Trump fires up crowd at Ohio rally for Troy Balderson

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Trump fires up crowd at Ohio rally for Troy Balderson

President continues campaign blitz amid tight House special election.

This is a rush transcript from "Watters' World," August 4, 2018. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

JESSE WATTERS, HOST: This is a Fox News alert, I'm Jesse Watters. President Trump speaking right now at a rally in Lewis Center, Ohio. Let's listen.

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: ... economy, that's what they did. I don't think they for the most part, they did it consciously, they just didn't know what the hell they were doing. They had no idea.

And then you have the globalists who think that it's wonderful when they close up a plant in Ohio, move the plant to Mexico or some other place, lose all of your jobs. They make the product in Mexico or some other country, send it back into our country tax-free. Those days are ending, tax-free, right? No good. No, we don't like that. We want our people -- did you see a certain gentleman the other day said, "Donald Trump doesn't take care of foreign workers." I said he's right. That was Charles Koch - - Charles Koch who is actually a nice guy.

They're members of my clubs -- David and Charles Koch. But he said, "Donald Trump doesn't take care of foreign workers." I said, "Hey, he's right." I don't want to get into an argument, he's right. I want to take care of the American workers. I want to be America first, okay?

[Cheers and applause]

TRUMP: But America's economic surrender ended the day that I took office, folks. Now after years of rebuilding foreign countries, we are finally rebuilding our country.

[Cheers and applause]

TRUMP: The great patriot from Ohio and he was indeed, and he was actually a great President, certainly from an economic standpoint, he was a great President. He was assassinated. People dong realize William McKinley from Ohio was a great President. He understood the crucial importance of tariffs in maintaining a very strong country. And people that followed him went down as great Presidents because one in particular as you know, because he was given an economic behemoth that created by McKinley.

McKinley said, "We ought to take care of our own nation and her industries first." We have to take care of our nation first, and we can help other people, we want to help other people, but we don't want to help other people that are rich and not have them reimburse us. It's so foolish. We're taking care of their military, we are taking care of their manufacturing. We are taking care of everything.

A lot of these deals were made many years ago when they were weak and struggling, and then we never changed them, we never changed them. They're still the same old deal, but we are changing them now ...

[Cheering]

TRUMP: Changing them now, and Troy Balderson is going to be helping so much. Thanks to our pro American economic policies. American steel -- one of the things I'm most of proud of -- American steel is making one of the biggest comebacks that anybody has ever seen for any industry.

Nucor, a big great steel company. The steel mills were closing. They were all closing up. Nucor announced has an $85 million upgrade in Marion. Charter Steel announced a new $150 million steel plant in Cuyahoga Heights. JSW Steel is restarting the furnace and investing $500 million in Mingo Junction and Cleveland Cliffs announced a $700 million plant in Toledo.

United States Steel is building or renovating or improving over seven new plants. They never thought they would see a day when this happens. This all happened within a very short period of time because we've stopped the dumping. If they want to dump, you know what, that's fine, but they have to pay a 25 percent tax.

It's amazing what impact that has on people that want to rip-off and destroy our industries. Thank you very much, I appreciate that. We've also have taken historic action to protect our amazing farmers.

I reached an historic agreement with the European Union. We talked about them before to reduce barriers to American-grown products and vastly increase the purchases of Ohio's number one crop, American crop soybeans. And by the way, did you see the prices? They're starting to go up. Soybean prices are starting to go up.

And we are standing up to China and we will do it along with China, but we're standing up because it's just been unfair. We've authorized up to $12 billion to help American farmers during this period of time where China is targeting the American farmer because China is smart and they know the American farmers love Donald Trump and they say, "What can we do to stop Donald Trump? Because he finally -- he's the guy, he got it right. He's bringing the wealth back to the United States."

And China doesn't like it, so they are spending a fortune on public relations and ads. Did you ever see the ads? Look at who is paying for them, and other countries, and by the way, other countries.

And speaking of China, it has just come out the Democratic leader and the leader of the Russian investigation ...

[Booing]

TRUMP: ... Dianne Feinstein had a Chinese spy at her driver for 20 years, and she is leading the Russian investigation if that's what you call it. How about leading -- no, no, she is leading the Russian witch hunt. A Democrat-inspired witch hunt. That's something. Isn't that something?

