President-elect Donald Trump left a 100-minute meeting with Senate Republicans, touting what he called a “very strong” discussion of how to implement his agenda.
After paying his respects to the late Jimmy Carter feet away at the U.S. Capitol, Trump spoke with reporters briefly about the meeting. Trump briefly took questions about the wildfires in California, securing down the U.S.-Mexico border, and even former GOP Rep. Liz Cheney.
A reporter asked: “On California, Mr. President. During the pandemic, you often said that you didn’t believe that you should bail out blue states, that you [inaudible]. Given your criticism of Governor Gavin Newsom, are you willing to work with him?”
Trump replied: “Oh sure.”
“And do you believe that federal aid should be provided to California for as long as it takes?” the reporter added.
“Well, it’s very sad because I’ve been trying to get Gavin Newsom to allow water to come. You have tremendous water up there. They send it out to the Pacific because they’re trying to protect a tiny little fish, which is in other areas, by the way, called the smelt. And for the sake of the smelt, they have no water. They had no water in the fire hydrants today in Los Angeles. It was a terrible thing. And we’re going to get that done. It’s going to finally be done,” Trump said.
“I got it done from the federal side. And he didn’t want to sign it. But it’s not going to happen again like that. There’s no reason. Can you imagine? You have farmers that don’t have any water in California. They have plenty of water. They don’t have a drought. They send it out to the Pacific and it’s crazy. So, what’s happening in California is a true tragedy. I know those areas very well, I have many friends living in those houses, that is a true tragedy. Nobody ever thought. I mean, virtually, Beverly Hills and areas around Beverly Hills are being decimated,” Trump said.
“The biggest homes, some of the most valuable homes in the world are just destroyed. I don’t even know, you know, you talk about a tax base. If those people leave, you’re going to lose half your tax base of California. This is a true tragedy and it’s a mistake of the governor and you could say the administration. They don’t have any water. They didn’t have water in the fire hydrants. They don’t have water and yet they have — the water comes from, you know where? Up north and it comes down at levels, they give millions and millions of barrels, of gallons of water that they have and they send it out into the Pacific. For the Pacific, it’s like a drop, it’s nothing, but for California, it would take care of the whole state,” Trump added.
Trump continued, “So what’s happened is a tragedy and the governor has not done a good job. With that being said, I got along well with him when he was governor. We worked together very well. We would work together. I guess it looks like we’re going to be the one having to rebuild it, but what happened there, I don’t think there’s anything that I’ve ever seen quite like it. And the insurance companies are going to have a big problem because you’re talking about big, big dollars.”
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Another reporter asked about Trump’s plans to secure the border.
“On deportations, what is day one going to look like for the Trump Administration?” a reporter asked.
“Number one, we’re closing the border. It’s going to be closed very strongly and it’s going to be closed. And we’re going to have to take people out that are criminals. We have people from jails from all over the world and from mental institutions, and as you know, they’re going to have to be removed. And it’s one of the reasons I won the election in a landslide,” Trump responded.
“The people of this country don’t want murderers walking down their farms or their streets or their cities. As you know, we had thousands of people that murdered other people that were in jail, that were released into our country. Many of those people murdered more than one person, many of them, about 42 percent supposedly. We want them out of our country and we’re going to get our country back again and we’re going to be really governed by common sense. These are the principles of common sense. We’re not going to be governed by stupid people. We’re going to common sense. We’re going to be respected all over the world again very soon,” Trump added.
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A reporter then asked about President Joe Biden reportedly considering “pre-emptive pardons” for several figures.
“Liz Cheney — Biden pardon, Liz Cheney, what’s your message for President Biden? He said he would —” the reporter asked before Trump shut them down.
“Oh, I have no — I thought it was ridiculous that he did that. But we have more important things to talk about. Liz Cheney was — she lost in the Republican Party, as you know, in her state by the biggest margin in the history of a politician running for Congress, she lost by like 42 points. Nobody’s ever lost like that. So I have — I don’t care about Liz Cheney. I care about these people,” Trump said.
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