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Trump Clinches Nomination. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired May 26, 2016 - 14:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


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[14:00:23] BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Hi there. I'm Brianna Keilar, in for Brooke Baldwin.

And we are just moments away now from Donald Trump speaking publically. We'll get right to his press conference when it begins.

On this milestone day for his campaign, Trump has now received enough delegates to clinch the nomination to be the Republican nominee for president. As you know, he needed 1,237 delegates to win this nod in this first round of voting at the national convention in July. No election held today, but in just the last few hours, several unbound delegates, those are the free agents who vote on the convention floor, told CNN they are joining the Trump train. They're putting him over the top with that commitment.

I want to go now to senior White House correspondent Jim Acosta. He is in Bismarck, North Dakota.

This is where Trump is set to take reporters' questions in just a moment there, Jim.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right.

KEILAR: Does this number really change anything for him strategically or is this just a big milestone for him to celebrate?

ACOSTA: Well, I think it's a couple of things, Brianna. It's certainly something he's going to celebrate. And, you know, we came out here to Bismarck, North Dakota, and was told enroute that he was going to be having this press availability, taking reporters' questions. That was not something that was planned. And I'm told by a Trump adviser earlier this morning, Brianna, that basically this was arranged so he could talk about the fact that he has clinched that magic number of 1,237 delegates for the Republican nomination.

But the presumptive GOP nominee, as you know, Brianna, has already been in the general election fight. He's been taking it to Hillary Clinton on very personal terms in the last several days. We may hear that once again. I was talking to a Trump adviser last night about some of these lines of attack from Hillary Clinton on his real estate purchasing during the housing bubble and I was told by this Trump advisor that if she continues to go down that road, the Trump campaign is going to be hitting the Clintons with the Whitewater scandal from back in the '90s. So this is going to be a down and dirty and nasty general election battle and we've already gotten a taste of that.

Now, in terms of the questions that are going to be asked of Donald Trump, obviously he's going to be asked about his vice presidential search. Paul Manafort, the campaign chairman, was just quoted in the last 24 hours as saying that, you know, that Donald Trump may not tap a minority to serve as his running mate because that would be seen as, quote, "pandering." So he may be asked about that question.

He'll, obviously, be asked, I think once again, about releasing his tax returns. That has been a - a source of contention between the Democrats and Republicans over whether or not Donald Trump should actually ever release his tax returns. Paul Manafort said in that interview with "The Huffington Post." That would only serve to help Donald Trump's adversaries.

And so lots of questions will be asked. But I think, Brianna, the general election has already started. It already started before this moment. But this is certainly something for Donald Trump to savor. He's been talking about this in the last several days that he defeated 16 candidates, governors, senators, people who are very well-known inside the Republican Party and across the country, and so he's going to, I think, take note of that.

And I - you know, it is also possible, Brianna, that he'll - he'll want to talk out what President Obama said overseas. As you know, President Obama said over in Asia during this foreign trip that world leaders have been telling him they're rattled by what Donald Trump has been saying out on the campaign trail. And, Brianna, I did talk to a Trump adviser about that little nugget just a little while ago and this adviser said, well, you know what, they should be rattled because Donald Trump is going to be putting America first.

So it's going to be no holds barred I think in the coming months, Brianna, and I think we're going to get a taste of that from Donald Trump here in just a few moments when he walks into this press conference room.

KEILAR: Yes, this - this really is a day, Jim, where there's so much to ask about. I mean as we do await that, we can see that actually they're staging there ahead of this press availability with Donald Trump.

You mentioned the Whitewater line of attack that Donald Trump and his campaign are proposing to counterpunch against Hillary Clinton -

ACOSTA: Yes.

KEILAR: When it comes to her line of attack basically trying to diminish his business acumen and trying to paint him as a bit of a Wall Street predator or a real estate predator in a way. Why is it that they think that that is something that is going to stick ultimately?