Dianne Feinstein had a Chinese spy. How come China never spies on us? Can I tell you why? There are those that say, "Boy, they are brutal." You should ask the people, ask what's going on, and not only China. it's a lot of people. Now, we've got to stop it. We've got to stop meddling, we've got to stop everybody from attacking us, but there are a lot. Russia is there, China is there. Hey, we're doing well with North Korea, but they are probably there. We've got to stop everybody. We've got to stop.

But think of that, and I like Dianne Feinstein, I have to tell you. But I don't like the fact that she had a Chinese spy driving her and she didn't know it. And then she says to me, "Well, what did you know about this and that?" I mean, give me a break. Come on, folks. Every day, and by the way, with China not doing so well, it's only gotten worse, I guarantee you.

If there is any meddling or if there is any problems, I guarantee you, it's going to happen really big now because we are taking our wealth back. We are take our jobs back. we are opening up markets. Every day we are setting new records, and we are keeping our promise.

We have eliminated a record number of job-killing regulations, we have had -- and that is so true. And Ohio is going to like this. We ended the war on clean coal. Our miners are back to work. Clean coal.

Republicans passed the biggest tax cuts and reforms in American history. We've saved our family farms from the estate tax also known as the death tax, and also, we've saved small businesses, small farms, small businesses won't be paying the death tax anymore.

As I said, we've repealed the core of the Obamacare, the individual mandate is now gone. That's where you pay a tremendous amount of money for the privilege of not having to pay to buy terrible, horrible healthcare that's way overpriced. We have given you a lot of healthcare plans that you could choose from through associating health plans, we're giving businesses the greatest ability they that have ever had to join forces to buy much better health insurance for much less money including across state lines.

And we've just added and introduced a brand-new rule to offer renewable plans that could save patients 50 percent or more compared to Obamacare. Obamacare -- that was a beauty. Obamacare. It was repealed and replaced, remember, other than one of them. And you know what else we did? Which is I think is really great, it's really something. When you are really sick, it's called Right to Try. How many times you know somebody, and you are reading about this potential cure, but it will be 10 more years of experiments and food and drug, and we have Right to Try now.

People sign a disclaimer, they sign an agreement for no liability, and instead of traveling -- if they have the money, most people don't have the money, but I know people that have traveled all over the world to try and solve the health problem, Right to Try, it's passed. It was really tough. You wouldn't think it would be tough, but the healthcare companies had a problem. The pharmaceutical companies had a problem, our country -- because everybody was worried everybody would be sued.

I said, "You'll sign an agreement where nobody -- you know, you do it, you don't sue people. They want to get better. They want to have a right to try."

We approved that, and that's a big thing. It was a very hard thing. They have been trying to get it for 40 years. I signed it into law three months ago -- Right to Try. So if they have something that you read about that looks really promising, you don't have to wait 12 years.

You know one of the reasons you couldn't use it, because they said, "Well, we don't want to use it because maybe it's going to hurt somebody." Well, the people are going to die. They want to try it. It might not work, and it might work. It's also a great test medically. It's a great test. So, Right to Try, we have it. I'm so proud of that one.

To restore our security, we increased defense spending to $700 billion this year and $716 billion next year. We are doing things that we have never done before. And we also had approved $6 billion for opioid. We're fighting opioid. It's down 20 percent, it's a tough fight -- $6 billion we got approved.

Thanks to our $2 billion investment in new armored vehicles, workers at the legendary tank plant in Lima, Ohio are now back on the job churning out M1 Abrams tanks, do you like that? Abrams tanks. They're churning them out. The great thing about what we are doing with $700 billion and $716 billion, we also -- it's far less important in this case because there's nothing we have to protect. There's nothing so important as our military, but we are also providing massive numbers of jobs because we build all of that equipment in the United States.

[Cheering and applause]

TRUMP: That's the one case where the jobs just aren't as important, right? But we are doing it all here and I'm very proud to report that we have given our service members their largest pay raise in over a decade. I have also directed the Pentagon to begin the process of creating the 6th branch of the United States Armed Forces called the Space Force. Space. Very important.

