>> if you missed any of the speakers from earlier at the south carolina republican party gala, we will show them later on in the program schedule, or you can watch online anytime at c-span.org. the president is spending the weekend at his private golf course in new jersey. as he left the white house, he responded to reporter questions about the withdrawal of texas congressman john ratcliffe to be the next director of national intelligence and other topics. this is about 20 minutes. president trump: which process

are we talking about? i felt congressman ratcliff was being treated very unfairly. i think i am a student of the press, and i could see that the press was treating him very on rarely. he is an outstanding man. withd, do you want to go this for two or three months or do something else? he thought about it. he said it is going to be rough, i can see where the press is going. fake news. he is a fine man. so we had started the process, and i thought it was easier before we start. i read things that were unfair. he doesn't deserve it. [indiscernible] president trump: i like sue gordon. i like her very much.

i have always liked sue gordon. it could be. we will make another choice. sue is there now, and certainly she will be considered for the acting. we will probably be talking about it later today or early next week. >> [indiscernible] president trump: i think he was just treated very harshly by the press. he had a decision to make. it could be months. i said i think i see exactly what they are trying to do. nobody understands the press, but i think i understand them as well as anybody, and i didn't think it was fair. >> [indiscernible] president trump: no they didn't. i think he would've had support, but we were early in the process. we haven't even started.

i think he would have had good support, certainly for the republicans. chilly ated pretty first. president trump: i have not seen that. i can tell you the democrats were chilly. a lot of republicans did not know john. he was getting good receptivity. i believe he made the right decision. >> [indiscernible] >> mr. president -- >> [indiscernible] i like whenump: no, you vet. i think the white house is a great vetting process. you vet for me. when i give a name, i give it

out to the press and you vet for me. a lot of time you do a very good job, not always. >> [indiscernible] president trump: if you take a look at it, the vetting process for the white house is very good. but you are part of the voting process, you know? i give a name out to the press, and you vet for me. we save a lot of money that way. in the case of john, i believe he is being treated harshly and unfairly. >> [indiscernible] i think herump: would have good support. republicans love john ratcliffe. he wasn't in that world that much. i think you would have tested up quickly-- picked it up quickly. probably would not have democrats support, which would be nice to get some. he would have done fine, but it

would have been a long, hard slog. >> another question, if you don't mind. [indiscernible] president trump: that is ok. i don't mind. the tweet is a repeat of what i heard over the news. i know his house was robbed, and i thought that was too bad. that was not meant as a wiseguy tweet. his house was robbed, and it came over the news at a certain moment last night. >> [indiscernible] china, number 1 -- you have to understand, we are so far behind, we have been treated so badly. pastme our leaders, our trade representatives.

they have done a horrible job. china, we can't just make an even with china. we have to make a much better deal with china, because they have an unfair playing field, and i am turning it around. of we will be getting 10% probably close to $350 billion. that is a lot of money. china has to do a lot of things to turn it around, but you will be seeing -- it goes on september 1. frankly if they don't do them, i can increase it substantially. if i wanted to, i could increase it to a much higher number. >> [indiscernible] president trump: well, it is in a process right now. i know the case right now. it is a very sad situation. it is heartbreaking, but that is

in a process, so i will not get involved in the process. as you know, they will be making a final decision over the next 10 days, so i will not interfere with the process. [indiscernible] president trump: we have been moving it down. we have been moving it down from syria. we defeated the isis caliphate and we have 100% of that. we have 2500 prisoners. europe is going to take them or someone is going to have to take them. we have 2500 basis prisoners. we have told -- isis prisoners. we have told europe some have come from france, some have come from germany, so they will have to take some. we have taken it way down in syria. ultimately it will be down to a very few people, if any. with respect to afghanistan, we

have made a lot of progress. we are reducing it. we have been there for 19 years. we are serving as policeman. we could win afghanistan in two wanted, but if we i'm not looking to kill 10 million people. >> [indiscernible] president trump: we could win that war very easily. i could win that war in a week if i wanted to, but i am not looking to kill 10 million people, okay? many of them would be innocent people. i am not talking nuclear, by the way, i am talking totally conventional. i am not looking to kill millions of people in afghanistan. >> [indiscernible] president trump: that i can't tell you. we will find out. >> [indiscernible] president trump: i hear he has done a good job.