ACOSTA: Well, they say it's apples to apples. That if Hillary Clinton, if the Clinton campaign is going to talk about his real estate activities, that they say - they say Whitewater. If you'll recall, Whitewater was a piece of land in Arkansas that became very controversial for the Clinton. And so they say that is a real estate activity that they can talk about on the Trump side of the equation here.

You know, the other thing that may come up as well - and he's walking into the room I think any moment now - is Elizabeth Warren. As you know, he's been sparring with Elizabeth Warren. She's been sort of a Trump troller in chief for the Democratic Party in recent days. And so my suspicion is he'll be asked about Elizabeth Warren as well because, you know, she has been just - and you know this from covering the Clinton campaign, she is been such a visible almost surrogate, not quite a surrogate, but ally of Hillary Clinton in recent days in going after Donald Trump that it's raised all of these discussions about whether or not Elizabeth Warren might be Hillary Clinton's running mate in this general election battle, which would be - that would be quite something.

[14:05:33] And so I think the sky's the limit. You know, he's going to be asked a lot of questions here and then he goes into this big arena that's next door to me and delivers a speech on energy. This is one of these policy speeches that the Trump campaign has been talking about that he's going to be rolling out over the course of these coming weeks.

And, Brianna, it was - we thought it was going to be an energy speech where, you know, we would come into a room and there might be a couple of hundred chairs for the press and a few people who are in the industry. There are about 7,000 people in this rally space next door to where we're standing right now. So this is going to be sort of a vintage, big Donald Trump rally that's going to take place after this press conference.

KEILAR: A 7,000-person energy speech, which is pretty unusual.

ACOSTA: Yes.

KEILAR: Certainly unusual for -

All right, Jim Acosta, thanks so much.

We'll be back to you in just a moment as we do await Donald Trump. He is going to be taking that lectern there just in a matter of moments. So we'll be watching that.

I do want to talk a little bit more about what we're expecting with CNN's senior political reporter Nia-Malika Henderson. We have chief political correspondent Dana Bash. David Catanese, he is a senior politics writer for "U.S. News & World Report." And we have Errol Louis, he's a CNN political commentator and politics anchor for "New York One" News.

So, Dana, this is - I think this is what we were expecting, Donald Trump clinching this all-important delegate number as some of these unbound delegates say I'm going to go for Donald Trump now. What does this change about the convention? DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: About the convention?

Well, based on where we thought we would be two, I guess maybe three weeks now, everything. You know, it changes so much because we thought that we were heading towards a contested convention. It's not just those of us in the press corps. The speaker of the House, Paul Ryan, who is going to be the chair of the convention, was caught off guard, he said, because he thought that he was going to be chairing, you know, a wild and chaotic moment for the Republican Party in Cleveland in July. So, you know, that's the key.

But I think the broader point to make and, you know, I think we've kind of been used to the idea of Donald Trump being the presumptive nominee for several weeks now, but it is important at this moment to take a second and remember how historic this is and how remarkable it is. Never mind that he crushed 16 other - for the most part really qualified candidates, but also what he represents to the Republican Party as its leader, as the person who they want to put in the White House, as somebody who's had a past that has not been kind of standard Republican conservative credo, but he definitely representing a grassroots that is done with Washington, wants to disrupt, and he is their leader.

KEILAR: David, I wonder what you think of something Newt Gingrich tweeted. He said, "no one in American history has moved from a June 16th announcement to a May 26th winning of a majority. Trump's achievement is remarkable." What's your reaction to that? And also we should mention, right, that Newt Gingrich is being rumored for maybe, you know, wanting, I don't know, a position at Donald Trump's side, right?

DAVID CATANESE, SENIOR POLITICS WRITER, "U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT": Newt Gingrich is actively campaigning for that vice presidential position. I think that tweet shows it. But I think the most fascinating thing about this press conference we're about to see, and every Donald Trump press conference, is his biggest strength and biggest weakness as a candidate. We have no idea what he's going to say. And that's why he is such a powerful figure in the Republican Party. Is he going to go out there and bash Republicans today? Who knows. Is he going to practice the fire on Hillary Clinton? We don't know. But that's what makes this candidacy I think so intriguing and so fascinating and remarkable.