[Cheering and applause]

TRUMP: That's going to be great. Look, so much is happening now in space. I mean, if you have great defense, I am not just talking about Mars and the moon. I'm talking about tremendous defense capability, offensive capability, it's in space. So we are going to do the Space Force.

We passed the landmark VA Accountability law that everybody said you couldn't get passed. Forty years they've been trying to do it, now if a bad government worker abuses a great veteran, we turn to them and we say, "You're fired, get the hell out of here."

[Cheering and applause]

TRUMP: "You're fired." We also passed Veterans Choice. So if our veterans can't get care from the VA in a timely manner, they have the right to go and see immediately a private doctor and get taken care of. They have been working on that one for 45 years. We got it passed. I'm good at getting things passed my whole life, and oh, we are going to get the wall passed, don't worry about that.

[Cheering and applause]

TRUMP: Don't worry about it, the obstructionist, the Democrats are obstructionists. The only thing they do well. They are lousy politicians. They have horrible stupid policies. "Let's get rid of law enforcement. Let's get rid of the military. Let's not take care of our vets." All of these things. "Let's not build a wall." They are haters. They have tremendous hatred. They have tremendous hatred, but they will do anything they can to really to obstruct or resist.

Their word is "resist," resist. I used to see that word, I said, "Why are they doing that? If it's good for the country, why are they resisting?" But they want to resist. I withdrew the United States from the horrible Iran nuclear deal, and so many things have happened since then.

[Cheering and applause]

TRUMP: I also recognized the capital of Israel and five months later, we opened the American embassy in Jerusalem. Instead of apologizing for America, we are standing up for America, we are standing up for the heroes who protect our country, and we are proudly standing up for our National Anthem. Thank you.

[Cheering and applause]

[Crowd chants "USA."]

TRUMP: But to continue our incredible success, we must elect more Republicans and we must elect Troy Balderson. We have to elect Troy. So get your friends, get your neighbors, get your family and get out and vote for Troy on Tuesday. Loyal citizens, great people like you help build this country, and together we are taking back this country. We are returning power to where it belongs -- to the American people.

From Columbus to the Queen City, Cincinnati where I worked for a long time, I love Swifton Village, Swifton Village -- a good place, the Queen City. From Dublin to Cleveland and from Toledo to Mansfield, Ohio has always been the home of red-blooded American patriots, strong people, smart people, real workers. People that I love. This state is the home of the proud and we are, we are the home of the proud.

We are the home of families and farmers and miners and manufacturers and aviators and astronauts. Ohio is the home of everything -- everything good.

[Cheering and applause]

TRUMP: Ohio is where the Wright brothers invented the airplane and where Annie Oakley got her gun.

[Cheering and applause]

TRUMP: And Ohio is the state that gives us American legends and American heroes like Thomas Edison, Neil Armstrong, and John Glenn.

[Cheering and applause]

TRUMP: We stand on the shoulders of generations of American patriots who knew how to work, knew how to fight, and knew how to win. You know how to win. Just like them, we are going to keep on work. We are going to keep on fighting, and we are going to keep on winning, we are going to win so much you are going to get so tired of winning. Get so tired.

[Cheering and applause]

TRUMP: You see what happening. Nah, we'll keep it going for a long time. We will never give up, we will never give in, and we will never back down. We will never ever stop fighting for our families, our freedom, or our great American flag, got it?

[Cheering and applause]

TRUMP: Because we are Americans and our hearts bleed red, white and blue. We are one people, one family, and one glorious nation under God, and together as a nation, we will make America wealthy again, we will make America strong again. We will make America safe again. And we'll make America great again. Thank you, Ohio. Thank you.

[Cheering and applause]

WATTERS: President Trump speaking to an overflowing crowd of thousands in Lewis Center, Ohio. He's there to support Republican Congressional candidate, Troy Balderson in Tuesday's special House election, and it was hot out there.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: And even thought it's 110 degrees in this crazy room ...

[Cheering and applause]

TRUMP: If you can take it, I can take it.

