President Elect Donald Trump was interviewed on 60 Minutes Sunday night. The interviewer Leslie Stahl tried to play gotcha a few times. But Trump rose above it. He gave a great interview. He laid out many of his plans, too.
You can watch the whole thing here. We are also including transcript excerpts below the video:
The interview opened with discussion of election night.
Transcript via CBS News:
Lesley Stahl: Well, congratulations, Mr. Trump.
Donald Trump: Thank you.
Lesley Stahl: You’re president-elect.
Donald Trump: Thank you.
Trending: Senator Josh Hawley Rips Into Sally Yates Over FISA Abuses During Hearing (VIDEO)
Lesley Stahl: How surprised were you?
Donald Trump: Well, I really felt we were doing well. I was on a string of about 21 straight days of speeches, sometimes many a day and the last two days I really– I really had a pretty wild time. I did six speeches and then I did seven and–
Lesley Stahl: But everyone thought you were going to lose.
Donald Trump: I know, I did my final speech in Michigan at 1:00 in the morning and we had 31,000 people, many people outside of the arena. And I felt– when I left, I said, “How are we gonna lose?” We set it up a day before. And we had all of these people. And it was literally at 1:00 in the morning and I said, “This doesn’t look like second place.” So we were really happy, I mean, it was– these are great people.
Lesley Stahl: On election night, I heard you went completely silent. Was it a sort of realization of the enormity of this thing for you?
Donald Trump: I think so, it’s enormous. I’ve done a lotta big things, I’ve never done anything like this. It is so big, it is so– it’s so enormous, it’s so amazing.
Lesley Stahl: It kind of just took your breath away? Couldn’t talk?
Donald Trump: A li– a little bit, a little bit. And I think– I realized that this is a whole different life for me now.
Trump discussed some of the reasons he won:
Lesley Stahl: Do you think that– that your election is a repudiation of his presidency?
Donald Trump: No, I think it’s a moment in time where politicians for a long period of time have let people down. They’ve let ‘em down on the job front. They’ve even let ‘em down in terms of the war front. You know, we’ve been fighting this war for 15 years–
Lesley Stahl: This was the message of your campaign.
Donald Trump: We’ve spent $6 trillion in the Middle East, $6 trillion, we could have rebuilt our country twice. And you look at our roads and our bridges and our tunnels and all of the– and our airports are, like, obsolete. And I think it was just a repudiation of what’s been taking place over a longer period of time than that.
At one point, Leslie Stahl suggested people are being harassed by Trump supporters. Trump said if that’s true, that it’s horrible. He looked right at the camera and said: Stop it.
Donald Trump: I would say don’t do it, that’s terrible, ‘cause I’m gonna bring this country together.
Lesley Stahl: They’re harassing Latinos, Muslims–
Donald Trump: I am so saddened to hear that. And I say, “Stop it.” If it– if it helps. I will say this, and I will say right to the cameras: Stop it.
Now that Trump has addressed his supporters, it’s time for Hillary or Obama to address the protesters.
Obama needs to go on TV and tell these leftists to stop it.
Join the conversation!
We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please hover over that comment, click the ∨ icon, and mark it as spam. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.