KEILAR: As we await Donald Trump here, we expect him in just moments, I want to get all of your reactions, starting with you, Nia, to something that Paul Manafort said. He said a lot of things in this "Huffington Post" interview, but he is a top aide to Donald Trump and he said that the presumptive Republican nominee is unlikely to pick a woman or a minority for the position because, quote, "that would be viewed as pandering, I think."

I guess that makes us expect that he is going to pick a white male. But also, talk about what that means for him as he's trying to maybe broaden his appeal.

NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: Yes. Yes, I guess it's a - it's a little surprising, but maybe not so surprising because it doesn't look like Donald Trump really does want to necessarily broaden his appeal. It looks like he wants to double down on what we've seen from previous Republican candidates, and that is in some ways to see if they can get more white voters than Mitt Romney, for instance, and not necessarily follow that GOP autopsy that we saw in the wake of Romney's defeat.

[14:10:12] But this idea that somehow picking a minority or a woman candidate would be seen as pandering, I think, for some people it will be seen as a little problematic. I mean he's - he's also seeming to say that are there no minority or women candidates out there who could be seen as qualified and does that carry over if he's in the White House? Does that carry over into who he's picking in terms of a Supreme Court justice? I think there were three women who were on that list that he sent out of possible Supreme Court justices. So, yes, I mean, I think in some ways it's surprising given what we've seen from other Republicans wanting to broaden. But from what we've seen from Donald Trump so far, it looks like he has a different strategy in terms of what his coalition will look like.

KEILAR: And, Errol, is that a successful strategy? Is that a successful coalition to pursue? Are the numbers there compared to the coalition that Hillary Clinton, for instance, is pursuing?

ERROL LOUIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, we'll see. It's a very risky strategy in some ways. I mean to sort of say off the bat, we're not going to take a step in the direction as though sort of a party establishment thought would be a path to victory just four years ago, but we're not going to take even one symbolic step in that direction to, you know, to go ahead and bash, as he did, Susanna Martinez, the governor of New Mexico, essentially writing off that state.

I mean that's a - that's - that's risky business, you know, because we should remember, you have to - to become president, you have to win state after state. You have to win a majority in this state, in that state, and it's got to add up to 270 electoral votes. So you look at the map and you start writing off states like, say, New Mexico. You start writing off states like, say, Nevada or Colorado. You run out of real estate really pretty quickly. I mean it's kind of telling in a way that Trump happens to have clinched and is delivering a speech in North Dakota. North - the last time North Dakota voted Democratic for president was in 1964. And before that the 1930s for FDR. So it is about as Republican in a very white state as you're going to find. He's going to have to do more than that because he's got three electoral votes coming to him in North Dakota. He's going to have to really sort of expand the map. And that's one of the big questions that's out there is what we're going to hear today a step, even a gesture in the direction of trying to expand the electoral map for the Republican Party?

KEILAR: And I just want to let our viewers know, we're awaiting this Donald Trump press conference in Bismarck, North Dakota, as he's hit this all-important number going beyond 1,237 to 1,238. Those are actually North Dakota delegates that are - have taken the place behind the lectern. He will speak in front of them.

David, I want to ask you about something else this top aide, Paul Manafort, said. He said, "he's," Donald Trump's, "going to win unless we," meaning people like me, that would be him, people who are working on the campaign, "screw it up. This is not a hard race."

Not a hard race. What do you think?

CATANESE: Well, of course, this is going to be a tough race. But I think that is surprising in itself because a lot of Republicans thought Hillary Clinton was going to run away from this thing and then we - run away with this thing and then we had these flood of polls showing a very close race in battleground states. And, frankly, we're seeing some outlying polls, you know, whether Hillary Clinton could put Georgia in play. Whether she can put Arizona in play. And whether Trump could put Pennsylvania in play. But I think it's most likely that it comes down to the same battleground states that we have talked about in 2012 and 2008. Can Trump defeat Hillary Clinton in Florida, Ohio and Virginia? And I think that's what we're - you know, that's an unknown right now sitting here as we close out the month of May.

