Donald Trump's Shocking Box Score: 602 Lies in Just 40 Minutes, An Unprecedented Tsunami of Deceit That Is Disqualifying
The debate performance Trump just turned in was the most shameful in U.S. political history. It doesn’t matter who’s running against him because he’s nonviable. And now some breaking news confirms it.
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The Breaking News
Yes, Mr. Trump lied every 3.9 seconds he was speaking in Thursday night’s debate in Atlanta.
But we’ll get to that shocking—and wholly unprecedented—revelation in a moment.
We begin, instead, with major breaking news that’s being reported exclusively here at Proof: a new poll by a U.S. pollster with an “A+” rating for accuracy from ABC News reveals that Trump voters who’ve told pollsters they’re “Democrats” are leading the charge for President Biden to end his campaign—with Democrats uninterested in the idea.
This shocking revelation is buried in the cross-tabs of a new Survey USA poll that no one in major media has reported on, possibly because it goes against the narrative being pushed by most major-media editors: that everyone wants Joe Biden to retire.
Here (below) is the relevant cross-tab; after the image(s) I’ll explain what they show us.
Here’s the blown-up version of the relevant portion of the above image, which shows responses to the question, “Should Joe Biden continue to run for a second term? Or should Joe Biden step aside and allow another Democrat to run for President?” on the basis of who the respondent told Survey USA they were voting for in November:
What we find is that 78% of “Democratic” Trump voters—yes, you read that oxymoron correctly—want Joe Biden to drop out of the race, which is not surprising because they have already decided to vote against him (and lest you wonder if in fact these Democrats became Trump voters after the debate, wonder no further: the CNN Post-Debate Poll showed us that a maximum of 5% of all likely voters in America changed their vote in any way—to include switching from a Trump vote to a Biden one—because of the debate).
Among Biden supporters—the group major media is trying to convince us desperately want President Biden off the Democratic ticket—only 1 in 4 want a new candidate.
But even this is misleading, and not just because the poll was taken in the immediate aftermath of the debate, when emotions were still running high. Yes, we might expect that 26% number to drop to 18% or 20% once emotions cool, but isn’t that still higher than would be ideal? No, it’s not—not if you followed the 2024 Democratic primaries.
In the 2024 Democratic primaries, the percentage of Democratic voters who wanted Joe Biden to be the party’s nominee—looking here only at those states where anyone else was on the ballot for voters to pick—ranged from lows of 63.8% (New Hampshire) and 70.1% (Minnesota) to highs of 96.2% (South Carolina) and 95.2% (Idaho). You will notice, and I can tell you that this trend continues even if you look at every primary, that President Biden performed best in the primaries in blood-red states Democrats can’t possibly win in November; in those states, only die-hard institutionalist voters come out to vote in the Democratic primary in a non-competitive Republican state. By comparison, if we look at the states that matter most this November, we find that the sentiment that someone other than Biden should be the nominee was always present:
Arizona: 10.7%
Colorado: 17.5%
Georgia: 6.9%
Maine: 17.2%
Michigan: 18.9%
Minnesota: 29.9%
Nevada: 10.7% (but leading Biden opponent Dean Phillips not on ballot)
New Mexico: 16.5% (but leading Biden opponent Dean Phillips not on ballot)
New Hampshire: 36.2%
North Carolina: 12.7% (but leading Biden opponent Dean Phillips not on ballot)
Pennsylvania: 12.1%
Wisconsin: 11.4%
We see here that while Biden fared best in the primaries of the six battleground states that determined the result of the 2020 U.S. presidential election—namely, Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin—even in these battleground states an average of 11.8% of Democratic voters wanted to see someone else instead of President Biden as the party’s nominee.
In the next set of six “purple” (or, as it were, “battleground”) states—Colorado, Maine, Minnesota, New Mexico, New Hampshire, and North Carolina—this figure positively balloons to 21.2%. But even this figure is low, because Dean Phillips did not appear on the ballot in two of these six states: New Mexico and North Carolina.
Because the first debate of the 2024 U.S. presidential election cycle was held a truly astounding four and a half months before Election Day, and because major media has been in an actually unprecedented anti-incumbent feeding frenzy for the last 48 hours—the period during which the Survey USA poll was taken—we can be sure (as much as one can ever be in polling) that the current 26% of Democrats who say they want Joe Biden off the Democratic ticket will decline over time; as I said, we might expect it to be at 18% to 20% by the time of Democrats’ rather late 2024 convention, then lower once President Biden is formally the nominee and beyond any possibility of removal.
What the primary data above tell us is that the sentiment that President Biden should be replaced on the Democratic ticket was approximately the same after the debate as it was before the debate, meaning that the debate had no meaningful effect on the issue and it is lobbyists, donors, politicos, journalists, and D.C. lawmakers—uniquely self-interested political operators—who want President Biden to end his political career, but not the voters who will actually decide this election.
But, as already noted, there’s a key exception to this general rule.
That exception is Trump voters—more specifically, Trump voters who are claiming to be Democrats, indeed Trump voters who are so in the bag for Mr. Trump that they’re willing to tell a pollster they’ll definitely vote for him just days before his sentencing on 34 federal felonies. Those are pretty clearly committed Trump voters. And what those committed Trump voters are doing, presumably with their eyes wide open, is massively skewing poll results about President Biden ending his campaign in a way that major-media coverage of the issue is obscuring, with the result that the Survey USA Poll’s top-line number shows about one-third of Democratic voters wanting Biden gone—still much lower than the 90% of journalists and lawmakers who do—when the reality is that the real number is (a) likely half that, and (b) unchanged from before the debate.
In other words, there’s no compelling evidence that the debate in Atlanta moved the needle on Democratic voters’ opinion of President Biden. But what of independents?
On Independent Voters: The Other Breaking News
There have now been two post-debate polls, and both appear to show President Joe Biden gaining ground on his MAGA rival Donald Trump rather than losing it.
The first poll is the Morning Consult Poll. Before the debate it showed the candidates tied; after the debate it showed 🟦 BIDEN +1.
In a very close race like this one, a gain of 1% over just a day or two is significant.
The second poll is, of course, the Survey USA Poll we’ve discussed, though this is a trickier one to analyze because we have no prior poll by the same outlet on the same question to compare it to. So what we’ll do here—acknowledging the imperfection of the methodology—is compare the Survey USA Poll to other polls taken immediately prior to the debate. And in doing so, this is what we find:
Pre-Debate Rasmussen Poll: 🟥 TRUMP +9
Pre-Debate Quinnipiac Poll: 🟥 TRUMP +4
Pre-Debate New York Times Poll: 🟥 TRUMP +4
Average of Immediate Pre-Debate Polls: 🟥 TRUMP +5.7
We can compare these figures to the—“A+”-rated—Survey USA Post-Debate Poll:
Survey USA Poll: 🟥 TRUMP +2
Is this conclusive? No, of course not. But what it does mean is that there’s absolutely no polling evidence to substantiate the major-media claim—and D.C. politico fear—that the debate cost Joe Biden support among the people who really matter: voters.
Some readers who are extremely into polls will note that the Morning Consult Poll referenced above—which put Joe Biden ahead of Donald Trump nationally, in a way rendering irrelevant any opinions voters might hold about who the candidate should be—did hold some startling figures that would naturally cause Democrats concern. For instance, 47% of Democratic voters told Morning Consult that they want Biden gone.
The problems here are manifest, however: (1) a similar question was not asked about Trump, so we’ve nothing to compare dissatisfaction with Joe Biden among Democrats to; (2) we don’t know how many of those “Democratic voters” are (once again) actually Donald Trump supporters (remembering here that in the Survey USA results, Trump voters were able to misleadingly increase the level of apparent satisfaction with Biden by as much as 10%); and (3) when we drill down on these numbers we find surprising additional findings, like the fact that 40% of independent voters thought Joe Biden won the debate.
