Hannity-Trump interview: Still lacking specifics

I was listening the Sean Hannity’s radio show driving home yesterday afternoon and the candidacy of Donald Trump dominated the several segments I listened to.

Hannity noted he would be interviewing Trump on his Fox News television program that evening and promised he would ask him questions probing for specifics and getting specifics from the Republican leader in the polls.

Here are some of the questions and Trump’s answers and you decide if Mr Hannity fulfilled his promise and got specific answers from the candidate.

Women’s issues

HANNITY: Hillary said your comments about women were offensive. What’s your reaction to that?

TRUMP: Well, I think I’ll do more for women — I cherish women — I think I’ll do more for women than Hillary can ever do. I think that I will take care — you know, I thought Jeb Bush made a horrible mistake when he blew the whole situation on — on women’s health, you know, the women’s health issue. A week ago, what he said was just unbelievable.  Essentially, he’s saying, I’m not going to fund it.

And I think that will go down as Jeb Bush’s 47 percent, the 47 percent to Romney, where it probably cost him the election when he said that. He didn’t know he was saying it and it was a mistake and it was too bad. But that probably cost him the election.

MY VERDICT: No specifics at all.

A wall on the southern border

HANNITY: … some of the things that you’ve discussed. Let’s — let’s start with — you talked about Mexico. How quickly could you build the wall? How do you make them pay for the wall, as you said?

TRUMP: So easy. Will a politician be able to do it? Absolutely not.  You know, it’s funny, I watch some of the shows, including your show, and I watch these guys say, Oh, you can’t get them to pay for it.

We give them tens of billions of dollars a year. They are ripping us left and right. Their leaders are so much smarter than our leaders, Sean.  They are ripping us left and right. The wall is peanuts. You know, it’s interesting…

HANNITY: Is it a tariff?

TRUMP: … in China — listen to this. In China, the great China wall — I mean, you want to talk about a wall, that’s a serious wall, OK?  That wall, you don’t climb over with a ladder. You don’t even go under it, OK?

That wall is 13,000 miles. If you add up everything in the kitchen sink with what we’re talking about on our border, it’s less than 2,000 miles. And a lot of it, you don’t have to do because you’re covered with terrain and you’re covered with areas that are already built.

HANNITY: Sure.

TRUMP: So let’s say you’re talking about 1,000 miles versus 13,000.  And then they say you can’t do it. It’s peanuts. It’s peanuts. And I will get Mexico, whether it’s a tariff or whether they just give us the money.

Sean, they need us so badly. And I’ll be friends with Mexico. I’m going to have a great relationship with Mexico. We have a bad relationship with Mexico, and they’re an abuser. China’s an abuser. By the way, every country’s an abuser because we have very stupid people representing us.  They’re incompetent.

HANNITY: So through a tariff? Whatever means necessary, you’re going to say, If you want to do business with the U.S….

TRUMP: We’re not paying for it. Of course.

HANNITY: You want to do business, you’re going to help us with this.

TRUMP: Do you know how easy that is? They’ll probably just give us the money.

But then I watch politicians get on — because it’s not their thing, Sean. I watch politicians come one, Can you imagine, Sean, he’s saying Mexico’s going to pay. They’ll never pay.

And I’m saying, that’s like 100 percent. That’s not like 98 percent.  Sean, it’s 100 percent they’re going to pay. And if they don’t pay, we’ll charge them a little tariff. It’ll be paid.

MY VERDICT: After being pushed by Hannity several times, Trump finally put all his cards into a tariff.

Healthcare

HANNITY: ObamaCare — what’s your alternative?

TRUMP: OK, so you can do the savings account concept, which is a concept that a lot of people…

HANNITY: Health care savings accounts.

TRUMP: Health care savings accounts, which a lot of people are talking about and a lot of people like. Costs the country very little, costs the people very little, and they get the money when they don’t need it.

I mean, it’s an amazing system. And I actually think that if you’re a Democrat, you can go with it. ObamaCare, by the way, is going to cost this country in ’16. You know, ’16’s where it really kicks in — $1.6 trillion dollars! We can’t afford it! And here’s the problem. It’s no good. It’s no good.

HANNITY: Premiums are up on average 40 percent this year.

TRUMP: Oh, it’s up, and going up a lot more than that.

HANNITY: Right.

TRUMP: It’s no good. How about the deductibles? The deductibles, unless you hit by a truck, you’re never going to even be able to use it.

HANNITY: Right.

TRUMP: So “Obama care” is no good, doesn’t work. One of the first things I’d do if I get elected, end “Obama care” and do something really good. Whether it’s that — one of the things we have to do is we have to get rid of these artificial state lines that were put in only for the insurance companies. They make a fortune.

HANNITY: In other words, portability, buying across state lines.

TRUMP: Portability, but really, when I want to bid in New York, I’d have a lot of people in New York. But I have a lot of states where I have people, right? I can’t go to other states and bid. I can — I get, like, one bid? I get one bid.