But I think Manfort's comments on the VP pick that you would haven't a woman or a minority were very odd for him to come out and say on the record to a reporter. I think you would definitely want to float some names as a campaign to show that the Republican Party is more diverse than white males. But, frankly, in a practical sense, there aren't that many options on the Republican side that Trump hasn't already alienated. I mean people have floated Susanna Martinez as a VP. Then he goes into her home state and trashes her. You know, a Nikki Haley, the governor of South Carolina, he's been in a feud with her. So, you know, I think the Trump campaign has as much of a problem of who would take that invite to be on the ticket as they do sort of putting out a big, expansive list that would appeal to some more moderate Republicans and Democrats.

KEILAR: Dana, what do you think, does that hurt Donald Trump ultimately that Paul Manafort has come out and said essentially, you know, if they were to be picking a woman or a minority that it would be pandering, that they would basically be seen as checking the box?

And I do want to say, we are awaiting Donald Trump coming the lectern. We're assuming that he's coming through this door. We're seeing folks come perhaps ahead of him. So we'll be jumping to him in just a moment.

[14:15:04] But, Dana, what do you think about that?

BASH: You know, I think that if he said anything different it would be going against brand. Meaning that Donald Trump's whole M.O. during the entire primary season was he's not politically correct and he's not going to do things the way normal conventional politicians do. A normal, conventional politician would do exactly what David and you all were talking about, you know, leak or float a list that has a couple of names that shows that he's taking seriously a woman or a minority - and I see Donald Trump walking in there.

KEILAR: Yes.

BASH: So I'm going to toss it back to you, Brianna. KEILAR: OK, let's pause for just a moment. He is entering this room,

shaking the hands of North Dakota delegate there is in Bismarck ahead of a rally. He is going to be taking the lectern, answering a lot of questions about a number of topics of import today as he clinches this all-important number of 1,237 delegates. By our count, actually going to 1,238 as a number of unbound delegates have said that they are going to go over and support Donald Trump. So, obviously, no election today, but these delegates really pushing him over this important number and here we have Donald Trump taking the mike.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Thank you very much, everybody.

The folks behind me got us right over the top from North Dakota. So, North Dakota made a big statement and I just really appreciate it. We will not forget it. Thank you very much.

I want to thank a very good friend of mine, Harold Hamm (ph). I guess we can consider Harold the king of energy. There's nobody like him. I'll tell you. He knows more about it than anybody that I know. So, Harold, I want to thank you for your support. You've been amazing right from the beginning. My friend for a long time. And been on the cover of every magazine. I think he's had as many covers as I have. Maybe more, Harold, right? So, congratulations and thank you very much for your support.

OK, folks. Yes? Yes, John?

QUESTION: President Obama today at the G-7 Summit in Japan ignored the time honored tradition that politics ends at the water's edge to take a real swing at you, saying that world leaders are rattled by the prospect of you becoming president. That you -

TRUMP: That's good.

QUESTION: That you seem -

TRUMP: Is that right? That's good.

QUESTION: But he also -

TRUMP: I love that word. He used a bad word because he knows nothing about business. When you rattle someone, that's good, because many of the world, as you know, many of our - the countries in our world - a beautiful world have been absolutely abusing us and taking advantage of us. So if they're rattled, in a friendly way, we're going to have great relationships with these countries. But if they're rattled in a friendly way, that's a good thing, John, not a bad thing.

QUESTION: But he also went on to say, sir, that you are - shown ignorance of world affairs, a cavalier attitude and that (INAUDIBLE) tweets and headlines than thinking about what's required to keep America safe. And I'm wondering if you'd like to respond to that?

TRUMP: Well, look, he's a president who's done a horrible job. Everybody understands that. He's a president when's allowed many of these countries to totally take advantage of him and us, unfortunately. And he's got to say something. And it's unusual that every time he has a press conference, he's talking about me. So, you know, it's just one of those things.