Is 40% a great number? No. But given how Joe Biden performed on camera, that figure represents an incredible degree of openness to Biden’s age and bearing among a cadre of voters who could decide the 2024 election. By comparison, CNN reports that only 28% of all voters thought Donald Trump won the first debate of the 2020 election cycle.
More importantly, even despite its data on Democratic voter dissatisfaction with Joe Biden, Morning Consult had to concede in its post-poll press release that the most consequential finding in its poll was that “President Joe Biden has lost no immediate ground to Trump.” In other words, even those who would prefer Joe Biden not be the nominee are resigned to him now, which is basically the same situation the nation was in during the Democratic primary. The Atlanta debate simply didn’t move the needle.
But maybe it should have?
Indeed, maybe the debate should have moved the needle conclusively against Trump, as the Philadelphia Inquirer now argues?
Certainly Proof takes the same view as the Inquirer, but it’s not enough to blithely say that Trump should remove himself from American politics permanently, as the reason this is a necessity must be made as plain as possible—most notably in the fact that his debate performance in Atlanta presents, on its own, a compelling case for that outcome.
The Worst Debate Performance in American History
Proof has already catalogued some of Mr. Trump’s most egregious lies at Thursday’s debate in Atlanta—from saying the pandemic ended in January 2021 to insisting every American wanted Roe v. Wade overturned, from endorsing the neo-Nazi Great Replacement Theory to bizarrely accusing President Biden of starting the war in Ukraine, from using the word “Palestinian” as a slur to accidentally admitting that Vladimir Putin secretly revealed his plan to invade Europe to Trump before the invasion occurred—so the purpose of this report isn’t to analyze the tsunami of deceit Trump unleashed on voters in Atlanta via anecdote, but rather via Big Data.
In short, Proof is going to do what major media has thus far refused to do and count up the lies Trump told as part of his Thursday Gish gallop—a gaslighting technique used by con men and domestic abusers to make coherent debate impossible (and an especially vile and effective practice if your debating opponent is a lifelong stutterer).
There’s no known defense to the Gish gallop, largely because it’s almost unheard of in public life. Why? Because only sociopaths engage in this practice, so it generally occurs behind closed doors rather than, as here, on a nationally and internationally broadcast debate in which the sociopath in question is auditioning to be the next U.S. president.
The most one can do in the face of the Gish gallop is issue negatory summations prior to any debate response—that is, placeholder blanket rejections of everything said by the opposing party in lieu of having the time or space to rebut every lie just uttered.
Over and over during Thursday’s debate, President Biden issued precisely the sort of negatory summations one would expect an intelligent debater to use in the face of a Gish gallop, such as these monologue-heading statements from the sitting POTUS:
“He’s lying. That is simply not true.”
“Once again, he’s exaggerating. He’s lying.”
“Every single thing he said is a lie—every single one.”
“I’ve never heard so much malarkey in my whole life.”
“I’ve never heard so much foolishness.”
“I don’t know where the hell he’s been [to be saying what he’s saying].”
“He’s dead wrong.”
To be very clear, in addition to the above, President Biden repeatedly and with great specificity rebutted a number of the false claims made by Mr. Trump. But as we will see with the accounting of Trump’s lies below, even if President Biden had been permitted to be the only speaker at Thursday’s debate and been allowed to speak for 90 minutes without interruption or interjection from either the moderators or Mr. Trump; even if he hadn’t had a bad cold; even if he weren’t a lifelong stutter; even if he hadn’t been experiencing, apparently, the debilitating effects of cold-and-flu meds on eighty-one year-old men, he wouldn’t have been able to sufficiently rebut every lie Donald Trump deliberately and callously told American voters in Atlanta.
That’s why the Gish gallop is custom-made for sociopaths—you only use it when you either don’t care about consequences or simply can’t conceive of experiencing them.
The Ground Rules for This Report
Totting up lies is serious business, which is why it’s a wonder that major media has not thus far undertaken it seriously with respect to Thursday’s debate. Sure, America writ large fully expects Donald Trump to lie repeatedly at every public event—which alone should disqualify him from office—but surely someone in media happened to notice that Trump just delivered the most deceitful debate performance in American history?
By far?
Apparently not. Indeed, the fact-checks of the debate I have seen thus far are quaint, unserious affairs—quick-hit summaries that place the number of lies told by Trump at between 20 and 40 for the entire 90-minute debate, presumably because they took the time to consider only the very biggest whoppers. That accounting might be accurate if we look only at lies that suggest mental illness or some form of aggressive psychiatric derangement; by that measure, it’s possible Trump revealed himself as unfit for any office of public trust “only” (by the count at Proof) 60 times in 40 minutes of speaking.
But avoiding conspicuous, advanced, irretrievable psychiatric distress is not the bar one must clear to become President of the United States. Intentional lies told to voters are vile; such lies on matters of national security, or life-and-death, or deeply held religious values are doubly or triply so. And given that Mr. Trump spent weeks and weeks carefully preparing for this debate—according to his own team, at least—every time he elected to pass a falsehood to the American people to score political points must be seen as something considerably beyond mere error. Often getting one’s facts wrong is one thing; repeating a lie you’ve been shown repeatedly by fact-checkers is a lie, or floating a lie you know is a lie to see if you’ll be caught out, is something else.
With this in mind, here are the Proof rules for lie detection, remembering that the author of this report is a three-time national-bestselling Trump presidential historian who’s spent so much time neck-deep in Trump’s words that I’ve developed a finely honed sensibility not only for when the man is lying but how and why he lies and how he continues to spread specific lies—ones I know from being his biographer he’s well aware are lies—for years and years after he’s come to learn the truth of the matter. (In other words, his “Big Lie” about the 2020 U.S. presidential election, horrifying as it is, is par for the course with this man, and not some bizarre aberration.) So, here are the rules:
A lie is a lie each time it is said, so each repetition of a lie counts as a lie.
Stating as fact something that you have no evidence for whatsoever is a lie.
Hyperbole that no reasonable person could possibly deem factual is a lie.
An apparent statement of belief that you have repeatedly had professionally fact-checked and repeatedly been told is flatly incorrect is a lie.
A lie of omission—deliberately hiding a fact known to you that would make the statement you’ve just made impossible to credibly make—is also a lie.
Proof choosing not to note a given statement as a lie does not mean the statement in question is accurate, it simply means that it’s either an opinion, is definitionally unprovable, or is too vague and/or confusing to be denominated a lie (and Trump is, far more than major media appears willing to admit, quite regularly incoherent and/or vague, sometimes intentionally so but more usually not). So there are almost certainly statements below that are not denominated as lies, but that would in fact be deemed prevarications with more information available about how Mr. Trump intended them.
The analysis below is broken down by each of Trump’s “monologues”—either his responses to moderators’ questions or his rebuttals to President Biden’s answers.
Because there are so many lies (with the number of the lie in bold, and parentheses placed at the point in the sentence where the lie has been completed or “perfected”), Proof has only for certain statements—where the specific nature of the lie might be unclear—linked to the accompanying fact-check. To do otherwise would be to so litter the transcript below with red ink as to make it unreadable. But rest assured, there is a fact-check available for every lie Trump told American voters at Thursday’s debate.
The Trump Monologues: Thursday, June 27, 2024
Monologue 1
We had the greatest economy in the history of our country [under my administration] (1). We had never done so well (2). Every—everybody was amazed by it (3). Other countries were copying us (4).
