Chopper pressers are the best pressers. President Trump returned from New York to the White House earlier today after attending a UFC event at Madison Square Gardens last night. Upon arrival President Trump delivered impromptu remarks to the media and took questions. [Video and rough draft of remarks below]

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[Media Rough Draft] – POTUS stepped off Marine One at 12.26pm, wearing winter coat, suit, white shirt and red tie. He walked across the south lawn, waved to reporters then approached them. “Would you like to talk to me?” he asked. “I’m shocked. Yes, go ahead.”

Asked what he would like to know from the whistleblower, POTUS replied: “Well, the whistleblower gave a very inaccurate report and, as you know, certain of the media released information about a man that they said was the whistleblower. I don’t know if that’s true or not. But what they said is he’s an Obama person, it was involved with Brennan, Susan Rice which means Obama, but he was like a big anti-Trump person. Hated Trump and they said terrible things.

“Now, I don’t know if it’s true or not, but that was reported by some of the media so you’ll have to find out. I don’t know why the media’s not on it because the whistleblower gave a very inaccurate report about my phone call. My phone call was perfecto. It was totally appropriate. He gave a report – he or she – but according to the newspapers it’s a he. They think they know – they know who it is! You know who it is. You just don’t want to report it. CNN knows who it is but you don’t want to report it. And you would be doing the public a service if you did.

“The whistleblower gave a false report and because of that false report people thought bad things were done, and then you had Schiff go out and speak before Congress and before the American people and give a false story. He made up a story. And after all this was done, I released and everybody said he didn’t do anything wrong.

“But the whistleblower should be revealed because the whistleblower gave false stories. Some people would call it fraud. I won’t go that far but, when I read it closely, I probably would. But the whistleblower should be revealed. Then I want to ask another question of you. Where is the second whistleblower and why did Schiff make a lie when he said about what I said on the phone call? And why didn’t the lieutenant colonel say that he wrote a letter to the White House with certain little comments about the phone call? And all of those many people that listened to the phone call, why didn’t they have a problem with it?

“Because they didn’t – many people listen to calls, I know that. For instance, the Secretary of State Pompeo was on the call. With all of those people, very few people came forward and they only came forward when you asked and some of them are Never Trump. But why did all of those people listening to this absolutely, totally appropriate phone call, why didn’t they come forward? So, you know, it’s a whole scam. It’s an impeachment scam and you know what it is, it’s between the Democrats and the fake news media.”

Asked what evidence he has that Colonel Vindman is a Never Trumper, POTUS replied: “We’ll be showing that to you real soon, OK?”

[Draft Break]

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POTUS was asked about his support among African American voters. He said: “I think I have a great standing in the eyes of the African American community because if you look at what we’ve done is, as you know, we have the best unemployment numbers in the history of our country for African Americans. We have the best poverty numbers. We have the best employment numbers.

“And I’m doing great. African American community gets it. I did criminal justice reform. Nobody else. I did it. Without me, you don’t have criminal justice reform, and that was for African Americans more than anybody else. So I think my standing in the African community – African American community is maybe the better. We’re gonna see.

“We’re gonna see in one year but I think that I’m gonna get a tremendous percentage of votes from the African American – I did one other thing. I did opportunity zones. These are neighbourhoods that a lot of people wouldn’t be investing. Now because of what I did with Tim Scott and some others, but Tim Scott was fantastic, South Carolina. We did opportunity zones, it’s an incredible thing. So I think we’re going to do great with African Americans. We have tremendous African American support.”

Question: “Are you thinking about tweeting out the name of the whistleblower?”

POTUS replied: “Well, I’ll tell you what, there have been stories written about a certain individual, a male, and they say he’s the whistleblower. If he’s the whistleblower, he has no credibility because he’s a Brennan guy, he’s a Susan Rice guy, he’s an Obama guy and he hates Trump, and he’s a radical. Now, maybe it’s not him but, if it’s him, you guys ought to release the information.”

Question: “Was there a quid pro quo?”

POTUS replied: “No, not at all, not at all.”

Question: “It’s one year until the election. Are you confident of being reelected again?”

POTUS said: “Very confident. We’re doing very well in the polls. And by the way, not that it’s very important because you got elected, you got elected, but the impeachment polls have been very, very strong and especially in the swing states. I think you see that, the swing states.

“They don’t want to hear about it. And we have polls. People don’t want to hear about impeachment. The only one that wants impeachment, to talk about it, is the fake media and the Democrats who basically, they work for the media. The way I look at it, the Democrats work with the media.”

Asked about trade talks with China, POTUS said: “There is progress. First, I want to get the deal. I mean, the meeting place to me is going to be pretty easy. But first, we’ll see if we get the deal. And if we get the deal, the meeting place will come very easily. It’ll be some place in the US.”

