Transcript of 'Nope, nope': Tapper pushes back on Johnson's defense of Trump

Donald Trump's campaign suggested he would begin previewing his closing argument Saturday night with election day barely two weeks away. But the former President kicked off his rally with a detailed story about Arnold Palmer, at one point even praising the late legendary golfer's genitalia. Mr. Speaker, you're crossing all over the country. You're working hard to get Republicans over the line in this election. You're talking about substantive issues. Is this really the closing message you want voters to hear from Donald Trump's stories about Arnold Palmer's penis?

Well, listen, I think that the headline that I read about the rally in Pennsylvania yesterday was the big question, and it's the one that Kamala Harris has not been able or willing to answer, and that is, are you better off now than you were under the Trump administration four years ago? And no one can answer that question with a yes. I mean, no one. And that's why Kamala Harris herself avoids the question. Look, I've been traveling the country nonstop, Jake. I've been in over 230 cities and 40 states right now, and I'm spending these final closing weeks in the swing states, in blue states, in toss-up districts for the House. I'm absolutely convinced there's an energy out there right now. I'm convinced that we are going to win the White House, the Senate, and the House, and we're going to have a very aggressive agenda to get the economy going again, to help everyone. Look, everywhere I go, Jake, everybody has the same concerns. They're fed up and they're fired up about the cost of living that's unaffordable now and the rising crime rates everywhere and the weakness on the world stage and the wide open border.

And they know that Kamala Harris is responsible for those things. And they know that President Trump is offering alternatives. So put the rhetoric aside. Look at the record of these two candidates. This shouldn't be about personalities. It should be about policy. And I think people are looking at that seriously, and that's why I'm convinced we're going to win.

I'm sure that you think that a policy debate would be better than a personality debate. But if President Biden had gone on stage and spoke about the size of a pro golfer's penis, I think you would be on this show right now saying you were shocked and appalled, and you would suggest it was evidence of his cognitive decline. I wonder how Trump's remarks, not just the one about Arnold Palmer on his quote, manhood, but everything we've heard from Trump this week, how it fits in with the analysis that the New York Times offered a few days ago. They looked at his speeches from 2015 and 2016 and looked at his speeches today and said, quote, With the passage of time, the 78-year-old former President's speeches have grown darker, harsher, longer, angrier, less focused, more profane, and increasingly fixated on the past. I know you want to talk about policy, and I respect that, but the reason that Donald Trump is not up 10 points is because of comments like that one, where people do have concerns about his fitness, his acuity, and his stability. Why is he talking about Arnold Palmer's penis in front of Pennsylvania voters?

Jake, you seem to like that line a lot. Let me tell you that Donald Trump is doing rallies nonstop around the country.

Let me just say something. I don't want to be talking about this. Donald Trump is out there saying it is But you continue, too. Let's talk about Because you won't address it.

Wait a minute.

Hold on. You won't address it. He is out there talking to voters.

No, I'll address it. Let me answer it. Okay, go ahead. Okay, don't say it again. We don't have to say it. I get it. There's lines in a rally. When President Trump is at a rally, sometimes he'll speak for two straight hours. You're questioning his stamina, his mental acuity. Joe Biden couldn't do that for five minutes. That's how you started this segment. You said, What if Biden was in a rally like that? He couldn't fill the room. Donald Trump does. You know why? Because they see him as a change agent, and they understand he has a record of performance. In his first administration, we had the greatest economy in the history of the world, Jake, not just the US. Everybody's wages were going up. Everybody had more jobs available to them. The pathway out of poverty was widened for more people, and that's what the American people are looking at. We're going to have a demographic shift in this electorate, Jake. When they count the votes and they do the math on the other side of this, I'm convinced you're going to have a record number of Hispanic and Latino voters coming into the Republican Party, a record number of black and African-American voters, a record number of Jewish voters and Union workers and hardworking families, because they understand the Harris policies have destroyed their family finances.

They have made them less safe in their cities. They have a wide open border with illegals and terrorists coming into our country. This is not working for the American people. They want to change, and that's what they see in Donald Trump. So he has fun at the rallies. He says things that are off the cuff. But I'm telling you, I've been in those events. I've been in those arenas, and people have a great time at those arenas. So you can cherry-pick a few words or lines out of a two-hour event. We could do that with Kamala Harris after a 20-minute event because she does word salads, and she couldn't hold court like that without a teleprompter. We all know that. These are the facts. The American people see it, and the media can pick it apart, but people are going to vote. They're going to vote what's best for their family, and they see that in Trump.

In In multiple interviews this week, Donald Trump repeatedly referred to prominent Democrats and others on the left in the United States, American citizens, as, The enemy from within, and he suggested as President, he would want to use the National Guard or military against them. Let me play some of that for our viewers.