We got hit with COVID. And when we did, we spent the money necessary (5) so we wouldn’t end up in a Great Depression the likes of which we had in 1929. By the time we finished—so we did a great job (6). We got a lot of credit for the economy, a lot of credit for the military, and no wars (7) and so many other things.
Everything was rocking good (8).
But the thing we never got the credit for, and we should have, is getting us out of that COVID mess (9). He created mandates; that was a disaster for our country (10).
But other than that, we had—we had given them back a—a country where the stock market actually was higher than pre-COVID, and nobody thought (11) that was even possible. The only jobs he created are for illegal immigrants (12) and bounceback jobs (13); they’re bounced back from the COVID.
He has not done a good job (14). He’s done a poor job (15). And inflation’s killing our country (16). It is absolutely killing us (17).
Monologue 2
[Tariffs are] not going to drive them [consumer prices] higher (18). It’s just going to cause countries that have been ripping us off for years, like China and many others, in all fairness to China—it’s going to just force them to pay us a lot of money (19), reduce our deficit tremendously (20), and give us a lot of power for other things (21).
But he—he made a statement. The only thing he was right about is I gave you the largest tax cut in history (22). I also gave you the largest regulation cut in history (23). That’s why we had all the jobs (24). And the jobs went down and then they bounced back and he’s taking credit for bounceback jobs. You can’t do that.
He also said he inherited 9% inflation. No, he inherited almost no inflation (25) and it stayed that way for 14 months (26). And then it blew up under his leadership, because they spent money like a bunch of people that didn’t know what they were doing. And they don’t know what they were doing (27). It was the worst—probably the worst administration in history (28). There’s never been (29).
And as far as Afghanistan is concerned, I was getting out of Afghanistan, but we were getting out with dignity, with strength, with power (30). He got out, it was the most embarrassing day in the history of our country’s life (31).
Monologue 3
[Taxes for the wealthy should go down] because the [2018] tax cuts spurred the greatest economy that we’ve ever seen (32) just prior to COVID, and even after COVID. It was so strong that we were able to get through COVID much better than just about any other country (33). But we spurred—that tax spurred.
Now, when we cut the taxes—as an example, the corporate tax was cut down to 21 percent (34) from 39 percent, plus beyond that—we took in more revenue with much less tax (35) and companies were bringing back trillions of dollars (36) back into our country.
The country was going like never before (37). And we were ready to start paying down debt (38). We were ready to start using the liquid gold right under our feet, the oil and gas right under our feet. We were going to have something that nobody else has had (39). We got hit with COVID. We did a lot to fix it (40). I gave him an unbelievable situation, with all of the therapeutics and all of the things that we (41) came up with. We—we gave him something great (42).
Remember, more people died under his administration, even though we had largely fixed it [by January 20, 2021] (43). More people died under his administration than our administration, and we were right in the middle of it. Something which a lot of people don’t like to talk about, but he had far more people dying in his administration.
He did the mandate (44^), which is a disaster. Mandating it—the vaccine [that] went out (45^). He did a mandate on the vaccine (46^), which is the thing that people most objected to about the vaccine. And he did a very poor job (47), just a very poor job (48).
And I will tell you, not only poor there (49), but throughout the entire world, we’re no longer respected as a country (50). They don’t respect our leadership (51). They don’t respect the United States anymore (52).
We’re like a Third World nation (53). Between weaponization of his election (54), trying to go after his political opponent (55), all of the things he’s done, we’ve become like a Third World nation (56). And it’s a shame the damage he’s done to our country.
And I’d love to ask him, and will, why he allowed millions of people to come in here from prisons (57), jails (58) and mental institutions (59) to come into our country and destroy our country (60).
Monologue 4
Well, he’s right: He did beat Medicaid—he beat it to death (61). And he’s destroying Medicare (62), because all of these people are coming in, they’re putting them on Medicare (63), they’re putting them on Social Security (64).
They’re going to destroy Social Security (65).
This man is going to single-handedly destroy Social Security (66). These millions and millions of people coming in, they’re trying to put them on Social Security (67). He will wipe out Social Security (68). He will wipe out Medicare (69). So he was right in the way he finished that sentence, and it’s a shame.
What’s happened to our country in the last four years is not to be believed.
Foreign countries—I’m friends with a lot of people (70). They cannot believe what happened to the United States of America. We’re no longer respected (71). They don’t like us (72). We give them everything they want (73), and they—they think we’re stupid (74). They think we’re very stupid people (75).
What we’re doing for other countries, and they do nothing for us (76). What this man has done is absolutely criminal (77).
Monologue 5
First of all, the Supreme Court just approved the abortion pill (78*). And I agree with their decision to have done that, and I will not block it (79).
And if you look at this whole question that you’re asking, a complex, but not really complex—51 years ago, you had Roe v. Wade, and everybody wanted to get it back to the states (80), everybody (81), without exception (82). Democrats (83), Republicans (84), liberals (85), conservatives (86), everybody wanted it back (87). Religious leaders (88).
And what I did is I put three great Supreme Court justices on the court, and they happened (89) to vote in favor of killing Roe v. Wade and moving it back to the states. This is something that everybody wanted (90).
Now, ten years ago or so (91), they started talking about how many weeks and how many of this—getting into other things—but every legal scholar (92), throughout the world (93), the most respected (94), wanted it brought back to the states (95). I did that.
Now the states are working it out. If you look at Ohio, it was a decision that was—that was an end result that was a little bit more liberal than you would have thought. Kansas I would say the same thing. Texas is different. Florida is different. But they’re all making their own decisions right now. And right now, the states control it. That’s the vote of the people (96).
Like Ronald Reagan, I believe in the exceptions. I am a person that believes. And frankly, I think it’s important to believe in the exceptions. Some people—you have to follow your heart. Some people don’t believe in that. But I believe in the exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the mother. I think it’s very important. Some people don’t. Follow your heart.
But you have to get elected also and—because that has to do with other things. You got to get elected.
The problem they have is they’re radical, because they will take the life of a child in the eighth month (97), the ninth month (98), and even after birth (99)—after birth (100).
If you look at the former governor of Virginia, he was willing to do this (101). He said, “We’ll put the baby aside and we’ll determine what we do with the baby” (102). Meaning, we’ll kill the baby (103).
What happened is we brought it back to the states and the country is now coming together on this issue (104). It’s been a great thing (105).
Monologue 6
There have been many young women murdered by the same people he allows to come across our border (106). We have a border that’s the most dangerous place anywhere in the world (107)—considered the most dangerous place anywhere in the world (108). And he opened it up (109), and these killers are coming into our country, and they are raping and killing women. And it’s a terrible thing.
As far as the abortion’s concerned, it is now back with the states. The states are voting and in many cases, they—it’s, frankly, a very liberal decision (110). In many cases, it’s the opposite.
But they’re voting and it’s bringing it back to the vote of the people (111), which is what everybody wanted (112), including the Founders (113), if they knew about this issue, which frankly they didn’t (114), but they would have—everybody want it brought back (115).
Ronald Reagan wanted it brought back (116). He wasn’t able to get it.
Everybody wanted it brought back (117) and many presidents had tried to get it back (118). I was the one to do it.
And again, this gives it the vote of the people (119). And that’s where they wanted it (120). Every legal scholar wanted it that way (121).
Monologue 7
So that means he can take the life of the baby in the ninth month (122) and even after birth (123), because some states, Democrat-run, take it after birth (124). Again, the governor—former governor of Virginia: put the baby down, then we decide what to do with it (125).
So he’s in—he’s willing to, as we say, rip the baby out of the womb in the ninth month (126) and kill the baby (127).