But I will say this. He is a man who shouldn't be really, you know, airing his difficulties and he shouldn't be airing what he's airing where he is right now. And I think that you're going to see it stop pretty soon. He has not done a good job. Today we're giving a big speech on energy. We're going to see some amazing things happen with our country on energy. And I look forward to doing it.

But President Obama, you know, you see what's happened. You see where we're going. We're a divided country. We have tremendous difficulty, tremendous problems. And we're going to solve those problems. We're going to solve them fast. OK?

Yes, go ahead.

QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE) that as you're building your VP list, it's probably unlikely that there would be a woman or a minority in that mix, because that would be pandering and something that you do not want to do. Can you respond to that?

TRUMP: No, I think it's likely that we would have somebody, but we don't do it for any specific reason. We're looking for absolute competence. I fully expect that we will have many women involved with not only - I mean, I've had it with the campaign, but we're going to have many women involved and I think that you're going to see that and you're going to see that very strongly. So I look forward to it. And I know he was misquoted a couple of times. He's been misquoted actually a lot. But we're going to have women involved at the absolute highest levels.

QUESTION: Mr. Trump?

QUESTION: Mr. Trump?

TRUMP: Jeremy, go ahead.

QUESTION: Mr. Trump, during the Republican primary, you've repeatedly attacked your opponents for, you know, being funded by big donors, big money donors. You've started now fundraising, doing some really big ticket fundraisers. How do you convince your supporters that you're not going to become the puppet that you accuse your opponents of being (INAUDIBLE) time?

TRUMP: Well, I'm no puppet, and I'll tell you, I'm raising the money for the party, largely for the party. And we intend to raise a lot of money for the party. I have no idea how much. But we're raising it for senators, for congressmen, congresswomen. We're raising it for a lot of the people that are running. We want to go in. We want to have majorities. It's very important.

[14:20:15] We have a tremendous staff of people. We raised - last night, actually we raised, in Los Angeles, we raised a lot of money for the party. And this is money that's going into the RNC. And we are going to have, I think, a tremendous - we're getting thanked all over by the Republican senators, by congressmen. And hopefully we're going to raise a lot of money. But this is money that's being raised for the party. And I think we're going to have a tremendous success. I'm also continuing to fund big portions of my campaign.

QUESTION: But, Mr. Trump?

QUESTION: Mr. Trump?

TRUMP: Go ahead.

QUESTION: Mr. Trump, Mr. Manafort was also quoted as saying that if you did release your taxes, he wouldn't advise it because it would just serve to help your adversaries. You seem - you seem to sound as if you're not going to release your taxes -

TRUMP: No, no, I'm releasing - when we're finished with the audit. I have to say, the IRS has been very professional and they continue to be very professional. And when they finish - I've been audited, however, for 15 years. And I don't know of very many people that have been audited for 15 years. I'm audited all the time, so I don't know what that's all about. But the IRS has been very professional. And as we move along, if - as soon as that's finished, whenever that may be, and hopefully it's going to be before the election. I'm fine with that. OK?

QUESTION: And just to be very specific on this, you do pay some federal taxes?

TRUMP: I do. Yes, I do. Yes.

QUESTION: Mr. Trump?

TRUMP: David. David, go ahead.

QUESTION: Mr. Trump, in the wake of yesterday's inspector general report from the State Department about Hillary Clinton's e-mails, you have said that you have doubts about whether or not she could stay in the race against you, but are you prepared right now to actually call on her to get out of the race so that Americans could have more confidence in the integrity of their frontrunners?

TRUMP: Actually I sort of like her in the race. I want to run against her. Look -

QUESTION: But is that the right thing to do?

TRUMP: She has bad judgment. This was all bad judgement. Probably illegal. We'll have to find out what the FBI says about it. But certainly it was bad judgement. I just read the report. It's devastating, the report. It's devastating. And there's no reason for it. It's just - you know, skirting on the edge all the time. And you look back at her history and this is her history. It's a very, very harsh report. Done really by Democrats, if you think of it. Appointed by Obama and done by Democrats. So, it's shocking to see it. It's shocking to see what she did. And

really, more than anything else, it's bad judgment. But that's got to be up to her whether or not she wants to continue running.

