage it.

THE PRESIDENT: I don't encourage it.

STAHL: Yes, you do.

THE PRESIDENT: No. If I mention her name about something, they go crazy.

STAHL:: Well, what about the governor of Michigan?

Governor Gretchen Whitmer was the target of a kidnapping plot by an armed militia group.

THE PRESIDENT: It was our Justice Department that is the one that's helping her. My Justice Department, if you call it that--

STAHL: Yes, yes the FBI.

THE PRESIDENT: It was our Justice Department that's helping her. And, you know, people aren't so-- they're not liking her so much, because she's got everybody locked down.

President Donald Trump at rally: You've gotta get your governor to open up your state, okay...

Crowd: Lock her up! Lock her up! Lock her up!

President Donald Trump at rally: Lock 'em all up.

STAHL: You are-- very powerful, and the people who love you, love you with passion. And if you go after somebody the way you've been going after her, they take it to heart--

THE PRESIDENT: I haven't gone after her.

STAHL: --and they, then there are plots and threats, and the same with Dr.--

THE PRESIDENT: I haven't gone after her.

STAHL: You did.

THE PRESIDENT: I've helped her. It was our Justice Department--

STAHL: You did go after-- You-- you criticized her--

THE PRESIDENT:--that's helping her. Oh, I do criticize her, yeah.

STAHL: Well, that's goin' after her--

THE PRESIDENT: I think the way she locked down Michigan is a disgrace.

STAHL: but when you--

THE PRESIDENT: The way she closed churches in Michigan is a disgrace. I-- yeah, I think it's disgraceful what she's done. I do.

STAHL: You want to lock her up?

THE PRESIDENT: And, by the way, that's other-. Of course, I don't want to lock her up. Why would I lock her up?

STAHL: 'Cause you were in front of a rally of people saying it, encouraging it.

THE PRESIDENT: Lesley, it's such a vicious thing you just said. I never said, 'Lock up the governor of Michigan.' I would never say that.

STAHL: Do you take any responsibility for the country being divided against itself? Do you feel that?

THE PRESIDENT: I'd like not to, but, you know, perhaps everybody has to take a little responsibility for it. But when people put out phony witch hunts, you know, when they spy on your campaign, you have to fight back. And if you don't fight back, you're not sitting here very long. You go back home.

THE PRESIDENT: You go back home to mommy.

As we moved from subject to subject, our conversation grew more tense. President Trump brought up what he calls the unfairness of the fake media. Most prominently: a lack of coverage of his unproven and unverified charges that former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, have received millions of dollars in corrupt payments from a Russian oligarch and a Chinese billionaire.

THE PRESIDENT: I wish you would interview Joe Biden like you interview me. It would be so good. You know what?

STAHL: You like this, I thought-

THE PRESIDENT: The, the--

STAHL: I thought you liked spy-- sparring--

THE PRESIDENT: I don't mind it. I don't mind it. But when I watch him walk out of a store, and he's walking with an ice cream. And the question the media asks him, 'What kind of ice cream? What flavor ice cream do you have?' And he's in the midst of a scandal.

STAHL: He's not.

THE PRESIDENT: And he's taking

STAHL: He's not, no--

THE PRESIDENT: Of course he is, Lesley.

STAHL: Come on.

THE PRESIDENT: Of course he is.

THE PRESIDENT: It's the biggest -- second-biggest scandal. The biggest scandal was when they spied on my campaign. They spied on my campaign, Lesley-

STAHL: Well, there's no-- real evidence of that.

THE PRESIDENT: Of course there is. It's all over--

STAHL: No--

THE PRESIDENT: --the place. Lesley, they--

STAHL: Sir--

THE PRESIDENT: --spied on my campaign and they got caught--

STAHL: Can I-- can I say something? You know, this is 60 Minutes. And we can't put on things we can't verify--

THE PRESIDENT: No, you won't put it on because it's bad for Biden. Look, let me tell you--

STAHL: We can't put on things we can't verify--

THE PRESIDENT: Lesley, they spied on--

STAHL: And--

THE PRESIDENT: --on my campaign.

STAHL: Well, we can't verify that--

THE PRESIDENT: It's been totally verified.

STAHL: No.

THE PRESIDENT: It's been-- just go down and get the papers. They spied on my campaign, they got caught.

STAHL: No.

THE PRESIDENT: And then they went much further than that and they got caught. And you will see that, Lesley. And you know that. But you just don't wanna put it on the air--

STAHL: No-- as a matter of fact, I don't know that.

THE PRESIDENT: Okay.

STAHL: And you're out there--

THE PRESIDENT: So why don't you get back to your interview, and let's go.

STAHL: Do you think that your tweets and your name-calling are turning people off?

THE PRESIDENT: No, I think I wouldn't be here if I didn't have social media.

THE PRESIDENT: But the media is fake. And frankly, if I didn't have social media, I'd have no way of getting out my voice.

STAHL: Do you know what you told me a long time ago when I asked why you keep saying 'fake m-- media'--

THE PRESIDENT: Yeah? Yeah?

STAHL: You said to me, 'I say that because I need to dis-- discredit you so that when you say negative things about me, no one will believe you.'

THE PRESIDENT: I don't have to discredit you.

STAHL: But that's what you told me--

THE PRESIDENT: You've discredited yourself.

STAHL: You know, I didn't want to have this kind of angry--

THE PRESIDENT: Of course you did.

STAHL: No, I didn't--

THE PRESIDENT: Of course you did--

STAHL: --no, I didn't.

THE PRESIDENT: Well, then you brought up a lot of subjects that were inappropriately brought up--

STAHL: Well, I said, I'm gonna ask you tough questions. But--

THE PRESIDENT: They were inappropriately brought up. Right from the beginning. No, your first question was, 'This is going to be tough questions.' You don't ask Joe Biden, I saw your interview with Joe, the interview with Joe Biden.

STAHL: I never did a Joe Biden interview-

THE PRESIDENT: It was a joke. The interview, 60 Minutes. I see Joe Biden, giving softball after softball. I've seen all of his interviews. He's never been asked a question that's hard.

STAHL: Okay, but forget him for a minute. You're President--

THE PRESIDENT: No, but you start with me.

STAHL: You're President, and-

THE PRESIDENT: Excuse me, Lesley, you started with me. Your first statement was, 'Are you ready for tough questions?'

STAHL: Are you?

THE PRESIDENT: That's no way to talk. That's no way to talk.

PRODUCER: Lesley, one, one second.

At this point one of our producers interrupted to advise about the time remaining in the interview.

THE PRESIDENT: I think we have enough of an interview here, Hope. Okay? That's enough. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go meet for two seconds, okay? Thanks. I'll see you in a little while. Thanks.

STAHL: Be careful.

We were scheduled to take a walk with the president around the White House grounds.

STAHL: I've got a lot of questions I didn't ask.

While we waited to see if the president was coming back, his press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany, came in with a hand delivery.

MCENANY: Lesley, the president wanted me to deliver his health care plan, it's a little heavy.

STAHL: Oh my god. This is his health care plan?

MCENANY: Yes.

STAHL: Okay. Kayleigh, thank you.

MCENANY: You're welcome and the Vice President will be with you shortly.

STAHL: Okay. And the president's not coming back?

MCENANY: The president's given you a lot of time.

It was heavy. Filled with executive orders, congressional initiatives, but no comprehensive health plan.