Nobody wants that to happen. Democrat or Republican, nobody wants it to happen.
Monologue 8
Under Roe v. Wade, you have late-term abortion (128). You can do whatever you want (129). Depending on the state, you can do whatever you want (130).
We don’t think that’s a good thing. We think it’s a radical thing. We think the Democrats are the radicals, not the Republicans.
Monologue 9
Look, we had the safest border in the history of our country (131). The border—all he had to do was leave it (132). All he had to do was leave it (133).
He decided to open up our border (134), open up our country to people that are from prisons (135), people that are from mental institutions (136), insane asylum {sic} (137), terrorists (138). We have the largest number of terrorists coming into our country right now (139). All terrorists (140), [from] all over the world—not just in South America, all over the world (141). They come from the Middle East, everywhere (142).
All over the world, they’re pouring in (143). And this guy just left it open (144).
And he didn’t need legislation because I didn’t have legislation. I said, close the border (145). We had the safest border in history (146). In that final couple of months of my presidency, we had, according to Border Patrol—who is great, and, by the way, who endorsed me for president (147). But I won’t say that. But they endorsed me for president (148).
But, look, we had the safest border in history (149). Now we have the worst border in history (150). There’s never been anything like it (151). And people are dying all over the place (152), including the people that are coming up in caravans.
Monologue 10
He said we killed three people (153^^). The people we killed are al-Baghdadi and Salamani {sic}, the two greatest terrorists, biggest terrorists anywhere in the world (154). And it had a huge impact on everything (155); not just border (156), on everything (157).
He’s the one that killed people with the bad border, including hundreds of thousands of people dying (158), and also killing our citizens when they come in (159). We—we are living right now in a rat’s nest. They’re killing our people in New York, in California, in every state in the union, because we don’t have borders anymore (160). Every state is now a border [state] (161).
And because of his ridiculous, insane and very stupid policies, people are coming in and they’re killing our citizens at a level that we’ve never seen (162). We call it migrant crime. I call it Biden migrant crime.
They’re killing our citizens at a level that we’ve never seen before (163). And you’re reading it like these three incredible young girls over the last few days. One of them, I just spoke to the mother, and we just had the funeral for this girl, twelve years old.
This is horrible what’s taken place. What’s taken place in our country, we’re literally an uncivilized country now (164).
He doesn’t want it to be. He just doesn’t know. He opened the borders (165) nobody’s ever seen anything like. And we have to get a lot of these people out and we have to get them out fast, because they’re going to destroy our country (166).
Just take a look at where they’re living. They’re living in luxury hotels in New York City and other places (167). Our veterans are on the street, they’re dying, because he doesn’t care about our veterans (168). He doesn’t care (169). He doesn’t like the military at all (170). And he doesn’t care about our veterans (171).
Nobody’s been worse (172). I had the highest approval rating for veterans (173), taking care of the [Veterans Administration]. He has the worst (174). He’s gotten rid of all the things that I approved (175), choice (176), that I got through Congress (177). All of the different things I approved (178), they abandoned (179).
We had, by far (180), the highest (181), and now it’s down in less than half because he’s done—all these great things that we did – and I think he did it just because I approved it (182), which is crazy. But he has killed so many people at our border (183) by allowing—{the debate moderator stops Trump because he has reached his allotted speaking time}.
Monologue 11
First of all, that was a made-up quote, suckers and losers (184). They made it up (185). It was in a third-rate magazine (186) that’s failing, like many of these magazines. He made that up (187). He put it in commercials. We’ve notified them. We had nineteen people that said I didn’t say it (188).
And think of this, who would say—I’m at a cemetery (189), or I’m talking about our veterans—because nobody’s taken better care. I’m so glad this came up, and he brought it up. There’s nobody that’s taken better care of our soldiers than I have (190).
To think that I would, in front of generals and others, say suckers and losers—we have nineteen people that said it was never said by me (191). It was made up by him (192), just like Russia, Russia, Russia was made up (193), just like the 51 intelligence agents are made up (194), just like the new thing with the 16 economists are talking (195).
It’s the same thing. Fifty-one intelligence agents said that the laptop was Russia disinformation (196^^^). It wasn’t. That came from his son Hunter (197). It wasn’t Russia disinformation. He made up the suckers and losers (198), so he should apologize to me right now.
Monologue 12
First of all, our veterans and our soldiers can’t stand this guy (199). They can’t stand him (200). They think he’s the worst commander in chief (201), if that’s what you call him (202), that we’ve ever had. They can’t stand him (203). So let’s get that straight.
And they like me more than just about any of them (204). And that’s based on every single bit of information (205).
As far as Russia and Ukraine, if we had a real president, a president that knew—that was respected by Putin, he would have never, he would have never invaded Ukraine (206).
A lot of people are dead right now, much more than people know. You know, they talk about numbers. You can double those numbers, maybe triple those numbers. He did nothing to stop it (207). In fact, I think he encouraged Russia from going in (208).
I’ll tell you what happened. He was so bad with Afghanistan, it was such a horrible embarrassment, most embarrassing moment in the history of our country (209), that when Putin watched that and he saw the incompetence that he should, he should have fired those generals like I fired the one that you mentioned, and so he’s got no love lost. But he should have fired those generals.
No general got fired for the most embarrassing moment in the history of our country (210), Afghanistan, where we left billions of dollars of equipment behind, we lost 13 beautiful soldiers and 38 soldiers were obliterated (211). And by the way, we left people behind too. We left American citizens behind.
When Putin saw that, he said, “You know what? I think we’re going to go in and maybe take my” (212)—this was his dream. I talked to him about it, his dream. The difference is he never would have invaded Ukraine (213). Never (214).
Just like Israel would have never been invaded, in a million years, by Hamas (215). You know why? Because Iran was broke with me (216). I wouldn’t let anybody do business with them. They ran out of money (217). They were broke (218). They had no money for Hamas (219). They had no money for anything (220). No money for terror (221).
That’s why you had no terror at all during my administration (222). This place, the whole world is blowing up under him (223).
Monologue 13
I never said that [Putin would take Kyiv in five days] (224). [And] no, [Putin’s demand of Ukraine are] not acceptable [to me] (225). No, they’re not acceptable (226).
But look, this is a war that never should have started. If we had a leader in this war—he led everybody along. He’s given $200 billion now (227) or more (228) to Ukraine. He’s given $200 billion (229). That’s a lot of money. I don’t think there’s ever been anything like it (230). Every time that Zelenskyy comes to this country, he walks away with $60 billion (231). He’s the greatest salesman ever.
And I’m not knocking him, I’m not knocking anything. I’m only saying, the money that we’re spending on this war, and we shouldn’t be spending, it should have never happened.
I will have that war settled between Putin and Zelenskyy as president-elect before I take office on January 20th (232). I’ll have that war settled (233).
People being killed so needlessly, so stupidly, and I will get it settled and I’ll get it settled fast (234), before I take office (235).
Monologue 14
Just going back to Ukraine for one second, we have an ocean separating us. The European nations together have spent $100 billion, or maybe more than that, less than us (236). Why doesn’t he call them so you got to put up your money like I did with NATO? I got them to put up hundreds of billions of dollars (237). The secretary general of NATO said Trump did the most incredible job I’ve ever seen (238). You wouldn’t—they wouldn’t have any—they were going out of business (239). We were spending—almost 100 percent of the money was—it was paid by us (240).
He didn’t do that. He is getting all—you got to ask these people to put up the money. We’re over $100 billion more spent, and it has a bigger impact on them, because of location, because we have an ocean in between. You got to ask them.
