Press time
President Tump shares views at press
WASHINGTON — He rarely holds formal news conferences. But when he does, President Donald Trump lets ‘er rip.
For more than an hour and 20 minutes Wednesday, Trump held court with reporters in a sweltering hotel ballroom in New York City, where he’s been attending the annual United Nations General Assembly. Trump was in his element, sparring and joking with reporters as he addressed a host of issues, including the growing list of sexual misconduct allegations against his Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, and the threat of war with North Korea.
Here are some of the highlights:
ON THE #METOO MOVEMENT
Trump acknowledged: “This is a very big moment for our country” — but not because women feel empowered to speak out.
Instead, Trump said: “This is a very big moment for our country because you have a man who’s very outstanding, but he’s got very strong charges against him, probably charges that nobody’s going to be able to prove.” Trump went on to describe “a very dangerous period in our country” that he said was being “perpetuated by some very evil people — some of them are Democrats.”
And he warned that the country was adopting a new, “dangerous standard” of justice, in which “you are guilty until proven innocent.”
ON WAR WITH NORTH KOREA
Trump claimed that President Barack Obama was ready to go to war with North Korea and that millions of people would be dead if he hadn’t been elected.
“If I wasn’t elected, you would have had a war,” he said, adding, “You know how close he was to pressing the trigger for war?”
Ned Price, Obama’s former national security spokesman, disputes that the Obama administration was ever on the verge of war with North Korea.
He said Wednesday night that “the Department of Defense always looks at contingencies” but that the administration believed diplomacy was the only viable option in the Korean Peninsula.
Trump also talked fondly of the inflammatory words he and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un had exchanged before their summit, saying the two “both smile at now and we laugh at” what he dubbed “rhetorical contests.”
CANADIAN DIS
Trump said he rejected a one-on-one meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on the sidelines of the UN because he’s annoyed by the country’s trade negotiations.
“His tariffs are too high, he doesn’t seem to want to move and I’ve told him forget about it,” Trump complained, adding: “We’re very unhappy with the negotiations and the negotiating style of Canada.”
But Trudeau spokeswoman Eleanore Catenaro said that never happened.
“No meeting was requested,” she said.