[Cheering and applause]

TRUMP: In all fairness to the HVAC engineers and contractors, this room was not designed quite for this crowd. And you people are hot. So if anybody wants to leave, leave. There is a lot of people out there who want to get in, but don't leave. Now, it is rather hot. Here is the good news, you walk out, you lose about 10 pounds and you just say, "That was really very good." That beats going to a gym, right? It's hot. So much for my brand-new beautiful suit.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WATTERS: Here to react, former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski and conservative commentator, Gina Loudon who was a member of President Trump's media advisory board.

All right guys, one of my favorite moments is when the President really pits the people against the powerful. He does it very effectively, for a billionaire for that matter and he talks about the elites. And I believe he has stolen this trick from the Democrats who always campaigned for the little guy against the big powerful business interests. He has now ripped that right out of their pocket and owns that line. Here's a little taste.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: MSNBC is so corrupt, it's so disgusting. So disgusting. I would say almost their worse, they're almost worst, they're really a fake news group of people and here's the good news. The guys that we love, right? They are blowing them away in the ratings. Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Tucker Carlson, Steve Doocy (inaudible) ...

[Cheering and applause]

TRUMP: So many others. They are blowing them away in the ratings. Oh, excuse me, I almost forgot, I would have been in big trouble -- the great Lou Dobbs, right?

[Cheering and applause]

TRUMP: I would have been, but you see, oh, Maria Bartimoro. Great. Now, I'm in trouble because I know I left out probably 10, but I didn't really think I would be doing this, but they are blowing them away. CNN is down at the bottom of the totem pole. MSNBC isn't even close to being next to these shows.

They are more elite than me? I'm have better everything than they have, including this.

[Cheering and applause]

TRUMP: And I became President and they didn't, meaning you get it.

[Cheering and applause]

TRUMP: And it's driving them crazy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WATTERS: Well, Judge Jeanine is very upset because she was not mentioned there by the President. I think I heard her throw a glass in the green room. But besides that, we wanted to get that in there. About the elites versus the regular folks, Dr. Loudon, that's so effective and the crowd just loves it.

GINA LOUDON, CONSERVATIVE COMMENTATOR: No, they absolutely do and these President has joined with the American people in ways that no other President has before -- Republican or Democrat -- to say, I remember during his campaign. He said it very clearly, "I want all Americans to be as rich as me."

And that gave Americans a vision of going back to work again, of reclaiming our economy both nationally and internationally, and those are the things he has delivered on. And so he has every right to stand there and say that to that crowd because he has delivered on it.

WATTERS: And Corey, here is the choice, this is how he is framing it here. He's saying these people in Ohio, they are smart people, they own a business, they own land, they have families, they have savings, they have high salaries. They are doing great.

And then you have some little pale weasel in a small apartment making a tiny amount of money in Manhattan or Washington, DC, he's got nothing going on, no action and he's calling those people in the heartland "deplorables." He's calling them "toothless," and that's why people don't like the people in the media.

COREY LEWANDOWSKI, FORMER TRUMP CAMPAIGN MANAGER: Well, Jesse, it' not just the people in the media, it's the bi-coastal nature of either going to Stanford or Harvard and then looking down on everybody else who didn't attend one of those Ivy league schools. And what this President talked about was he's wealthier than they are, he has got a bigger apartment than they do and he is now the President of the United States, but more importantly, he is there with the hard working men and women in Ohio every single day who are seeing the benefits of the economy, which he has put in place to put Americans back to work.

He went through those steel miners and coal workers who can now go back to work every day. They didn't go to Harvard. They didn't go to Stanford. Those are hard working Americans that are better off than those professional elitists who look down their nose at others.

WATTERS: Under Barack Obama, this country lost nearly I think, 300,000 to 400,000 manufacturing jobs and this President in only less than two years has added over 400,000-plus manufacturing jobs, Gina. But I want to talk about some of the news he made tonight.

Some people or don't know this, Dianne Feinstein, the senator from California, I think she is one of the Ranking Members on the Senate Intelligence Committee and leading the charge against collusion and all that kind of stuff. It was discovered that there was a Chinese spy, a mole, who was her driver for 20 years, driving the senator around. God knows what he was hearing in the front seat while she was chatting on the cell phone, and she is upset with Donald Trump for being a national security risk? Let's hear the President address it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Speaking of China, it's just came out that the Democratic leader and the leader of the Russian investigation ...