As far as Israel and Hamas, Israel’s the one that wants to go—he said the only one who wants to keep going is Hamas. Actually, Israel is the one (241). And you should them go and let them finish the job.
He doesn’t want to do it. He’s become like a Palestinian (242). But they don’t like him, because he’s a very bad Palestinian. He’s a weak one.
Monologue 15
I’d have to see [about whether I would support an independent Palestinian state] (243).
But before we do that, the problem we have is that we spend all the money. So they kill us on trade. I made great trade deals with the European nations (244), because if you add them up, they’re about the same size economically (245). Their economy is about the same size as the United States (246). And they were—no cars. No—they don’t want anything that we have (247). But we’re supposed to take their cars, their food, their everything, their agriculture. I changed that (248).
But the big thing I changed is they don’t want to pay. And the only reason that he can play games with NATO is because I got them to put up hundreds of billions of dollars. I said—and he’s right about this, I said, no, I’m not going to support NATO if you don’t pay. They asked me that question—“Would you guard us against Russia?”—at a very secret meeting of the 28 states at that time, nations at that time. And they {sic} said, no, if you don’t pay, I won’t do that. And you know what happened? Billions and billions of dollars came flowing in the next day and the next months.
But now, we’re in the same position. We’re paying everybody’s bills (249).
Monologue 16
Well, I don’t think too many [voters] believe that [I violated my presidential oath] (250).
And let me tell you about January 6th. On January 6th, we had a great border (251), nobody coming through (252), very few (253). On January 6th, we were energy independent (254). On January 6th, we had the lowest taxes ever (255), we had the lowest regulations ever (256). On January 6th, we were respected all over the world (257).
All over the world we were respected (258), and then he comes in, and we’re now laughed at (259), we’re like a bunch of stupid people (260). What happened to the United States’ reputation under this man’s leadership is horrible (261), including weaponization (262), which I’m sure at some point you’ll be talking about, where he goes after his political opponent (263) because he can’t beat him fair and square (264).
I didn’t say to anybody [that they should trespass on Capitol grounds on January 6] (265). I said “peacefully and patriotically” (266).
And Nancy Pelosi, if you just watch the news from two days ago, on tape to her daughter, who’s a documentary filmmaker, as they say, what she’s saying, “Oh, no, it’s my responsibility, I was responsible for this” (267). Because I offered her 10,000 soldiers or National Guard (268), and she turned them down (269). And the mayor of—in writing, by the way, the mayor. In writing turned it down, the mayor of D.C. They turned it down.
I offered 10,000 (270) because I could see—I had virtually nothing to do [with January 6] (271). They asked me (272) to go make a speech. I could see what was happening. Everybody was saying they’re going to be there on January 6th (273). They’re going to be there. And I said, you know what? There’s a lot of people coming, you could feel it. You could feel it too. And you could feel it. And I said, they ought to have some National Guard or whatever (274). And I offered it to [Pelosi] (275). And she now admits that she turned it down (276). And it was the same day. She was—I don’t know, you can’t be very happy with her daughter because it made her into a liar (277). She said, I take full responsibility for January 6th (278).
Monologue 17
What they’ve done to some people [who entered the Capitol on January 6] that are so innocent (279), you ought to be ashamed of yourself, what you have done, how you’ve destroyed the lives (280) of so many people.
When they ripped down Portland (281), when they ripped down many other cities (282)—you go to Minnesota, Minneapolis, what they’ve done there with the fires all over the city. If I didn’t bring in the National Guard (283), that city would have been destroyed (284).
When you look at all of the—they took over big chunks (285) of Seattle. I was all set to bring in the National Guard. They heard that, they saw them coming and they left immediately (286).
What he said about this whole subject is so off. Peacefully patriotic.
One other thing, the unselect committee (287), which is basically two horrible Republicans that are all gone now, out of office, and Democrats, all Democrats, they destroyed and deleted all of the information they found (288), because they found out we were right (289). We were right (290). And they deleted and destroyed all of the information (291).
They should go to jail for that (292). If a Republican did that, they’d go to jail (293).
Monologue 18
Well, I said my retribution [against my enemies if re-elected] is going to be success (294). We’re going to make this country successful again, because right now it’s a failing nation (295). My retribution’s going to be success (296).
But when he talks about a convicted felon, his son is a convicted felon at a very high level (297). His son is convicted. Going to be convicted probably numerous other times. He should have been convicted before (298), but his Justice Department (299) let the statute of limitations lapse on the most important things.
But he could be a convicted felon as soon as he gets out of office (300). Joe could be a convicted felon with all of the things that he’s done (301). He’s done horrible things (302). All of the death caused at the border (303), telling the Ukrainian people that we’re going to want a billion dollars or you change the prosecutor, otherwise, you’re not getting a billion dollars (304).
If I ever said that (305), that’s quid pro quo. That—we’re not going to do anything, we’re not going to give you a billion dollars unless you change your prosecutor having to do with his son (306**).
This man is a criminal (307). This man—you’re lucky. You’re lucky.
I did nothing wrong (308). We have a system that was rigged (309) and disgusting. I did nothing wrong (310).
Monologue 19
I didn’t have sex with a porn star, number one (311).
Number two, that was a case that was started and moved—they moved a high-ranking official, a DOJ, into the Manhattan D.A.’s office to start that case (312). That case is going to be appealed in one.
We had a very terrible judge (313), a horrible judge (314), Democrat. The prosecutor were all high-ranking (315) Democrats, appointed (316) people. And the—both the civil and the criminal (317).
He basically went after his political opponent (318) because he thought it was going to damage me. But when the public found out about these cases—because they understand it better than he does, he has no idea what these cases are (319). But when he—they—when they found out about these cases, you know what they did? My poll numbers went up way up (320). You know that (321) because you’re reporting it (322).
And we took in more money in the last two weeks than we’ve ever taken in in the history of any campaign (323), I don’t think any campaign has ever taken (324).
Hundreds of millions of dollars (325) came pouring in because the public knows it’s a scam (326) and it’s a guy that’s after his political opponent (327) because he can’t win fair and square (328).
Monologue 20
Jake, both of you know that story’s been totally wiped out [about me saying that Hitler “did some good things”] (329). Because when you see the sentence, it said 100 percent exoneration (330) on there. So he just keeps it going.
He says he ran because of Charlottesville. He didn’t run because of Charlottesville (331). He ran because it was his last chance at—he’s not equipped to be president (332). You know it (333) and I know it (334).
It’s ridiculous. We have a debate. We’re trying to justify his presidency.
His presidency, his—without question, the worst president (335), the worst presidency in the history of our country (336). We shouldn’t be having a debate about it. There’s nothing to debate (337).
He made up the Charlottesville story (338) and you’ll see it’s debunked all over the place (339). Every anchor has—every reasonable anchor has debunked it (340#).
And just the other day it came out where it was fully (341) debunked. It’s a nonsense story (342). He knows that.
And he didn’t run because of Charlottesville (343). He used that as an excuse to run.
Monologue 21
And he caused the inflation (344). He’s blaming inflation. And he’s right, it’s been very bad. He caused the inflation (345) and it’s killing black families and Hispanic families and just about everybody (346). It’s killing people (347). They can’t buy groceries anymore (348). They can’t (349).
You look at the cost of food where it’s doubled and tripled and quadrupled (350). They can’t live (351). They’re not living anymore (352). He caused this inflation (353).
I gave him a country with no, essentially no inflation (354). It was perfect (355). It was so good. All he had to do is leave it alone. He destroyed it (356) with his green new scam and all of the other—all this money that’s being thrown out the window.