Asked about several recent polls that show more Americans want him to be impeached and removed from office, POTUS replied: “You’re reading the wrong polls. Let me tell you. I have the real polls, I have the real poll. The CNN polls are fake. The Fox polls have always been lousy. I tell them they ought to get themselves a new pollster.

“But the real polls, if you look at the polls that came out this morning, people don’t want anything to do with impeachment. It’s a phony scam, it’s a hoax, and the whistleblower should be revealed because the whistleblower gave false information.”

Question: “Do you still have confidence in Mick Mulvaney?”

POTUS replied: “Well, he’s working. As long as he’s with me, I have confidence.”

Your pooler asked: “Would you side with Boris Johnson or Nigel Farage if you had to choose?”

POTUS replied: “I like ’em both. Look, I think Boris is the right man for the time. He’s really for the times. He’s a great gentleman. He’s a wonderful guy. He’s tough, he’s smart and I think he’s going to do something. I just hope he does it so the US, which is by far the biggest economy in the world – not even close – since I took office, we picked up trillions of dollars – trillions – and frankly China has lost trillions of dollars, as you very well know.

“We’re far and away the number one economy in the world and, if you do it a certain way, we’re prohibited from trading with the UK. That would be very bad for the UK because we can do much more business than the European Union. So I think Boris will get it right. They’re both friends of mine. What I’d like to see is for Nigel and Boris to come together. I think that’s a possibility.”

[BREAK]

[Cont…] – Question: “How strong is your support for Ukraine in their conflict with Russia? Have you ever told Putin to get out of Ukraine?”

POTUS said: “My support is very good. My relationship with Ukraine is very good. My relationship with Russia is very good. My relationship with China is very good. People don’t understand. I get along, but nobody is going to mess with me.”

POTUS was asked about the review of the Russia investigation led by John Durham.

He said: “The John Durham investigation is moving along. That’s up to Attorney General Barr, highly respected. John Durham is one of the most respected prosecutors in the last 50 years in this country and I let them do their thing, Bill Barr and John Durham, and what they come up with will, I think, be very meaningful. We’ll see what happens. I do not get involved with it. That’s up to them.

“And by the way, I’d be allowed to get involved with it if I wanted to, but I chose not to. It’s up to Bill Barr. But the John Durham investigation is a very important – I feel, one of the most important investigations in the history of our country.”

POTUS returned to the impeachment inquiry. “I think that the House Republicans and the Senate Republicans have been incredible. I don’t think there’s ever been unity like we have right now. We had a hundred ninety five or so votes. We didn’t have one negative vote. The only one that had negative votes on the whole impeachment scam were the Democrats. I think Nancy Pelosi has lost her mind and I think, frankly, that she should go back home to San Francisco. If you look at what’s happening to her district, her district is going to hell with homeless that they’re not taking care of, with needles all over the street, with tents, with people, with sanitation, with horrible things being washed into the ocean, into the Pacific Ocean.

“I think Nancy Pelosi, her district has probably gone down more than any district proportionately in the United States, and what she’s done and what she’s done for that district, and then on top of it, you’ve got fires eating away at California every year because management is so bad. The governor doesn’t know; he’s like a child, he doesn’t know what he’s doing. And I’ve been telling them this for two years. They’ve got to take care of it. Every year it’s always California, it’s rarely somebody else or someplace else. But Nancy Pelosi ought to go back to her district and take care of it because her district has become a mess. Number one in the country for going down. All she thinks about is impeachment but she doesn’t want to impeach. You know who wants to impeach? The people that run the party, the radical left.”

There was a question about whether John Bolton will testify. POTUS replied: “That’s up to him and up to the lawyers. It’s really up to the lawyers. I like John Bolton, I always got along with him, but that’s going to be up to the lawyers.”

Pressed on his claim of no quid pro quo, POTUS talked over the question and insisted: “Read the transcript. Read the transcript. Read the transcript.”

POTUS was asked about a Democratic concern that he will hold up government funding because of the impeachment inquiry. He said: “I don’t think they believe that at all. Look at what happened. I call them the do nothing Democrats. They’re doing nothing. They’re not getting USMCA done: everybody wants it, even the Democrats want it. They’re not getting anything done. Even guns, they don’t talk about guns. All they can do is talk about one phone call made to the president of Ukraine that was perfect. It was perfect. It was a perfect phone call and they’re hanging their hat on this one phone call and you know what, the Republican party has never been so unified.”

Asked if he can commit to no government shutdown, POTUS replied: “It depends on what the negotiations are. I wouldn’t commit to anything. It depends on what the negotiations are.”

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