[Booing]

TRUMP: Dianne Feinstein had a Chinese spy as her driver for 20 years and she is leading the Russian investigation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WATTERS: Okay, so, it's so funny the Democrats, they get hacked, Podesta gives his password which was password to the enemies. She has got a mole in the back seat. Some crazy IT guy is working for Debbie Wasserman- Schultz then he flees for the border, and Donald Trump is risk? Come on.

LOUDON: Yes, but you make an excellent point, Jesse, and this is what the American people are watching and they are seeing this hypocrisy and they are going, "You've got to be kidding me." Do they believe their own lies? And Jesse, the only place they believe those lies are on the two coasts as Corey just pointed out, and also, in the DC bubble.

But the people in the heartland, the people that he was talking to tonight, they see all of this. They see the hypocrisy, they know it, and this is what elected this President. This is what will deliver the midterms for him, I believe again, too.

WATTERS: Yes, speaking of the midterms, let's play some sound from the President, and we can have Corey react. He made a prediction. Here it is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: They are talking about this blue wave. I don't think so, I don't think so. Maxine Waters is leading the charge. Maxine. She is a real beauty. Maxine. A seriously low IQ person. Seriously. Maxine Waters. She is leading the charge. You know, all throughout like hundreds of -- like 100 years, I guess, 125 years, whoever has the White House, that party tends to lose the midterms. I don't know why. Maybe it's complacency, maybe you all fight so hard for the Presidency and you know, you win, and you're a little complacent, but I mean, that was two years ago.

So, I just said, "Why?" But we have the greatest economy in the history of our country. we have things that never happened before. And look, if the Democrats get in, they are going to raise your taxes, you are going to have crime all over the place. You're going to have people pouring across the border. So why would that be a blue wave? I think it could be a red wave. I'll tell you what, really, I think it should be a red wave.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WATTERS: So Corey, what do you see happening in the midterms?

LEWANDOWSKI: You know, Jesse, I think the President is right in one regard. I think you're going to see Republicans gain seats in the US Senate. The map for the Republicans is very favorable particularly in those places where Donald Trump won two years ago where Democrat incumbents are currently running for reelection.

So you guys will see a gain of two to three seats at minimum of Republicans. On the House side, there is a very real possibility now that the Republicans will keep that House in the majority. It will be a slimmer majority, but the Republicans are going to hold the House, and the reason for that is what Donald Trump just outlined.

You know, it goes back to the basic question, "Are you better off today than you were two years ago?" Unequivocally, by every metric, the answer is "yes." The economy is booming, the stock market is booming. Unemployment particularly amongst Hispanics and African-Americans are at the lowest levels ever recorded. And all those things point to putting people back in office who have delivered in the last two years, so I think you will see a Republican majority come November.

WATTERS: And I don't necessarily believe the accuracy of some of the polls right now. They have a Democrat generic lead by about seven points in the head-to-head congressional matchup. I don't think that Trump supporters talked to pollsters. They definitely didn't talk to pollsters on November 2016, so that's baked in there, and it's going to be a lot tighter than people think.

So the President, this was his third big campaign rally this week. We have so much to play for you. We are talking about the elections. Let's talk about even further, 2020. The President named some potential matchups and here is what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Let's say I'm running against Pocahontas or Crazy Bernie. I tell you, I've got to hand it to Bernie. I saw him up there the other day, that hair is getting whiter and whiter and he's getting crazier and crazier. And I saw him, "We'll stop Donald Trump. We're stopping him." And I looked at my wife, I said, "You know what? You've got to hand it to that guy. Man, that guy, he doesn't quit and that's okay." Crazy Bernie. He is one crazy dude.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WATTERS: One crazy dude, doctor, what do you think about that one?

LOUDON: Well, this is the thing, he's cutting right into the base. Even some of those who might have considered themselves pretty far left once upon a time. If you look at ...

(CROSSTALK)

WATTERS: On trade, you're right.

LOUDON: ... these new jobs numbers, well, that, but also if you look at the new jobs numbers this week, unemployment is down, even among high school dropouts, Jesse. You know, think about this, the party of the little guy. The party of the guy that is the have-not, right? And this President is coming along and making their lives better. What in the world are the Democrats going to do with that? What are the socialists going to do with that? I don't know because I think this President wins on that.