He caused inflation (357). As sure as you’re sitting there, the fact is that his big kill on the black people is the millions of people that he’s allowed to come in through the border. They’re taking black jobs now (358) and it could be 18 (359), it could be 19 (360), and even 20 million people (361). They’re taking black jobs (362) and they’re taking Hispanic jobs (363) and you haven’t seen it yet, but you’re going to see something that’s going to be the worst in our history.
Monologue 22
Let me just go back to what he said about the police, how close the police are to him.
Almost every police group in the nation (364) from every state (365) is supporting Donald J. Trump, almost every police group (366). And what he has done to the black population is horrible (367), including the fact that for ten years he called them “super predators” (368). We can’t, in the 1990s (369), we can’t forget that. “Super predators” was his name (370). And he called it to them for ten [years] (371), and they’ve taken great offense at it (372), and now they see it happening.
But, when they see what I did for criminal justice reform and for the historically black colleges and universities, where I funded them and got them all funded (373), and the opportunity zones with Tim. As you know, Tim Scott was—incredible, he did a great job, a great Senator from South Carolina. He came to me with the idea and it was a great idea. It’s one of the most successful economic development acts ever in the country, opportunity zones (374). And the biggest beneficiary are blacks (375). And that’s why we have the best numbers with them in maybe ever (376), they’re saying ever (377), I read this morning, wherever, the best numbers (378), he has lost much of the black population (379) because he has done a horrible job for black people (380). He has also done a horrible job for Hispanics (381).
But, why do you see these millions of people pouring into our country and they’re going to take the jobs? And it’s already started. And you haven’t seen anything yet (382). It’s a disaster.
Monologue 22
I want absolutely immaculate clean water (383) and I want absolutely clean air (384), and we had it (385). We had H2O. We had the best numbers ever (386). And we did— we were using all forms of energy, all forms, everything (387). And yet, during my four years, I had the best environmental numbers ever (388). And my top environmental people (389) gave me that statistic just before I walked on the stage, actually.
Monologue 23
The Paris Accord was going to cost us a trillion dollars (390), and China nothing (391), and Russia nothing (392), and India nothing (393). It was a ripoff of the United States. And I ended it because I didn’t want to waste that money because they treat us horribly. We were the only ones—it was costing us money. Nobody else was paying into it (394). And it was a disaster (395).
But, everything that he said just now, I’ll give you an example. I heard him say before insulin, I’m the one that got the insulin down for the seniors (396). I took care of the seniors (397). What he is doing is destroying all of our medical programs (398) because the migrants coming in. They want everybody (399). And look, I have the biggest heart on the stage (400). I guarantee you that (401). And I want to take care of people. But, we’re destroying our country (402). They’re taking over our schools, our hospitals (403), and they’re going to be taking over Social Security (404). He is destroying Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid (405).
Monologue 24
I’ve dealt with politicians all my life. I’ve been on this side of the equation for the last eight years. I’ve never seen anybody lie like this guy (406). He lies—I’ve never seen it (407). He could look you in the face. So—and about so many other things, too.
And we mentioned the laptop (408), We mentioned “Russia, Russia, Russia” (409), “Ukraine, Ukraine, Ukraine” (410). And everything he does is a lie (411). It’s misinformation and disinformation (412). The “losers and suckers” story (413) that he made up (414) is a total lie (415) on the military. It’s a disgrace.
But Social Security, he’s destroying it (416). Because millions of people are pouring into our country, and they’re putting them on to Social Security (417); they’re putting them on to Medicare (418), Medicaid (419). They’re putting them in our hospitals. They’re taking the place of our citizens (420).
They’re—what they’re doing to the V.A., to our veterans, is unbelievable (421). Our veterans are living in the street and these people are living in luxury hotels (422). He doesn’t know what he’s doing. And it—it’s really coming back. I’ve never seen such anger in our country before.
Monologue 25
The general [White House Chief of Staff John Kelly] got fired (423) because he was no good (424). And if he said that, that’s why he made it up (425). But we have 19 people that said I didn’t say it (426), and they’re very highly respected (427), much more so than him [Kelly] (428).
The other thing is, he doesn’t fire people (429). He never fired people (430). I’ve never seen him fire anybody (431). I did fire a lot (432). I fired Comey because he was no good (433). I fired a lot of the top people at the FBI, drained the swamp (434). They were no good (435). Not easy to fire people. You’d pay a price for it, but they were no good (436). I inherited these people. I didn’t put him there. I didn’t put Comey there. He was no good (437). I fired him.
This guy hasn’t fired anybody (438). He never fires (439). He should have fired every military man that was involved with that Afghan—the Afghanistan horror show. The most embarrassing moment in the history of our country (440). He didn’t fire?
Did you fire anybody? Did you fire anybody that’s on the border, that’s allowed us to have the worst border in the history of the world (441)? Did anybody get fired for allowing 18 million people (442), many from prisons (443), many from mental institutions (444)? Did you fire anybody that allowed our country to be destroyed (445)? Joe, our country is being destroyed (446) as you and I sit up here and waste a lot of time on this debate. This shouldn’t be a debate (447***).
He is the worst president (448). He just said it about me because I said it (449). But look, he’s the worst president in the history of our country (450). He’s destroyed our country (451). Now, all of a sudden (452), he’s trying to get a little tough on the border. He come out—came out with a nothing deal (453), and it reduced it a little bit (454). A little bit (455), like this much (456). It’s insignificant (457).
He wants open borders (458). He wants our country to either be destroyed (459) or he wants to pick up those people as voters (460). And I don’t think—we just can’t let it happen. If he wins this election, our country doesn’t have a chance (461). Not even a chance of coming out of this rut (462). We probably won’t have a country left anymore (463).
That’s how bad it is. He is the worst in history by far (464).
Monologue 26
Just you understand, we have polling. We have other things that do—they rate him the worst [president] (465) because what he’s done is so bad. And they rate me—yes, I’ll show you (466). I will show you (467). And they rate me one of the best (468). Okay.
And if I’m given another four years, I will be the best. I think I’ll be the best. Nobody’s ever created an economy like us (469). Nobody ever cut taxes like us (470). He’s the only one I know (471). He wants to raise your taxes by four times (472). He wants to raise everybody’s taxes by four times (473). He wants the Trump tax cuts to expire so everybody, including the two of you, are going to pay four to five times [more] (474). Nobody ever heard of this before.
All my life I’d grow up and I’d see politicians talking about cutting taxes. When we cut taxes, as I said, we did more business (475). Apple and all these companies, they were bringing money back into our country. The worst president in history by far (476), and everybody knows it (477).
Monologue 27
We now have the largest deficit in the history of our country under this guy (478), we have the largest deficit with China (479). He gets paid by China (480). He’s a Manchurian candidate (481). He gets money from China (482). So I think he’s afraid to deal with him or something.
But do you notice? He never took out my tariffs (483) because we bring in so much money with the tariffs that I imposed on China. He never took them away (484). He can’t because it’s too much money. It’s tremendous. And we saved our steel industries (485). And there was more to come (486), but he hasn’t done that.
But he hasn’t cut the tariffs (487) because he can’t, because it’s too much money. But he’s got the largest deficit in the history of our country (488) and he’s got the worst situation with China (489). China is going to own us if you keep allowing them to do what they’re doing to us as a country. They are killing us as a country (490), Joe, and you can’t let that happen. You’re destroying our country (491).
We were doing very well at addiction until the COVID came along (492). We had the two-and-a-half, almost three years of like nobody’s ever had before (493), any country in every way (494). And then we had to get tough. And it was—the drugs pouring across the border, we’re—it started to increase (495).
We got great equipment. We bought the certain dog. That’s the most incredible thing that you’ve ever seen, the way they can spot it. We did a lot. And we had—we were getting very low numbers (496). Very, very low numbers (497).
