ABC This Week interviews during 2020: on Principles & Values


Donald Trump: I'm president of everybody but there are Democrat-run cities

Q: Why do you keep talking about Democrat states?

TRUMP: They are.

Q: They're American states.

TRUMP: No. The Democrat-run states are the ones that are doing badly. If you look at New York, if you look at Illinois, if you look at a lot of different places, they're doing poorly. And cities in particular are being run so poorly.

Q: Don't you have a responsibility to those states and cities as well?

TRUMP: .largely because of the debt, but largely because of the crime. They don't want to do anything about crime. They have sanctuary cities where they're protecting criminals. They have things that the Republicans don't have. I'm the president of everybody, but I don't want to say it, but they're Democrat-run cities. It is what it is.

Source: ABC This Week: special edition 2020 Town Hall interview Sep 15, 2020

Donald Trump: I could be more presidential if not for media fake news

Q: At times, some have called your behavior not presidential. What, if anything, would you do differently if reelected, to create a more unified message where all sides can come together to make positive change?

TRUMP: I'm fighting a battle. It's a big battlefield, and I have a lot of forces against me. I have the media, which I call the fake news, because a lot of it is fake. I'm fighting a lot of forces. Sometimes you don't have time to be totally, as you would say, presidential.

Source: ABC This Week: special edition 2020 Town Hall interview Sep 15, 2020

Donald Trump: I'm president of everybody, but they're Democrat-run cities

Q: Why do you keep talking about Democrat states?

TRUMP: They are.

Q: They're American states.

TRUMP: No. The Democrat-run states are the ones that are doing badly. If you look at New York, if you look at Illinois, if you look at a lot of different places, they're doing poorly. And cities in particular are being run so poorly.

Q: Don't you have a responsibility to those states and cities as well?

TRUMP: .largely because of the debt, but largely because of the crime. They don't want to do anything about crime. They have sanctuary cities where they're protecting criminals. They have things that the Republicans don't have. I'm the president of everybody, but I don't want to say it, but they're Democrat-run cities. It is what it is.

Source: ABC This Week: special edition 2020 Town Hall interview Sep 15, 2020

Joe Biden: VP should be the last one in the room on major decisions

Q: What would you ask of Vice President Harris?

BIDEN: I asked her what Barack asked of me. I want you to be the last person in the room on every major decision because I know she'll not be intimidated by the Oval Office. I know she'll not be reluctant to tell me exactly what she thinks. And I know she'll have a perspective--different in many cases than mine just by nature of who we are and our backgrounds and that's why I thought it was so important as well to have a woman as vice president.

Source: ABC This Week 2020 National Convention Biden/Harris Q&A Aug 23, 2020

Joe Biden: Expect government to understand people's problems

BIDEN: My dad used to say, "I don't expect the government to solve my problem, but I expect them to understand my problem." Yes, and I think the background we both come from, although very different. It's all about understanding. Ordinary people, given half a chance, not a joke, half a chance, can do extraordinary things. They've never, ever, ever let the country down, given a chance.
Source: ABC This Week 2020 National Convention Biden/Harris Q&A Aug 23, 2020

Joe Biden: Asking if 70+ year old is fit is legitimate question

Q: Trump's campaign has called you "diminished." How do you respond?

BIDEN: Watch me. Mr. President, watch me. Look at us both, what we say, what we do, what we control, what we know, what kind of shape we're in. Come on. I think it's a legitimate question to ask anybody over 70 years old whether or not they're fit and whether they're ready. But I just, only thing I can say to the American people, it's a legitimate question to ask anybody. Watch me.

Q: You have said that you are a transition candidate. Does that mean a one-term president?

BIDEN: I want to make sure when this is over, we have a new Senate, we won back statehouses, we're in a position where we transition to a period of bringing people up to the visibility that they need to get to be able to lead nationally. And that's about raising people up. And that's what I'm about.

Q: So you're leaving open the possibility you'll serve eight years if elected?

BIDEN: Absolutely.