WATTERS: When the President say, "I love the poorly educated." I think he was saying that with love, right, Corey? You've got the quick wrap, here we go.

LEWANDOWSKI: He was, but, Jesse, remember, look at the numbers that came out this week from the President, the African-Americans are now supporting this President at almost 30 percent. If he just gets double digits in the 2020 election, he wins by such a wide margin at the last election, it looks like (inaudible) ...

(CROSSTALK)

WATTERS: Think about that.

LEWANDOWSKI: I want everybody to think about what Corey just said, black support for President Donald Trump according to Rasmussen has gone from 15 percent to 29 percent. Guys, unbelievable. Got to run.

LEWANDOWSKI: Thank you.

LOUDON: Thanks, Jesse.

WATTERS: Coming up, it's President Trump versus King James.

ANITA VOGEL, CORRESPONDENT, FOX NEWS: Live from "America's News Headquarters," I'm Anita Vogel. The FBI reportedly returning to an Iowa pig farm again to question the owner in connection with the mysterious disappearance of 20-year-old Mollie Tibbetts. News of the FBI's visit to Wayne Cheney's farm comes as the reward for information leading to Mollie's whereabouts climbed to $260,000.00. Mollie vanished more than two weeks ago after a run in her hometown of Brooklyn, Iowa.

And in California, there are now 14,000 firefighters battling 17 major wildfires across the state. So far, the fires have burned close to half a million acres forcing nearly 40,000 people to evacuate. The most devastating fire, the Carr fire has killed six people, destroyed more than 1,000 homes and is now considered one of the worst wildfires in state history.

I'm Anita Vogel, now back to "Watters' World."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: And I was supporting somebody else, Steve Stivers, but he's in a totally different district. Did they apologize -- did you apologize for that mistake? No, I heard today. I heard today.

[Crowd chants "CNN sucks"]

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WATTERS: President Trump hitting back at the mainstream media earlier tonight after a week of attacks. CNN's Jim Acosta got into it with Sarah Sanders during Thursday's White House press briefing. Check it out.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SARAH SANDERS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: I am the first Press Secretary in the history of the United States that required Secret Service protection. The media continues ratchets up the verbal assault against the President and everyone in this administration, and certainly, we have a role to play, but the media has a role to play for the discourse in this country as well.

JIM ACOSTA, CORRESPONDENT, CNN: The President of the United States should not refer to us as the enemy of the people. His own daughter acknowledges that, and all I'm asking you to do, sir is to acknowledge that right now and right here.

SANDERS: I appreciate your passion. I share it. I've addressed this question. I've addressed my personal feelings. I'm here to speak on behalf of the President. He's made this comments clear.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WATTERS: Joining me now, senior columnist at townhall.com, townhall.com, Kurt Schlichter and Anton Gunn, a former Obama administration official, and the author of the author of the upcoming book, "The Presidential Principles." All right, Kurt, I'll start with you. Listen, the press is not the enemy of the people, the fake news press has made enemies of the people because of their mistreatment of the President, their unfair reporting, and their denigration of regular Americans. I mean, just the other day, you had some guy -- I believe it was from "POLITICO" who said everybody at the Trump rally was a bunch of toothless hillbillies. You understand that.

KURT SCHLICHTER, SENIOR COLUMNIST, TOWNHALL.COM: Absolutely. Look, this is a week when the "New York Times" the flagship of the liberal media hired an avowed racist, someone if you just changed the nature of the person she is hating, would have been another David Duke, and they hired her and they defended her, Jesse. It's ridiculous. It's disgraceful. Enemy of the people? You don't want to be called the enemy of the people. I have a great idea, stop being the enemy of the people.

WATTERS: What do you think, Anton, about a lot of the complaints coming from the mainstream media about the line, "enemy of the people," that the President uses. Are they being a little oversensitive?

ANTON GUNN, FORMER OBAMA ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: They are being way -- I mean, my point would be this. The media has a role to play and the President complaining about the media makes no sense. He should be above the fray and just do his job. If you can't take the criticism ...

