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The President met with the press in Houston, Texas to discuss the Coast Guard briefing on tropical storm Imelda.

The press asks cursory questions about the Coast Guard’s performance and President Trump was very complimentary and praised the Guard for major improvements (e.g., Harvey response). In addition re the Coast Guard’s stellar performance, he said:

“HE PRESIDENT: This is 11,000 lives saved at Harvey. The Coast Guard is so important to this country and the job they’ve done is incredible. As you know, we’ve ordered new cutters. We have brand new cutters coming, and you already gotten some. And a lot of new equipment. We have new helicopters coming, out of the budget. We spent a trillion and a half dollars, so at least you should get some helicopters out of it, right?

But it’s going to be completely rebuilt with brand new ships and boats and helicopters and everything else. So it’s really great. Big difference between now and what it was three, four years ago. It’s been totally rebuilt. And some equipment is still coming.”

But all too soon, the questioning reverted to the Ukraine. I loved reading his comments about Joe Biden being on tape saying he forced the Ukraine to fire the prosecutor. LOVE IT! The comment about Obama put a smile on my face. :)

I”ll excerpt the part of the talk relevant to Biden below.

Full Whitehouse.gov text link:

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-president-trump-coast-guard-briefing-tropical-storm-imelda-houston-tx/

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Remarks by President Trump After Coast Guard Briefing on Tropical Storm Imelda | Houston, TX

Issued on: September 22, 2019

Ellington Airport
Houston, Texas

11:10 A.M. CDT

Excerpt:

SNIP

Q Mr. President, will you meet with the President of Ukraine still? Were are you going to mention Vice President Joe Biden when you do?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, I won’t be mentioning much. I mean, it — you know, Vice President Biden did a terrible thing, the way he put it. I’m not looking at — to hold him to anything. I’m not looking to hurt him, with respect to his son.

Joe’s got a lot of problems. Joe’s got enough problems without that. But what he said was a terrible thing. And, you know, he really made it a — it was an offer. It was beyond an offer. It was something where he said, “I’m not going to give billions of dollars to Ukraine unless they remove this prosecutor.” And they removed the prosecutor supposedly in one hour. And the prosecutor was prosecuting the company of the son and the son. And you talk about something that shouldn’t have been said — he just shouldn’t have said that.

Now, as far as my conversation, it was perfect. It was a perfect conversation. It was — it couldn’t have been any better. But we’ll make a determination about how to release it, releasing it, saying what we said. It was an absolutely perfect conversation.

The problem is, when you’re speaking to foreign leaders, you don’t want foreign leaders to feel that they shouldn’t be speaking openly and good. You have to be talking to people. And the same thing for an American President; you want them to be able to express themselves without knowing that not every single word is going to be going out and going out all over the world.

When I make calls though, I know that there are a lot on those calls that are listening — intelligence people — with my approval. Intelligence people and others. So when you’re making a call — when you’re talking to a leader of a foreign country, it’s very easy to assume that you have many, many people listening, in addition to people listening on the other side.

Q Are you thinking about releasing the transcript?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, I’m going to talk about it. I mean, I love it. I would love to do whatever I want to do. I’d love to do it. But you have to be a little bit shy about doing that. It’s a perfect — everything we said on that call was perfect.

By the way, I don’t know if you saw: Ukraine put out a major statement last night — said that was a perfect call. It was friendly. It was warm. Discussed many topics.

And we’ve done more for Ukraine that President Obama. He sent them pillows and sheets and we sent them very powerful weapons.

SNIP

Q Mr. President, (inaudible), sir, they’d like to release parts of the transcript or what — I mean, what are you thinking here?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, we’re looking at — we’re looking at that. You know, people don’t like that, and I don’t like it — the concept of it. But we’re looking at it. It’s perfect.

And, by the way, the conversation was absolutely perfect. Absolutely appropriate. What wasn’t appropriate was what Joe Biden said. And he said it on tape. And I guess he must have thought he was in front of a lot of friendly people. But he said it on tape in front of a small group. And somebody recorded it. And it’s up there to see. And what he said was wrong.

And, again, I’m not looking to hurt him because he’s got his own difficulties, but what he said was wrong. And I know a lot of people are looking at that right now.

Yeah.

Q Can you say whether, on this call, you raised Joe Biden or his son’s name with Ukraine (inaudible)?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, I don’t even want to mention it. But certainly, I’d have every right to. If there’s corruption and we’re paying lots of money to a country, we don’t want a country that we’re giving massive aid to to be corrupting our system. And we don’t want it to be corrupted in any way, but we certainly don’t want it to be corrupting our system.

I’ve been hearing about the Ukraine all during this Russian hoax — the witch hunt that they went through that now turned out to be a zero. But, after two years — all through, I’ve been hearing the name, “Ukraine, Ukraine, Ukraine.” A lot of things came out of Ukraine.

So, we don’t want to let anything having to do with any of that really, you know, hurt our country. So it would be fine to do it, but you will see one of the finest, one of the nicest — if we do that. Or I’ll have somebody — I’ll give it to a respected source. They can look at it.

But what I said was so good. It was a great conversation. It was a really great conversation, and everybody will say that.

Q Would you be okay with the —

THE PRESIDENT: But, you know — but, unfortunately, what Joe Biden said was a terrible thing. What he said was a — just an absolutely terrible thing. And he used money — he said, “I’m going to hold back money if you don’t do…” And then they did what he wanted, and then he released the money. You’re not supposed to be doing that. You’re just not supposed to be doing it.

Q Would you be okay with the Ukrainian government releasing their version of the transcript?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, I think their version would be the same as our version. I mean, it would be identical.

But they did — they put out a major statement last night. And in the statement, they said it was a very, very fine conversation. And there was no pressure. No nothing. There was no pressure. That was not pressure. I know when I give pressure, and that was not pressure.

Thank you all very much. Thank you. Thank you. I’ll see you over at the stadium.

END

11:24 A.M. CDT