i heard he has done a good job. subjects, but he has done a good job. really don't know him. i do have a list. -- a short list. we have a list of a few people. we are looking at well-known people, people aware the vetting would go very easily because they are in the intelligence world. i have a list of three people that i've been working on over the weekend. i will be working on that over the weekend, and on monday i will give you an answer. i like sue gordon very much, who is acting. >> [indiscernible] president trump: say it again? i think we have a lot of good people. we have three people

specifically -- i could tell you. >> tell us. >> who are they? president trump: it is too early. you want a piece of the list? >> [indiscernible] president trump: i don't want to say if they can be trusted or not. history is not so good, but they don't like us much either. we have brought the number of soldiers down very substantially. they are coming down. we are talking to them. we have a lot of advantages. we are doing very well with pakistan. i met a gentleman who i liked a lot last week from pakistan. we have a good friendship, a good chemistry. i think pakistan will help us and i think others will get involved. we have been there 19 years. let's put it this way, we are more policeman than anything else. lot, we could a

win the war, and you can look at it anyway you want -- we can win the war in afghanistan in less than a week, but i'm not looking to kill 10 million people, and i'm not talking nuclear. in less win that war than a week, and i have that as an option always. >> [indiscernible] president trump: with russia, we have been speaking to russia about a packed for nuclear, so they get rid of some, we get rid of some. right now we are number one, russia is number two, but china is quite a bit down. in terms of nuclear, china is much lower, but we would want to include china at some point.

i think the relationship is good. we are trying to have a good relationship. it is very hard in light of the phony witchhunt, which is now dead. russia -- if we can get a packed where we reduce -- pact where we reduce nuclear, that would be a good thing for the world. i do believe that will happen. i have also discussed it with china. i have discussed it with president putin. i will tell you china was very excited about talking about it, and so is russia. i think we will have a deal at some point, but this particular pact that expired as of today, they were not living up to their if theynts, and i said are not living up to their commitments -- we always have to be in the lead. i have redone our nuclear.

we have new nuclear coming. i hate to tell that to people, because it is devastating, but we always have to be in the lead. hope to god you never have to use it. >> [indiscernible] president trump: we have new everything. we have the finest military in the world. w makee the finest equipment in the world by far, whether it is fighters, whether it is missile, whether it is submarines -- there is nobody to compete with us. if we hold off spending by getting a pact with russia and china, that would be very good for all three countries. >> [indiscernible] president trump: you are talking about the trade with beef? eu is very tough to deal with.

they have barriers. they had barriers on beef. we broke that barrier today. i appreciate it. it is a group of countries, as you know. dealing with them, they are very difficult, but we did a big deal today, beef, and we will be selling them and take percentage of our beef, so we were happy to do it. auto tariffsmp: are never off the table. if they do not treat us fairly -- which they are not. the eu has tremendous barriers to us, but we just broke the first barrier, and if we don't get what we want, i will put auto tariffs. if i don't get what i want, i'll have no choice but maybe to do

that. so far they have been very good. i want to thank mexico. the numbers are way down, apprehension, the numbers are way down. about 21,000have on our border. they have about another 6000 on their northern border near guatemala, and i will tell you mexico is doing a great job. >> [indiscernible] president trump: before we talk about secretary, i will tell you i would love to see the democrats sit down and work out the loopholes in 20 minutes and workout asylum, but we are moving along with an assignment sylum bill,nment -- a lindsey graham is handling it. >> [indiscernible]

president trump: i will always help our farmers. our farmers were targeted by china. these are great patriots. there will be a time when the biggest beneficiary of what i am in respect to china is the eu. beef, they couldn't do it at all, and this came out of nowhere. our farmers will be the biggest beneficiary. our farmers are great patriots. >> [indiscernible] president trump: what happens is china devalues their currency, and china is pouring money out, and that will pay for the tariff s. i don't say that with all countries, but china is very sophisticated, but so are we

. all you have to do is ask china. let me just explain. china is devaluing their currency and they are also pouring money and. -- money in. their currency is going to hell. that will pay for the tariffs. the tariffs are not being paid for by our people, it is being paid for by china, because of inflation and they are pumping money in. >> [indiscernible] you interviewed the wrong farmer, number one. china two, any amount takes out is made up by the billions of dollars we are taking in. our country is taking in aliens of dollars from china. -- billions of dollars from

china. out of that many billions, we are giving it to the farmers, because they have been targeted by china. the farmers come out totally whole, so you interviewed the wrong farmer. trump announced an agreement to export hormone free beef from the united states to european markets. joining the president were percentages from the european union, the cattle industry, and u.s. government, according -- including trade representative robert lighthizer. [chatter]