WATTERS: President Trump above the fray? You do not know the President? The President does not stay above the fray. The President gets right down in there.

GUNN: He is not above the fray. And that's his problem. He should stay above the fray. The media has a job to do ...

WATTERS: And you think it's a ...

(CROSSTALK)

GUNN: ... their job is to cover whatever they want to cover, report it the way they want to report it. And he should have some thicker skin than to be President Petty to be concerned about what the media is saying. Just do your job and if you do your job, then, there's nothing to worry about. The press should be able to cover whatever they want to cover. I mean, what do you think? Up in ...

WATTERS: Yes, I think, they can cover whatever they want, but it's 90 percent negative. And all he is doing is when he gets incoming, he just counter punches. It's like they can throw a punch, the press, but they can't take one, Kurt.

SCHLICHTER : Damn right, Jesse. Look, we spent eight years with George Bush being a gentleman, taking it and taking it on our behalf. Now, we've got someone who throws back when they throw down. I love it. It's time to get in these people's faces and say, "No, you are not going to treat me in a condescending -- no, you are not going to insult me. No, I am not going to be treated with disrespect." If these are the new rules, welcome to them. That's how we are playing the game.

WATTERS: Yes, well no one wants to get hurt. Everyone is trying to stay non-violent, but if you're going to yell something at an event, I mean, come on, we are all grown men, here, I think we can take it. I know Anton two can take it. He looks like he can take just about anything, go buy his book, all right. Check it out. Guys, I've got to run.

Next, President Trump versus LeBron James. Wait until you see what happened today.

The other big story tonight, a war of words between NBA superstar LeBron James and President Trump after LeBron had this interview with CNN.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LEBRON JAMES, NBA BASKETBALL PLAYER: Because -- one, because I believe our President is kind of trying to divide us. But I think kind of, yes, he is. He is -- not only say kind of. He's dividing us and what I noticed over the last few months that he's kind of used sports to kind of divide us. I would never sit across from him.

DON LEMON, ANCHOR, CNN: You would never. You don't want to talk to him?

JAMES: No. I'll sit down across Barack though.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WATTERS: Now, the President responded tweeting, "LeBron James was just interviewed by the dumbest man on television, Don Lemon. He made LeBron look smart, which isn't easy to do. I like Mike." Talking about Michael Jordan.

Air Force veteran and conservative activist, Anna Paulina and political commentator Wendy Osefo. All right, Anna, I don't think this is that big of a deal. I don't know why people are getting so worked up about this. The President hits back when he's attacked. LeBron James said something he didn't like and he hit him back. What's the big deal, right?

ANNA PAULINA, AIR FORCE VETERAN AND CONSERVATIVE ACTIVIST: I'll start out by saying this, Jesse. Thing about kneeling during "The National Anthem" is the original purpose as to why it was done. It's no longer a topic of discussion, right? Sports athletes did it to shed light on police brutality in this nation. But now the focus has changed to the level of disrespect that it means to the service members, the 1.1 ...

WATTERS: Right, the message has been totally lost in the symbolism ...

PAULINA: Exactly ...

WATTERS: Because of the time that they chose to express themselves, Wendy, and you understand that.

PAULINA: Exactly.

WATTERS: ... they totally misread what they were doing, didn't see that it was hurting their cause, and now are trying to flip it and act like Trump is being divisive when it was them that brought the disunity by kneeling.

WENDY OSEFO, POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Actually, no, that is incorrect. I will say that the President's comments is completely divisive and is beyond the pale as the President of the United States and the President of the free world. What we have here is LeBron James, a man who has been a stellar model of citizenship, both on and off the court ...

WATTERS: That is true.

OSEFO: ... who spent $8 million of his own money to build a school for at-risk kids and nothing that Donald Trump has done to his career has even compared to that, whereas he has levied a judgment ...

PAULINA: Really? He didn't apply ...

WATTERS: Wait, ladies ...

(CROSSTALK)

OSEFO: Excuse me, Anna, what are you talking about?

WATTERS: Okay, ladies, one at a time.

OSEFO: Hold on, hold on, and I don't know you, but what I can say to you is do not cut me off because I am not finished.