Then he came along. The numbers—have you seen the numbers now? It’s not only the 18 million people (498) that I believe is even low (499), because the gotaways, they don’t even talk about gotaways. But the numbers of—the amount of drugs and human trafficking in women coming across our border, the worst thing I’ve ever seen at numbers (500)—nobody’s ever seen (501) under him because the border is so bad. But the number of drugs coming across our border now is the largest we’ve ever had by far (502).
Monologue 27
He ended “Remain in Mexico,” he ended catch and release. I made it catch and release in Mexico, not catch and release here. We had so many things that we had done, hard negotiations with Mexico, and I got it all for nothing (503).
It’s just like when you have a hostage, we always pay $6 billion for a—every time we sees hostage. Now we have a hostage. A Wall Street Journal reporter, I think a good guy, and he’s over there because Putin is laughing at this guy (504), probably asking for billions of dollars (505) for the reporter.
I will have him out very quickly, as soon as I take office, before I take office. I said by literally as soon as I win the election, I will have that reporter out. He should have had him out a long time ago. But Putin is probably asking for billions and billions of dollars (506) because this guy pays it every time.
We had two cases where we paid $6 billion for five people. I got 58 people out and I paid essentially nothing (507).
Monologue 28
I took two tests, cognitive tests. I aced them, both of them, as you know (508). We made it public. He took none. I’d like to see him take one, just one, a real easy one. Like go through the first five questions, he couldn’t do it (509). But I took two cognitive tests. I took physical exams every year. And, you know, we knock on wood, wherever we may have wood, that I’m in very good health (510). I just won two club championships, not even senior, two regular club championships (511). To do that, you have to be quite smart and you have to be able to hit the ball a long way. And I do it. He doesn’t do it (512). He can’t hit a ball 50 yards (513). He challenged me to a golf match. He can’t hit a ball 50 yards (514).
I think I’m a very good shape. I feel that I’m in as good a shape as I was 25, 30 years ago. Actually, I’m probably a little bit lighter (515). But I’m in as good a shape as I was years ago (516). I feel very good. I feel the same.
But I took—I was willing to take a cognitive test. And you know what, if I didn’t do well—I aced them. Dr. Ronny Jackson, who’s a great guy (517), when he was White House doctor. And then I took another one, a similar one, and both—one of them said they’d never seen anybody ace them (518).
Exchange 1
BIDEN: You’re going to see [on his medical reports that] he’s “six-foot-five” and only “225” pounds—or “235” pounds.
TRUMP: {Inaudible.}
BIDEN: Well, you said [you were] “six-four,” “200 [pounds].”
TRUMP: {Inaudible.}
BIDEN: Well, anyway, just take a look at what he says he is [height and weight-wise] and take a look at what he [actually] is.Look, I’d be happy to have a [golfing] driving contest with him. I got my handicap, which, when I was vice president, down to a 6. And by the way, I told you before I’m happy to play golf if you carry your own bag. Think you can do it?
TRUMP: That’s the biggest lie that he’s a 6 handicap (519), of all.
BIDEN: I was [an] 8 handicap.
TRUMP: Yeah.
BIDEN: Eight, but I have—you know how many—
TRUMP: I’ve seen your swing. I know your swing.
BASH: President Trump, we’re going to—
TRUMP: Let’s not act like children.
BIDEN: You are a child.
Monologue 29
I shouldn’t have to say that [I think political violence is unacceptable], but, of course, I believe that (520). It’s totally unacceptable (521). And if you would see my statements that I made on Twitter at the time [on January 6] (522), and also my statement that I made in the Rose Garden, you would say it’s one of the strongest statements you’ve ever seen (523).
In addition to the speech I made, in front of, I believe, the largest crowd I’ve ever spoken to (524), and I will tell you, nobody ever talks about that. They talk about a relatively small number of people that went to the Capitol (525). And in many cases were ushered in by the police (526).
And as Nancy Pelosi said, it was her responsibility, not mine (527). She said that loud and clear (528).
But the answer is, if the election is fair [and] free, and I want that more than anybody (529).
And I’ll tell you something—I wish he was a great president because I wouldn’t be here right now (530). I’d be at one of my many places enjoying myself. I wouldn’t be under indictment because I wouldn’t have been his political appoint—you know, opponent (531****). Because he indicted me (532) because I was his opponent (533).
I wish he was a great president (534). I would rather have that (535).
I wouldn’t be here (536). I don’t mind being here, but the only reason I’m here is he’s so bad as a president (537) that I’m going to make America great again. We’re going to make America great again.
We’re a failing nation right now (538). We’re a seriously failing nation (539). And we’re a failing nation because of him (540).
His policies are so bad. His military policies are insane (541). They’re insane (542).
These are wars that will never end with him. He will drive us into World War Three and we’re closer to World War Three than anybody can imagine. We are very, very close to World War Three (543), and he’s driving us there (544).
And Kim Jong-Un, and President Xi of China—Kim Jong-Un of North Korea, all of these—Putin—they don’t respect him. They don’t fear him. They have nothing going with this gentleman and he’s going to drive us into World War Three (545).
Monologue 30
Russia—they took a lot of land from Bush (546). They took a lot of land from Obama (547) and Biden (548). They took no land, nothing from Trump (549), nothing (550).
He knew not to do it. He’s not going to play games with me (551). He knew that. I got along with him very well, but he knew not to play games (552).
He took nothing from me (553), but now, he’s going to take the whole thing (554) from this man right here.
That’s a war that should have never started. It would’ve never started ever with me. And he’s going to take Ukraine (555) and, you know, you asked me a question before, would you do this with—he’s got us in such a bad position right now with Ukraine and Russia because Ukraine’s not winning that war (556).
[Zelensky] said, I will never settle until such time—they’re running out of people, they’re running out of soldiers, they’ve lost so many people. It’s so sad.
They’ve lost so many people and they’ve lost those gorgeous cities with the golden domes that are 1,000-years-old, all because of [Biden] and [his] stupid decisions (557).
Russia would’ve never attacked if I were president (558).
Monologue 30
If it’s a fair and legal and good election [in 2024]—absolutely [I will accept the results] (559).
I would have much rather accepted these [2020 results] (560) but the fraud and everything else was ridiculous (561) that if you want, we’ll have a news conference on it in a week or we’ll have another one of these on—in a week (562).
But I will absolutely [accept the results if I lose]—there’s nothing I’d rather do (563). It would be much easier for me to do that than I’m running again. I wasn’t really going to run (564) until I saw the horrible job he did. He’s destroying our country (565).
I would be very happy to be someplace else, in a nice location someplace (566). And again, no indictments, no “political opponents” stuff (567), because it’s the only way he thinks he can win (568).
But unfortunately, it’s driven up by {sic} numbers (569) and driven it up to a very high level (570), because the people understand it.
Closing Statement
Like so many politicians, this man is just a complainer. He said we want to do this. We want to do that. We want to get rid of this tax, that tax, but he doesn’t do anything (571). He doesn’t do (572).
All he does is make our country unsafe (573) by allowing millions and millions of people to pour in. Our military doesn’t respect him (574). We look like fools in Afghanistan.
We didn’t stop—Israel, it was such a horrible thing that would have never happened [under my administration] (575). It should have never happened.
Iran was broke (576). Anybody that did business with Iran, including China, they couldn’t do business with the United States (577). They all passed (578).
Iran was broke (579). They had no money (580) for Hamas (581) or Hezbollah (582), for terror (583), no money whatsoever (584).
Again, Ukraine should have never happened.