Now, the insurance companies do that because they’d rather have 100 percent of New York than be all over the country. Problem is, it’s not free market. If you get rid of those artificial lines that wrap New York, New Jersey — I want to bid my insurance from California. I want to have 100 bids come in. And I want to pick the best company, not even the lowest price, the best company, the best plan. Right now, I have, like…

HANNITY: Every American would have that choice.

TRUMP: Everybody would have that choice. But the insurance companies don’t want that because they essentially have a monopoly.

HANNITY: Also, you get catastrophic insurance as part of that.

TRUMP: You get catastrophic. You get everything. You’d get a much better plan. You’d have a much cheaper insurance. And you know what?  Other than the one thing, you would want the country — the only thing I’d want from the government, I want to make sure those companies are very solid and strong. So maybe they even get a little point or something, and they guarantee it because the one thing you don’t want is a company goes bust, and you’re sitting there and you paid all your life into this, you know, company. You don’t want that to happen.

HANNITY: You’d protect people with preexisting conditions. You’d protect…

TRUMP: I would do that. I would do it. You — you can get everything in “Obama care,” but much more. Look, in “Obama care” for the most part, a lot of people — they don’t have their doctor. They don’t have the plan they want.

HANNITY: And the price went up.

TRUMP: And they can’t use it because the deductible is so high. Not that they want to use it, but they can’t use it. Unless you get hit by a truck, you can’t even use it. So it doesn’t work.

So ObamaCare is a disaster. It’s going to be ended. And it’s going to cost the country so much. You talk about a deficit. What are we going to do when “Obama care” kicks in? Now, Obama will be playing golf, very intelligently, probably on one of my great courses, like Doral or something, and — and he’ll be playing golf, and we’ll let him play. I’ll say, It’s great. You know, you have the president of the United States, I don’t mind, let him play.

And he’ll have a good time. But you know what? That’s ’16, he’ll be playing golf, and somebody’s going to be saddled with a huge problem.

MY VERDICT: Slightly more specific, again, it appears as if Hannity is coaching him and pushing him in a certain direction.

The economy

HANNITY: Here’s my question. So when you think about your economic plan and you think of those statistics, what are the top three things that come to your mind, specifically, that you can do to help the 93 million, the 57 million Americans, the 50 million in poverty?

TRUMP: Sure. I love the question because this is my strength.

HANNITY: Right.

TRUMP: You know, a competitor of yours did a big poll. I won’t say it was CNN, OK, because I…

HANNITY: You can say whatever you want.

TRUMP: But they did a big poll, OK? And the poll came out…

HANNITY: By the way, trying to put a — to monitor what you’re going to say — it’s a futile attempt. Go right ahead.

TRUMP: OK. I refuse to say it was CNN.

TRUMP: But they did this poll, and it was a very — you know, very comprehensive poll. And they had me number one in leadership by far.

And the other thing I was really number one on was anything having to do with the economy, OK, jobs, et cetera, et cetera. I was so high up, I mean, the other people, there was, like, no number two, practically.

We have to bring our jobs back from China. From — from — as an example, we have to bring manufacturing back. You look at Japan with the boats that come in, pouring in with cars. You know what we send Japan? We send them beef. We send them wheat. We send them corn.

HANNITY: What about American cars?

TRUMP: OK? I want American cars. I want — I don’t mind — if Japanese companies build here, that’s fine. But you know what? I don’t want to see boats pulling in to Los Angeles because I saw boats the other day that were the biggest boats I’ve ever seen, loaded up. You wouldn’t even believe the thing could float, so many cars. And then you see these cars just boom, boom. They’re not made here. How is that helping us?

I don’t want cars made in Mexico. I love Mexico. I love the Mexican people. I have so many Mexicans working for me now, and by the way, buying apartments and doing everything else. I have a great relationship with Mexico. People are just starting to find out. And by the way, in Nevada, as you heard, they just did a poll, I was number one in the poll with Hispanics. I was number one with Hispanics.

Anyway, but that doesn’t help us from the standpoint that their leaders are so much sharper, and I use the word cunning. They’re more cunning than our leaders.

HANNITY: What is the tariff on an American car?

TRUMP: Well, we’ve — they make cars in Mexico. They just send them across the border. How does it help us? I went to the Wharton School of Finance. Tell me, how does it help us? It doesn’t help us at all.

HANNITY: Were you really number one in your class?

TRUMP: I was a good student. I was a very good student. People are shocked by that, but I was actually…

HANNITY: I’m not shocked.

MY VERDICT: For a topic that is Mr Trump’s strength, he offered little in specifics, certainly not giving Hannity the three specifics he was looking for.

 

No matter what Mr Hannity says and how much he promotes Mr. Trump, it is clear to the average observer that Trump brought nothing to the table with the exception of a couple of good points on the issue of health insurance.

We’ll see if the second half of the interview airing tonight will be any better.

 

 

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