The bigger problem are the people from within. We have some very bad people. We have some sick people, radical left lunatics. It should be very easily if necessary, by National Guard or if really necessary, by the military, because they can't let that happen.

One of the first things you did when you joined Congress was to create the Honor and Civility Caucus. Is wanting to use the military against political opponents? Would that pass muster with the Civility Caucus?

No, that's not... Jake, you know that's not what he's talking about there. What he's talking about is marauding gangs of dangerous, violent people people who are destroying public property and threatening other American citizens.

He talked about Adam Schiff at the Pelosons. He's not talking... Governor Junkin tried this with me, too. He was very clear. Let me play, because he was asked about this later on, because Fox always likes to give Donald Trump an opportunity to clean it up. And he always says, No, no, I said what I meant. Here's what he said when asked about it the next day.

It is the enemy from within, and they're very dangerous. They're Marxists and communists and fascists, and they're sick. I use a guy like Adam Schiff because they made up the Russia-Russia hoax. It took two years to solve the problem. Absolutely nothing was done wrong, et cetera. They're dangerous for our country. We have China, we have Russia, we have all these countries. If you have a smart President, they can all be handled. The more difficult are the Pelosis, these people, they're so sick and they're so evil.

That's what he's talking about, using the US military against not marauding gangs of Venezuelans Wait a minute. Wait, hold on. Adam Schiff, Nancy Pelosi, Nancy Pelosi's husband part. So let me just say, if a Democratic presidential candidate said that you and your wife were evil and that the military should be used against you, I would say that's disgusting.

Well, thank you. And some have said that about us because they don't like my politics. I did not hear President Trump in that clip say he's going to seek the military on Adam Schiff. That's not what he's saying. You got two different clips in two different contexts. What President Trump is talking about is that they have been attacking and maligning him from the day he came down that golden escalator. Everybody knows that's true. In 2015, 2016, that's when this began. He's been the most attacked, maligned political figure in US history. They tried to kill him twice in the last few He's been in jail for months. This is real, and he feels that acutely. And Jake, you would, too. If you were under attack like he is all the time, every day. They, I mean, Iran, who has assassination attempts out against him. I mean, crazy, dangerous people in the country who get on rooftop and take shots.

But Adam Shiff and Nancy Pelo are not trying to assassinate Donald Trump. I mean, there's this conflation of any- They're not, Jake.

No, but the political attacks have been relentless, and they have been baseless, and they made up the Russian collusion hoax, and they went after him, and they have been going after him ever since. They tried to impeach him twice. I mean, they've done real damage in the American psyche. What I'm talking about is the political attacks that are so over the top. Kamala Harris has used language saying he's so dangerous to the country. I mean, I've had colleagues in the house say he must be eliminated. He must be extinguished. He's literally talking about taking the military against Democrats.

I mean, he's literally talking.

No, he's not. No, he's not, Jake. No, he's not. No, he's talking about using the National Guard in the military to keep the peace in our streets. In the summer of 2020, that my Democrat colleagues call the Summer of Love, it was crazy. It was mayhem, and Democratic progressive mayors and governors allowed it to go on, including Tim Walsh, who allowed Minneapolis to burn, and it's still not rebuilt. Look, Trump is talking about restoring law and order, and I'm telling you, you can mock it. People in the media can mock it, but that resonates with the American people. They are sick of being afraid on the streets of their cities. Donald Trump can bring order back to the chaos. They know that. So they're willing to give a little on his social media post and some fun language he uses at rallies.

He called January sixth a Day of Love. He said that the January sixth criminals, the prisoners, who violently attacked your place of work, he compared them to the victims of Japanese internment camps. And that guy is in favor of law and order?

Yes, President Trump had and kept law and order. When he says that the campaign rallies that we didn't have hot wars around the globe during his administration. Except on January sixth. No, look, he's right. Russia did not invade Ukraine under his watch. Israel was not attacked viciously by Iran and its proxies because they were afraid to do so under that Commander-in-Chief, under President Trump. They're not afraid right now. Our allies are nervous. Our enemies are empowered because they see an opportunity. The only person that they fear less, our enemies abroad, the only person they fear less than Joe Biden is Kamala Harris. At the end of the day, when you go into the ballot box, I would just encourage everybody, ask yourself quietly, are you comfortable with Kamala Harris being the Commander-in-Chief of the US Army Forces at the most dangerous moment since World War II? She could not handle that. Our enemies would have an opportunity there, and people think about those things, and that's why they're going to vote for Donald Trump. That's why he's going to win and be re-elected President.

It's like you were answering questions from a completely different interview.