WATTERS: Ladies, we're going to do this nicely and with class, okay. Wendy, let me respond to something you said. I agree that LeBron James has been very kind and generous and charitable off the court with his school and everything he has done for young disadvantaged children. With that said, it's not right to say President Trump has done nothing. He's created hundreds of thousands of jobs ...

OSEFO: I never said that.

WATTERS: He's given lots of opportunities to disadvantaged people. So I don't think that's appropriate, all right.

OSEFO: First of all, no, Jesse, let's stick to the facts, not only that what President Trump do, not only is it divisive, but it's also borderline racist.

WATTERS: Why?

OSEFO: President Trump has called out by name -- I will tell you why, he has called out by name Colin Kaepernick, Stephen Curry and LeBron James, but he has never responded to the criticism from ...

WATTERS: Wait a second, Anna.

OSEFO: Let me finish, he has not ...

(CROSSTALK)

WATTERS: And we've got to run, Anna -- I could name about a dozen white people that the President has attacked personally.

OSEFO: He has never responded to Eminem. He has never responded ...

PAULINA: Excuse me, what about ...

(CROSSTALK)

WATTERS: All right, enough, Wendy. Wendy, enough. Go ahead ...

PAULINA: ... the thing that he's facing on Twitter?

WATTERS: Go ahead, Anna. Go ahead. Finish it up.

(CROSSTALK)

PAULINA: I'm telling you, why don't you listen to what I'm saying then? What about (inaudible) ...

(CROSSTALK)

OSEFO: ... make any sense.

PAULINA: ... you referred to as a lemonade serving house where I'm not going to pee on national (inaudible) -- that's racism.

(CROSSTALK)

OSEFO: You need to tell me with actual facts.

WATTERS: Guys.

(CROSSTALK)

WATTERS: This has turned into something completely ridiculous. We are unable to have a conversation so I'm just going to go the next segment, okay. Anna Paulina and Wendy, thank you guys have much.

The "New York Times" hires a blatantly anti-Trump racist to be a member of their editorial board. We'll react to that next.

The "New York Times" under fire this week, hiring a new member of their editorial board who is an admitted anti-Trumper and also posts some extremely racist stuff like this. You ready? "Are white people genetically predisposed to burn faster in the sun, thus logically being only fit to underground like groverling goblins." And this, "Dumb eff'ing white people marking up the internet with their opinions like dogs pissing on fire hydrants." And "I was equating Trump to Hitler before it was cool." Oh, my God.

Here with reaction, comedian and social commentator, Terrence K. Williams. Terrence, I don't even have any words for that. Take it away.

TERRENCE K. WILLIAMS, COMEDIAN AND SOCIAL COMMENTATOR: That is a nasty woman. So of course the nasty "New York Times" would hire her. But would they hire Roseanne? No. And I would tell people not to read the "New York Times," but it's too late because nobody reads them anyway.

I mean, I would get my news from Nickelodeon than from "New York Times" but this is crazy. Now, this lady ...

WATTERS: Well, some people do this, Nickelodeon gets better ratings than CNN most weeks.

WILLIAMS: Exactly. And I don't know if this lady is Chinese, Japanese or crazy-nese. Something is wrong with this woman, and I can't believe they would hire her. They are a bunch of hypocrites.

WATTERS: Well, they defended the hiring and they basically said this, "She was being harassed," they claimed by racist people on Twitter and she responded to that harassment by imitating the rhetoric of her harassers. So they are saying people, "Oh, yes, some people said some racist stuff to her so then she said racist stuff back to imitate them." Does that even make any sense?

WILLIAMS: Oh, my, that don't make no sense. I don't know -- no, no, no. There is something wrong them fortune cookie that Ling Ling is eating -- that she's eating. There's something wrong with her.

WATTERS: Terrence, I think you now got yourself in trouble.

WILLIAMS: No, no, no.

WATTERS: I've got to run. We'll be right back. I have got to go to break.

That is all for us tonight. Be sure to follow me on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. "Justice With Judge Jeanine" is next. And by the way, she never threw anything against the wall in the green room. I was kidding. That was a joke. Judge Jeanine is the best. We love her, I love her and I know she knows that. And remember one thing, I'm Watters and this is my world.

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