Yes, go ahead.

QUESTION: You talk a lot about uniting, and you're working right now to unite the Republican Party.

TRUMP: Right.

QUESTION: But I noticed this week when you were in New Mexico, for instance, you went after the governor there. Does this clinching this number now, does this change your approach at all?

TRUMP: Well, I think it will. I haven't yet. I think I will, probably, but I haven't had the support of governor of New Mexico. You know, she was opposed. She was on somebody else's side. Which is fine. I mean that's everybody's right. I imagine she'll come over to my side.

If you look at what's happened, tremendous support from all over the country. Senators, congressmen. We have governors all over the place. And vast majorities. And I think the approval now is up to over 90 percent. That's tremendous from where I started. You know, a little while ago it was like 62 percent. But I won the elections in land sides. You know, very important to say.

I mean you look at these elections. We go to New York. We win almost 62 percent of the vote with three people running. We then go to Pennsylvania, which is going to be, I think, a state that we're going to do amazingly well. You know, Hillary Clinton wants to put the coal miners out of business. They want to put the steel mills out of business. I think I'm going to win Pennsylvania easily. We have tremendous support there. Maryland, Connecticut, if we win Delaware, Rhode Island. And then we win, as you know, I mean we had a tremendous, a tremendous success when we went to Indiana. That was incredible. Bobby Knight helped, in all fairness, but Indiana, we're going to win Indiana I think very big. So we're going to have tremendous successes.

But, you know, the thing I think I'm most proud of, not the fact that I'm watching Hillary instead of Hillary watching me. You know, we were supposed to be going into July and a lot of people said it wouldn't even be solved during that convention. There's going to be a new convention in August. And here I am watching Hillary fight and she can't close the deal. And that should be such an easy deal to close. But she's unable to close the deal. So I'm watching her and we'll see what happens.

QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE) Republicans (INAUDIBLE) -

TRUMP: Oh yes, sure. Absolutely.

QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE).

TRUMP: Yes? QUESTION: Hi. I'm Nicole. I was inquiring, are you planning on

recognizing tribal sovereignty on a nation to nation basis based upon the U.N. declaration on the rights of indigenous people which the U.S. had endorsed?

TRUMP: I'm going to have to look at it individually and I will be doing that. A number of people have asked me. I will be doing that, OK?

QUESTION: Thank you.

TRUMP: Thank you.

QUESTION: Mr. Trump?

TRUMP: Katy (ph)?

QUESTION: What is your message to Republicans that haven't yet supported you? People like Susanna Martinez, do you have something to say to her directly?

[14:25:07] TRUMP: No, my message is that we've had tremendous support from almost everybody and even if you look at Congress, I mean the support has been incredible. And I spoke with Paul Ryan last night. We had a very good conversation that's moving along. He's a good man. And we'll see how that all works out.

QUESTION: Can you elaborate on that?

TRUMP: No, I just - we had a very good talk.

QUESTION: Thanks. One other question. Also in that "Huffington Post" article where -

TRUMP: I don't read "The Huffington Post."

QUESTION: Paul Manafort spoke to a -

TRUMP: Was there an article in "The Huffington Post." Well, I'm sure he was misquoted because it is - it is just -

QUESTION: Well, he said that you were going - he said that you were going to start -

TRUMP: I didn't think they covered politics, "The Huffington Post." Do they cover politics?

QUESTION: Apparently they do.

TRUMP: All right.

QUESTION: He said that you were going - sort of softening your position on the Muslim ban? Is that true?

TRUMP: Well, we're going to look at a lot of different things but we have to - we have a big problem. We have a radical Islamic terrorism problem. It's a worldwide problem. Not just this country. And we have to find a solution. And we have to be vigilant. We have to be tough and smart. We'll see what happens.

QUESTION: When I say -

TRUMP: Yes, go ahead.

QUESTION: Were you serious when you said that you wanted to debate Bernie Sanders?