Source: ABC This Week 2020 National Convention David Muir Q&A Aug 23, 2020

Joe Biden: President's job is to heal; country needs healing

BIDEN: The president's job is to heal. This country needs healing. I'll be a president who tells the truth, who takes responsibility and who in fact invites the opposition to come to the Oval Office and settle problems together. The words of a president matters, no matter who he is. And it's about time we start to hear from a president that it's about uniting the country, bringing together-- it's going to be hard, nothing easy about it.
Source: ABC This Week 2020 National Convention David Muir Q&A Aug 23, 2020

Kamala Harris: Biden is my model for being a great vice president

HARRIS: Joe Biden is, for me, a model of what makes for a great vice president and the model for me if and when God willing we win this election. What he did as a partner to Barack Obama, what he did in terms of leading on very significant issues in support of Barack Obama is really inspirational for me as a model of how I intend to do the job. We have a commitment to each other so in many ways after he chose me, I chose him too.
Source: ABC This Week 2020 National Convention David Muir Q&A Aug 23, 2020

Ben Carson: Coronavirus: Go about normal activities if you're healthy

Q: We've heard the president say, for example, that he's going to continue with political rallies in the face of this. Is this sending the right message?

CARSON: Going to a rally, if you're a healthy individual and you're taking the precautions that have been placed out there, there's no reason that you shouldn't go. However, if you belong to one of those categories of high risk, obviously, you need to think twice about that.

Q: You seem to be putting all the responsibility back on individuals, saying that they should be thinking for themselves. What broader measures need to be taken?

CARSON: Those recommendations will be coming out from the CDC. Right now, the recommendation is as I just prescribed--go about your normal daily activities if you are healthy. If you are not healthy, think very seriously about attending places where there are crowds.

Source: ABC This Week 2020 interview of Trump Cabinet Mar 8, 2020

Joe Biden: A bigger uphill climb with a democratic socialist ticket

I didn't put the label on Bernie, Bernie calls himself a democratic socialist. I think it's going to be incredibly more difficult. Look, if I don't get the nomination and Bernie gets it, I'm going to work like hell for him. But I'll tell you what, it's a bigger uphill climb running as a senator or a congressperson or as a governor on a ticket that calls itself a democratic socialist ticket.
Source: ABC This Week 2020 Presidential race˙interview Feb 9, 2020

Nancy Pelosi: Donald Trump will be impeached forever

Let's be optimistic about the future, a future that will not have Donald Trump in the White House one way or another. Ten months from now we will have an election if we don't have him removed sooner. But, again, he'll be impeached forever.
Source: ABC This Week 2020 interviews on impeaching Trump Jan 12, 2020

Joe Walsh: Look into 25th amendment for Donald Trump

Q: You talk about the president being unfit. Should the 25th amendment been invoked?

WALSH: It should be looked at. We've never had a situation like this. You can't believe a word he says. I don't care your politics, that should concern you. He's erratic. He's cruel. He stokes bigotry. He's incompetent. He doesn't know what he's doing. He's a narcissist. Everything he cares about, the only thing he cares about, is Trump. He doesn't give a damn about America. He doesn't care about the border.

Source: ABC This Week on 2020 presidential hopefuls Aug 25, 2019

Julian Castro: President should bring people together, not divide

We need leadership at every level, starting with the president, that will be big enough to try and bring people of different backgrounds together, because we know that this shooter and his bigotry does not reflect the vast majority of Americans of any background. So with leadership we can try and unite and heal our country and tamp down this kind of bigotry and acting out among a few people.
Source: ABC This Week interview for Democratic 2020 Veepstakes Aug 4, 2019

John Kasich: Why not a bipartisan ticket for president & veep?

Q: You talked earlier in the year about this possibility of maybe running on a bipartisan ticket, including perhaps with Governor John Hickenlooper of Colorado.

KASICH: Let's just say that Donald Trump is nominated and Elizabeth Warren is nominated, and you have this ocean of people who sit in the middle. Is there a legitimate opportunity for a third party, bipartisan kind of ticket to be able to score a victory or to have a profound impact on the future of American politics?