He talks about all this stuff, but he didn’t do it. For three-and-a-half years, we’re living in hell (585). We have the Palestinians (586) and we have everybody else rioting all over the place (587).
You talk about Charlottesville. This is 100 times Charlottesville (588), 1,000 times (589).
The whole country is exploding because of you (590), because they don’t respect you (591). And they have to respect their president and they don’t respect you throughout the world (592).
What we did was incredible. We re—rebuilt the military (593). We got the largest tax cut in history (594), the largest regulation cut in history (595).
The reason he’s got jobs is because I cut the regulations that gave jobs, but he’s putting a lot of those regulations back on.
All of the things that we’ve done, nobody’s ever—never seen anything like (596)—even from a medical standpoint. Right to Try, where we can try Space Age materials instead of going to Asia or going to Europe and trying to get when you’re terminally ill (597). Now, you can go and you can get something (598). You sign a document (599). They’ve been trying to get it for 42 years.
But you know what we did for the military was incredible (600). Choice for our soldiers, where our soldiers, instead of waiting for three months to see a doctor, can go out and get themselves fixed up and readied up, and take care of themselves and they’re living. And that’s why I had the highest approval rating of the history of the Veterans Administration (601).
So, all of these things—we’re in a failing nation (602), but it’s not going to be failing anymore. We’re going to make it great again.
Notes
^Trump repeatedly implies that President Biden created a “mandate” that required all Americans to be vaccinated. He did not. In fact, even at its broadest, the mandate the president created would have required well under a third of Americans to be vaccinated.
^^President Biden never said anything of the sort.
^^^The agents clearly said that the laptop story had all the “earmarks” of an FSB op, which it did. They equally clearly indicated that they could not assess with certainty the reality of the matter.
*The Supreme Court did not “approve” the abortion pill mifepristone. It held that a far-right non-profit did not have standing to sue to take the pill off the market—but left wide open the possibility that other entities might have such standing.
**In fact, the prosecutor in question was not tasked with investigating the conduct of Burisma during the period of time Hunter Biden was on its board, but rather a different period in the company’s history—when Biden’s son had nothing to do with it.
***Trump here implies that he did not want to participate in the Atlanta debate. In fact, he and his team eagerly agreed to it, and reached agreements with the Biden team on every facet of its conduct, structure, and purpose. It wasn’t imposed on him.
****The investigations that Trump is referring to began before he announced his 2024 candidacy—and this despite the fact that he announced that candidacy far earlier than is common in American politics.
#American media has universally—and correctly—reported that Donald Trump called far-right activists who willingly marched alongside neo-Nazis “very fine people.” While it is true that in the initial confusion around Trump’s statement some outlets wrongly reported that Trump had called the neo-Nazis “very fine people,” this was universally and quickly corrected to a state of affairs almost as egregious: that Mr. Trump believes a “very fine person” would willingly march with neo-Nazis even if they’re not themselves a neo-Nazi. In fact, no person of conscience would do so, whatever the circumstance. So the story as universally reported is wholly accurate and is wholly damning for Trump.
Conclusion
What does major media have to say about these 602 lies? Nothing. Because they saw only thirty:
Which is an improvement, I suppose, on the zero that Trump domestic policy adviser Tom Fitton saw:
How to explain this gross dereliction of major-media’s journalistic responsibility to fact-check national leaders competently and comprehensively? Well, it’s difficult, but one explanation is that corporate media—odd as it is to say—has far fewer resources available to dedicate to any individual story than a media outlet like Proof does. This author can commit hours and hours and hours to writing the report you’re reading now, whereas corporate media needs to squeeze all the value it can out of a quick fact-check of Trump’s debate performance simply by getting the article up and getting it up quickly. The author of the article might wish to say and do more with his or her topic, but his bosses need their employee to move on to the next revenue-raising report.
That’s not so for Proof. Proof can afford to be—shall we say—rather obsessive about the truth. Proof has no corporate overseers, no hard-and-fast publication schedule, neither a need nor a desire to have a single fact-checker working both political matters and everything else, too. At Proof, I write about the topics I’m an expert in and do not feel the need to stretch myself to becoming (as CNN might require) a fact-checker on (say) tech and science matters as well. Proof can specialize and move at its own pace, which is candidly the benefit of independent journalism and why celebrated Boston College historian Heather Cox Richardson recently wrote that one reason that independent journalism is thriving is because of how corporate media covered the Atlanta debate: “Of far more lasting importance than this one night is the clear evidence that stage performance has trumped substance in political coverage in our era. Nine years after Trump launched his first campaign, media continues to let him call the shots.”
Perhaps this is why an emerging debate—one far more important than the quickly-becoming-listless-and-directionless teeth-gnashing about the Democratic ticket—is about the decision by CNN to, as the Washington Post puts it, do “no fact-checking” in Atlanta on Thursday.
A buried lede in the Post report on this subject seems relevant to the Proof report you’ve just read above: the fact that one of CNN’s leading political commentators, the normally excellent John King, opined after the debate that the merely thirty lies CNN had been able to account for “broke the fact-check machine more than I can count.”
So what are we to think—and what would we expect King to be saying—given that the total number of lies told by Trump in Atlanta was actually 602?
If thirty lies broke media’s capacity to fact-check a politician “more than I can count,” what does 602 lies do?
Certainly it disqualifies a political candidate from serving in higher office; it makes a scandal out of any corporate media outlet’s decision to do no live fact-checking at a debate it is hosting; it requires all responsible corporate media outlets to call for the man who told so many lies to voters in just 40 minutes of speaking to drop out of the presidential race immediately; it necessitates an immediate and thorough reevaluation of the structure—and maybe even the purpose—of live debates in American politics.
So what did we get instead of all that? Well, none of it. Or, rather, its opposite.
America got calls for President Biden—not Donald Trump—to end his campaign.
CNN ran panel after panel of pundits congratulating CNN’s own moderators on doing a great job in Atlanta by never fact-checking even one of Donald Trump’s 602 lies.
And worse than either of these results by far, what American voters experienced after the debate was a deluge of think-pieces in major-media that not only yadda-yadda-yadda’ing over the 602 lies told by Trump (that is, when it acknowledged them with any specificity at all), but grotesquely mischaracterizing the substance of Joe Biden’s performance. Indeed, to call U.S. media coverage of the debate horrifying would be an understatement. Time called President Biden “unintelligible”; the New Yorker wrote that the president was clearly “struggling terribly with memory”; and yet the Proof review of the transcript of the debate shows…
…none of that, actually. In fact, it seems major media confused the physical with the mental and mistook Biden’s physical ailments—some brought on by age, some by a cold that was at its peak on Thursday—with a mental infirmity he did not actually display. A review of what the man actually said in Georgia confirms that his mind is just fine, thank you, even if his elocution and stage presence left a lot to be desired.
But what the text above reveals is something else altogether: a Republican candidate who was often incoherent: ending sentences in midstream for no reason; routinely changing his train of thought in midstream; making opaque references to conspiracy theories his followers might have heard of but that the average voter would deem byzantine (when comprehensible at all); and of course, above all, a level of deceit so bracing its in audacity that it can only be explained by psychiatric derangement. It is one thing to regularly lie; it is another to lie once every 3.9 seconds for 40 minutes.
There’s no conclusion to be reached—and no discussion to be had—in the wake of the debate in Atlanta on Thursday other than that Donald Trump must retire immediately from his bid to again be the worst President of the United States in American history.
Holy Shit! I am in awe. We all owe you a debt of gratitude for your brilliance and how you choose to use it.
This is dedication, right here. Not only for reading transcripts, but having to assault your own eyes with Trump's vile garbage so the rest of us can have context