Trump on His Criteria for VP: Sen. Tim Scott Has Been a Real Tiger, He’s Been Incredible

BARTIROMO: “Mr. President, when will you announce who your V.P. is?”
Trump: “Not for a while. I mean, we have so many great people in the Republican Party, but not for a while.”
BARTIROMO: “What criteria are you using to identify who your running mate is?”
Trump: “Always it’s gotta be one thing, it’s gotta be who would be a good president. I mean, you always have to think that because, you know, in case of emergency. Things happen, right? No matter who you are, things happen. It’s got to be number one.”
BARTIROMO: “Who is your running mate?”
Trump: “Well, I have a lot of good people. We have a lot of really good people.”
BARTIROMO: “So you haven’t decided who it is?”
Trump: “I have a lot of good ideas, but I haven’t — and there’s no reason — “
BARTIROMO: “So you haven’t told that person, ‘You’re my person?’”
Trump: “I speak to everybody. I speak to everybody. I called Tim Scott this week, because a lot of people like Tim Scott. I called him and said, ‘You’re a much better candidate for me than you were for yourself. When I watched Tim, he was fine, he was good, but he was very low key, etc., etc. I watched him in the last week, defending me and sticking up for me and fighting for me, I said, ‘Man, you’re a much better person for me than you are for yourself,’ because for himself he was low-key. For me he’s been — he’s been a real tiger. He’s been incredible. And others have too.”
BARTIROMO: “So maybe it’s Tim Scott?”
Trump: “Could be. Could be a lot of people. But it was interesting. I was watching Tim, I’ve been watching for a while, I watched him campaign as a candidate, but I watched him over the last two weeks. As you know, he endorsed me, fully endorsed me, gave me a beautiful endorsement, and he has been really strong in terms of that. No, but that has a nothing to do — I don’t want anybody to take even any inference, but it’s incredible. Kristi Noem has been incredible fighting for me. She said, ‘I’d never run against him because I can’t beat him.’ That was a very nice thing to say.”
BARTIROMO: “What was that story that your team reached out to RFK Jr.?”
Trump: “It’s a falsehood. It’s a falsehood. You know, I like him a lot — “
BARTIROMO: “You never reached out?”
Trump: “No, never happened.”
BARTIROMO: “Is it fair to believe that you would have a number of your former officials in your new cabinet?”
Trump: “I would put some back. I’ll tell you, I came to Washington having spent almost no time in my life in Washington.”
BARTIROMO: “I know. You said that.”
Trump: “All of a sudden I’m president. And I wasn’t into Washington society, so I was not a Washington — I was a New York person, I was a New York builder — “
BARTIROMO: “You were an outsider, and that’s why I think they had it in for you.”
Trump: “But the one problem with that, and I love the outsider thing, but you don’t know people so you’re relying on other people to give you names to be the head of this, the head of that. And, by the way, we had unbelievable people. Look, I rebuilt the military — “
BARTIROMO: “But you had plenty of personnel mistakes.”
Trump: “No, of course, but everybody does. Obama had. What about Biden? Look at the people running this Biden thing. The difference is, I fire people. I fired Comey. I got rid of him.”
BARTIROMO: “You didn’t fire Christopher Wray.”
Trump: “Well, you know what? At the time — I don’t know, let’s see how — let’s see what the final judgment is. But I didn’t fire Christopher Wray. I didn’t fire people I would have, but I fired a lot of people. You know, I had turnover. They have no turnover right now.”
BARTIROMO: “How do you know, if you get back in, you don’t have a network of people around you working against you?”
Trump: “I will, and so will anybody else that gets in as a Republican.”