Q: But everybody that's looked at it in the past says it's just not possible. There seems to have been a ceiling [on third-party support].

KASICH: Well, no one thought a guy like Donald Trump would be elected president. No one thought we'd have electric cars. I mean, this is a time of dynamic change. And you can't judge tomorrow on the basis of what happened yesterday. So I don't know about that. Hickenlooper, love him, the name's too long. Hickenlooper-Kasich, you couldn't fit it on a bumper sticker.

Source: ABC This Week 2018 interviews of 2020 hopefuls Nov 25, 2018

Jeff Flake: Only authoritarians say the press is the enemy of the people

Q: You've going to be giving a series of speeches on President Trump's relationship with the press. We've gotten some excerpts: "It's a testament to the condition of our democracy that our own president uses words infamously spoken by Joseph Stalin to describe his enemies. It bears noting that so fraught with malice was the phrase `enemy of the people' that even Nikita Khrushchev forbade its use. And of course, the president has it precisely backward. Despotism is the enemy of the people, the free press is the despot's enemy." What are you trying to do with these speeches?

FLAKE: What I'm trying to say is, you can talk about crowd size and this is pretty innocuous if there's a falsehood. But when you reflexively refer to the press as "the enemy of the people" or "fake news," that has real damage to our standing in the world. Under Stalin, and today, you have authoritarians across the world using the term "fake news" to justify cracking down on their opposition or staunch legitimate debate.

Source: ABC This Week 2018 interviews of 2020 hopefuls Jan 14, 2018

  • The above quotations are from ABC This Week interviews during 2020
    (Martha Raddatz interviewing candidates for 2020 races).
  • Click here for definitions & background information on Principles & Values.
  • Click here for other issues (main summary page).
  • Click here for more quotes by John Kasich on Principles & Values.
  • Click here for more quotes by John Hickenlooper on Principles & Values.
2020 Presidential contenders on Principles & Values:
  Democrats running for President:
Sen.Michael Bennet (D-CO)
V.P.Joe Biden (D-DE)
Mayor Mike Bloomberg (I-NYC)
Gov.Steve Bullock (D-MT)
Mayor Pete Buttigieg (D-IN)
Sen.Cory Booker (D-NJ)
Secy.Julian Castro (D-TX)
Gov.Lincoln Chafee (L-RI)
Rep.John Delaney (D-MD)
Rep.Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI)
Sen.Amy Klobuchar (D-MN)
Gov.Deval Patrick (D-MA)
Sen.Bernie Sanders (I-VT)
CEO Tom Steyer (D-CA)
Sen.Elizabeth Warren (D-MA)
Marianne Williamson (D-CA)
CEO Andrew Yang (D-NY)

2020 Third Party Candidates:
Rep.Justin Amash (L-MI)
CEO Don Blankenship (C-WV)
Gov.Lincoln Chafee (L-RI)
Howie Hawkins (G-NY)
Gov.Gary Johnson(L-NM)
Howard Schultz(I-WA)
Gov.Jesse Ventura (I-MN) 		Republicans running for President:
Sen.Ted Cruz(R-TX)
Gov.Larry Hogan (R-MD)
Gov.John Kasich(R-OH)
V.P.Mike Pence(R-IN)
Gov.Mark Sanford (R-SC)
Pres.Donald Trump(R-NY)
Rep.Joe Walsh (R-IL)
Gov.Bill Weld(R-MA & L-NY)

2020 Withdrawn Democratic Candidates:
Sen.Stacey Abrams (D-GA)
Mayor Bill de Blasio (D-NYC)
Sen.Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY)
Sen.Mike Gravel (D-AK)
Sen.Kamala Harris (D-CA)
Gov.John Hickenlooper (D-CO)
Gov.Jay Inslee (D-WA)
Mayor Wayne Messam (D-FL)
Rep.Seth Moulton (D-MA)
Rep.Beto O`Rourke (D-TX)
Rep.Tim Ryan (D-CA)
Adm.Joe Sestak (D-PA)
Rep.Eric Swalwell (D-CA)
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Page last updated: Mar 14, 2021