TRUMP: Oh, I'd love to debate Bernie. He's a dream.

QUESTION: But would you actually take the steps to -

TRUMP: Well, I said, and I said last night on Jimmy's show, I - it was, you know, a question that was posed. And I said, I'd love to debate him, but I want a lot of money to be put up for charity. So what we'll do is if we can raise for maybe women's health issues or something, if we can raise $10 million or $15 million for charity, which would be a very appropriate amount. I understand the television business very well. I think it would get very high ratings. It should be in a big arena somewhere. And we could have a lot of fun with it.

I'd love to debate Bernie, actually. I mean the problem with debating Bernie, he's going to lose, because, honestly, his system is rigged, just like our system's rigged. Look, if I didn't win by massive majorities, I wouldn't be standing here talking to you today. I mean, you know, I knocked out every opponent. When you - you have to knock out. And Bernie, unfortunately, hasn't been able to knock out. But the super delegates for the Democrats so on - I mean, it's so unfair. So the problem, the biggest problem I have is that Bernie's not going to win. But I debate him anyway if they wanted to put up money for charity. So we'll see. We've actually had a couple of calls from the networks already and we'll see.

QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE) details but have you guys started talking to the Sanders folks?

TRUMP: Well, he's the one that suggested let's debate.

QUESTION: Jeff Weaver said his team has been having conversations with your team.

TRUMP: It's true. I'd love to debate Bernie.

QUESTION: But have you -

TRUMP: But they have to pay a lot of money for it because, look, I'm in first place. I've won.

QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE).

TRUMP: I'd say something over $10 million.

QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE) raise $10 million you'll get on a debate stage with Bernie Sanders? TRUMP: Yes, I would love to, yes. I would love to.

QUESTION: What's the likely -

TRUMP: I love debating.

QUESTION: What's the likely -

TRUMP: And, I mean, I know you people never write this, but every single poll, on every single debate, the online polls, Drudge and "Time" magazine and all of them, I've won every single debate. I didn't know I was going to do that. I've never debated. You know, politicians are all talk, no action. I created jobs and businesses and did great. But I've never debated professionally. You know, I ran against all these people. They debated professionally. But according to every single online poll after the debates, I've won every single debate by every single poll. So I don't mind debating. I'd like to debate. I've actually, you know, the one thing was, I said to myself, I how well I'll debate, you know, because guys like this great gentleman right over here is one of the great oil men of the world. We're not debaters. We're people that put people to work and do things and a lot of good things. How many people do you have working for you?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Counting contractors, tens of thousands.

TRUMP: Tens of thousands. That's what he does. Now, I'd rather debate Harold, but I will tell you, he may surprise you. He may do very well. But we don't do that. But somehow it worked out well for me. It worked out well for me.

So I actually love the debating process. Had a lot of fun. I was on center stage for every single debate. And the only time I was upset with some of the networks was when we had even numbers, like eight. That means you had two in the middle. So I always insisted on having odd numbers.

Go ahead.

QUESTION: What role do you think the federal government should have on regulating energy now that you're here at this petroleum conference?

TRUMP: I think the federal government should get out of the way. The federal government is in the way. We have so much potential energy that people wouldn't even believe it. In fact, my speech today is on energy. It's exactly what it was and is. The federal government, the regulations that they have, they put the coal miners out of business. The coal mines are shut. What they've done to the coal - what Hillary Clinton, she's worse than Obama. She wants to - I mean she actually openly said, I want to put the coal miners out of business, I want to put the coal mines out of business. Essentially she's saying I want to put the steel mills out of business. We're not going to have any businesses left.

So Hillary is, I think - I can't imagine how she could possibly do well in a place like Pennsylvania. She certainly didn't do very well in West Virginia. And, you know, I think she made a big mistake and she's catering to certain people. But I think ultimately jobs and these incredible people, the miners, they're incredible people.

[14:30:07] I asked a couple of them, why don't you go into some different profession? They said, because we love going after coal. I'll never forget the answer.