Transcript - Interview: Lawrence Smith of WRDB News Interviews Donald Trump in Louisville, KY - March 20, 2017 | Factba.se

Lawrence Smith

00:00:00 - 00:00:03 (4 sec)

[No Video] Your visit comes on the heels of the Vice President coming here to Louisville. Why the focus on Kentucky?

Donald Trump

00:00:03 - 00:00:16 (13 sec)

[No Video] Well, I've been with them, and they've been with me. Kentucky has been one of our great states. I love the people of Kentucky. We're putting the miners back to work. We've already signed legislation so, environmentally, allows the mines to start re-opening and keeping them open. I made a lot of promises to the miners, and I'm keeping those promises. So I wanted to come back here and tell them that.

Lawrence Smith

00:00:16 - 00:00:19 (3 sec)

[Video Begins] How much do you need Sen. Rand Paul to support this, and what you you prepared to do to get that support?

Donald Trump

00:00:19 - 00:00:27 (9 sec)

I like Rand Paul. I think he's good guy. And he's speaking from the heart. But I think we have a bill that's going to be negotiated. You put it in, and they go back, and I think in the end, we're going to have a fantastic bill. And the alternative is Obamacare, and Obamacare is killing Kentucky. In Tennessee, they've already lost half of it.

Donald Trump

00:00:27 - 00:00:43 (15 sec)

So half of it is now dead. The insurance companies left. You're going to lose your insurance companies if you haven't already lost them. It's been a disaster for Kentucky. I really like Rand, and I respect Rand. But I think he's hopefully going to come along. I hope so.

Lawrence Smith

00:00:43 - 00:00:46 (3 sec)

So you think in the end it will be something that he can support?

Donald Trump

00:00:46 - 00:01:01 (15 sec)

I think so. I think it's going a lot of things are going to happen. You know, we go through the House, and then we go through the Senat,e and it's back and forth. We're adding a lot of -- a lot of bells and whistles. And I think in the end, it's going to be something that everybody -- people are going to want it.

Donald Trump

00:01:01 - 00:01:24 (23 sec)

Look, Obamacare is a disaster, and they don't like to say it, but it doesn't get any worse. And it was a lie. It was approved by a lie, and we'll see what happens. But no, I think so. I mean, ou see the kind of crowd we have here, and that's big stuff, he said. They've never seen a crowd like this. It's some kind of a record, they're telling me. How many people does this stadium hold? Does this arena --

Donald Trump

00:01:24 - 00:01:24 (0 sec)

Lawrence Smith For basketball, about 20,000.

Donald Trump

00:01:24 - 00:01:39 (14 sec)

Well, we have it full. [Laughter] So that's pretty good. We're very honored by it. I guess that's one of the reasons I also love Kentucky and did so well here. I'll be coming back to Kentucky a lot. We'll be doing a lot of things for the people in Kentucky.

Lawrence Smith

00:01:39 - 00:01:53 (14 sec)

Critics have said that your bill would cause hundreds of thousands of people in Kentucky, who gained health care under Obamacare, who gained coverage primarily through Medicaid, to lose it. What do you say to those folks, many of whom voted for you?

Donald Trump

00:01:53 - 00:02:10 (17 sec)

Right. They did vote for me. We've changed it just recently over the last couple of days. And I also saw that, and, while I disagree with it, I didn't want there to be any question, and we've changed it, and we've added it and we've added dollars. And I will never let that happen to my people.

Donald Trump

00:02:10 - 00:02:26 (16 sec)

These are people that were with me from the beginning, and we actually -- I did see that, and I think it's incorrect. I think it was you know made to look -- you can make anything to look like anything, but we've made a lot of changes and we've added, and I think you'll find that's very much different.

Lawrence Smith

00:02:26 - 00:02:28 (2 sec)

So Medicaid as far as you're concerned?

Donald Trump

00:02:28 - 00:02:40 (12 sec)

But what we're doing is, when you take a look at it, and you look at the numbers, you're going to see that the people -- and I'm not just saying that the people that voted for me, but the people that voted for me will be very happy.

Lawrence Smith

00:02:40 - 00:02:53 (12 sec)

Our general assembly and our governor have done a lot to try to improve the business climate here, bring jobs here. What can you do on the federal level to attract jobs to Kentucky? You mentioned coal, right? But what else can you do?

Donald Trump

00:02:53 - 00:03:02 (10 sec)

Right, right. Well do you -- and you have a great -- you have a great governor, a friend of mine, and he's done a terrific job. We're going to have jobs come back. We're putting on -- we're doing a lot of things with trade.

Donald Trump

00:03:02 - 00:03:32 (29 sec)

You notice what's going on with the car companies, and I already worked on Ford. You saw that, with your factory, with your car plant. We're going to have many plants coming back in, the auto industry is going to stay here, very importantly, and then expand, and we're making it so that leaving, they just can't leave Kentucky and say bye-bye, we're going, and we're going to go to Mexico or someplace else, because when they make their product in a different country, after they fire all their workers, they're not going to sell their product for, you know, no tax coming back in.

Donald Trump

00:03:32 - 00:03:48 (16 sec)

So I feel very very strongly about it, and it's happened. And you already see, a lot of plants that were expected to leave throughout this country, also in Kentucky because you have a big one right here that, you know, ended up staying. But those plants are going to end up staying and they're going to expand.

Lawrence Smith

00:03:48 - 00:03:52 (3 sec)

A final word for the people of Kentucky from President of the United States.

Donald Trump

00:03:52 - 00:03:54 (3 sec)

We love you. Special place.

Lawrence Smith

00:03:54 - 00:03:58 (4 sec)

Thank you Mr. President. Thank you very much.