Donald Trump reacts to FBI's Clinton decision

Presumptive Republican nominee weighs in on the email investigation findings on 'The O'Reilly Factor'

This is a RUSH transcript from "The O'Reilly Factor," July 5, 2016. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
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O'REILLY: "Personal Story" segment tonight, reaction to the FBI's not to recommend charges against Hillary Clinton by her rival Donald Trump. We don't usually do phone interviews here on The Factor with politicians especially, but with the breaking news and Mr. Trump campaigning this evening, we will make an exception. The candidate joins us now on the phone. First of all, do you think the FBI did an honest investigation?

DONALD TRUMP, GOP PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE (on the phone): Well, Bill, I don't want to talk about honesty but it was certainly surprising, especially in the middle of the talk when he talked about all of the mistakes that she made. She made great mistakes and it sounded to me like there was no choice but to convict or to go to, you know, some form of very harsh punishment. And they didn't do that.

And I can tell you everybody was stunned at the end because, you know, if you listen to it, it sounds like she had horrible judgment. She didn't know what she was doing. She was sloppy. She was just about as bad as she can be.

O'REILLY: OK.

TRUMP: Then in the end the recommendation was as the recommendation was. But I was surprised by that after listening to the first half of the speech. Especially the middle.

O'REILLY: Do you believe -- do you believe there is politics involved here? Do you believe that the FBI and the Justice Department got together in some way, shape, or form and said, you know what? We're not going to disrupt the electoral process. She is running for president. We're going to cut her more slack than we would someone else. Do you believe that?

TRUMP: Well, my problem is that I know people in the FBI. I have such respect for the FBI that I just don't understand what happened here because you -- everybody knows, everybody realizes, I have spoken to many, many lawyers as you have and you have had them on your show and you have read about it and everybody knows she is extremely guilty and they really sensed she was guilty today and then they said, we're not going to prosecute. And then you remember what happened to General Petraeus and other people and they suffered tremendous consequences.

O'REILLY: Yes, but it was a different as we said Petraeus had intent. He knew what he was doing. He gave it to his girlfriend. And Comey said that there was no intent by Secretary Clinton to subvert the process.

TRUMP: I think she had intent though. I mean, to me --

O'REILLY: That's interesting. Now, you say that Hillary Clinton want to do subvert the national security process of this country. Is that what you are saying?

TRUMP: Well, she knew what she was doing, Bill. She know what she was doing --

O'REILLY: But she can say, well, I didn't know the repercussions of what I was doing. She can say that.

TRUMP: Yes. But she is a lawyer. She knew what was going on. And, frankly, even if she didn't, what she did was wrong. And you know whether you had intent or not is not the defining characteristic of this. You can make a mistake and you are still guilty. You know, because you are talking about national security. And there are a lot of reasons of guilt. So, it's very, very surprising. To me I think it's really surprising. And I'm not just talking about from today, from Director Comey. I'm talking about generally speaking people would say there is no way she can avoid this because of what's happened to other people.

O'REILLY: But you believe that she did it on purpose, don't you?

TRUMP: Well, I certainly believe something strange happened because when you put your servers in basements and when you, you know, look at all of the information that was just wiped clean, whether by lawyer or by anybody else, and just look at it, and we know that she had, you know, classified information on her server. And she says she didn't have classified information on her server. So when you look at all of the facts, she certainly lied. At a minimum she lied. And you are not supposed to be lying when you are dealing at this level and then you have the husband going around the tarmac and I have been on a lot of tarmacs and nobody ever runs into your plane. And he talked for 39 minutes about his grandchildren and about golf. It's not the way life is it's just not the way life happens, Bill.

O'REILLY: So, basically what you are saying though is that the Clintons A, committed a crime because if the President was trying to influence the justice system, that would be an obstruction there. You are basically saying Hillary Clinton did it on purpose. She knew that she was going to put national security in jeopardy but she did it anyway and her husband tried to obstruct justice. That's what you are saying tonight.

TRUMP: Well, she knew that was going to happen because of what she was doing. It just wasn't secure. So, she knew that was going to happen. And as far as her husband is concerned, I mean, who just happens to be, you know, waiting on a tarmac and all of a sudden run in and talk about grand kids and golf for supposedly 39 minutes. I mean, it just doesn't happen that way. Life doesn't happen that way.

O'REILLY: If you are elected president, are you going to fire Attorney General Lynch and Director Comey?

TRUMP: I don't want to comment on that. I really don't want to comment on that.

O'REILLY: Why?

TRUMP: Because it's inappropriate at this moment. But I will tell you that I believe that what happened over the last four or five days has been a total miscarriage in justice. And I really believe that what happened is shocking. And it's certainly shocking to legal scholars and I watch them and talk to them all the time they can't believe what happened.

O'REILLY: Do you believe --

TRUMP: Whether it's General Petraeus or others that have suffered grave consequences for what they did, Bill, I think it's a great miscarriage of justice.

O'REILLY: Do you believe the fix was in and did President Obama have anything to do with it?

TRUMP: Well, it was very strange the timing, because I see him, you know, talking and making a speech a couple of hours after this happened. Certainly it was very strange to be having your meeting with the FBI on the, you know, one of the biggest holidays of the year. Certainly Fourth of July weekend and they are having meetings on Saturday and then the speech and everybody knew she was going to be in North Carolina on Monday and then, you know, the semi exoneration. I don't know even know if you would call it exoneration because there was so many bad things said about she did --

O'REILLY: No. She wasn't exonerated, she just wasn't prosecuted.

TRUMP: She is essentially incompetent.

O'REILLY: But you dodged my question. Do you believe --

TRUMP: Basically they are saying she is incompetent.

O'REILLY: Okay.

TRUMP: She is not dishonest, she is certainly incompetent.

O'REILLY: He clearly said that. Comey did. But I'm going to pose the question again. Do you believe the fix was in and that President Obama was involved in that?

TRUMP: I think it's extremely unusual that he is speaking two hours after the so-called exoneration, that he is speaking in North Carolina where I'm heading right now, by the way. I'm going to Raleigh where we have a big crowd. But I think it's a very unusual set of circumstances. And it began with President Clinton going on to an airplane, you know, just like oh, gee, hey, isn't this wonderful and a lot of people are saying where was he before? Was he playing golf or did he just go there, see her, and then leave because some people are saying that's what happened.

Nobody knows where he was. Did he fly in and flight right out? Because that's a whole different circumstance. Because he said he was just in North Carolina. A lot of people said he was playing golf. They haven't been able to find out where he played golf. So, regardless, you have a set of circumstances which is absolutely horrendous set of circumstances as far as I'm concerned and as far as a lot of great lawyers are concerned.

O'REILLY: Are you going to accuse President Obama of influencing the case and are you going to accuse Hillary Clinton of committing a crime?

TRUMP: I'm going to further look into it and we will see what we shall see. And you will be certainly one of the first to know. That I can tell you. But I'm going to look into it very, very strongly and we will see what we will see.

O'REILLY: All right. We appreciate you coming on tonight. I know it's a very busy day for you. Thank you.

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