Forbes Fact Check: What isn't true is that we lost that energy independence under President Biden. Using the definition of exports minus imports, 2021 was our highest level of energy independence in history. In 2019, our energy exports were greater than our imports by 0.61 quadrillion BTUs (quads). In 2020, that excess grew to 3.47 quads and in 2021 it grew to a new record of 3.82 quads. By that measure, we are more energy independent than we have ever been.
TRUMP: I did finish the wall. I built the wall.
Q: You didn't finish the wall. It was only about 52 miles of new wall.
TRUMP: I built hundreds of miles of wall and I finished it, and then I said, "we have to build some more because there are areas like water going through a dam." You close up one and they come in through another. And we started another 100 miles of wall.
USNWR Fact Check: Before Biden stopped new construction on the wall, the Trump administration had built 458 miles of what it dubbed "border wall system" [out of 1,954 miles of the US-Mexico border]. The vast majority of the 458 miles were constructed in places where some kind of barrier already existed, but most of the preexisting structures were far less imposing than the new wall and included fencing and rudimentary technical barriers.
TRUMP: I am inclined to pardon many of them. I can't say for every single one because a couple of them, probably they got out of control. But when you look at Antifa, look at what they did to Seattle, and BLM--many people were killed. I'm not trying to justify anything, but you have two standards of justice in this country. They've persecuted these people. And yes, my answer is, if I get in, I will most likely -- I would say it will be a large portion of them. It would be very early on. And they are living in hell right now.
Q: When you said you are considering pardoning a large portion of those charged with crimes on January 6, does that include the four Proud Boys members who were charged and convicted of seditious conspiracy?
TRUMP: I don't know. I'd have to look at their case. But I will say in Washington, DC you cannot get a fair trial. Just like in New York City, you can't get a fair trial.
TRUMP: Yeah, as you know, the bump stocks are actually a very unimportant thing and NRA, I went with them and they said, "it doesn't mean anything. Actually, all they do is teach you how to shoot very inaccurately." So we did that.
A.P. Fact Check: The National Rifle Association is "disappointed" with the Trump administration's plan to outlaw bump stocks, which allow semi-automatic weapons to fire continuously. An NRA spokeswoman says the Justice Department should provide amnesty for gun owners who already have the devices, and says the regulation "fails to address the thousands of law-abiding Americans" who followed the government's previous guidance. Bump stocks became a focal point in the gun control debate after they were used in the October 2017 mass shooting in Las Vegas, the deadliest in modern U.S. history.
TRUMP: Well, when you have that policy, people don't come. If a family hears they're going to be separated, they love their family, they don't come.
Q: But, would you re-implement that if you were re-elected? Is that what you are saying?
TRUMP: Well, we have to save our country, alright?
TRUMP: What's happening is they're doing this for election interference. This woman, I have no idea who she is.
Q: This was a jury of nine people who found you liable of sexual abuse.
TRUMP: I never met this woman. This woman said I met her at the front door of Bergdorf-Goodman; I was immediately attracted to her; We had this great chemistry. And a few minutes later, we ended up in a dressing room. What kind of a woman meets somebody and brings him up and within minutes, you're playing hanky-panky in a dressing room?
Q: This was a jury though.
TRUMP: They said she wasn't raped; that was her charge.
Q: They found that you sexually abused her. Do you wish you had testified?
TRUMP: We had a horrible Clinton-appointed judge. This is a rigged deal. My lawyer said, "sir, you don't have to do it. This is a fake story and you don't want to give it credibility." That's why I didn't go.
TRUMP: Not really. I would have the right to. By the way, they were declassified after...
Q: What do you mean "not really"?
TRUMP: Not that I can think of. Let me just tell you, I have the absolute right to do whatever I want with them. I have the right. I was negotiating with NARA. Do you know what NARA is?
Q: The National Archives. But you don't negotiate with them.
TRUMP: All of a sudden, they raided my house. They didn't raid the house of Joe Biden.
Q: But Joe Biden didn't ignore a subpoena to get those documents back, like you did. Do you still have any classified documents in your possession?
TRUMP: No, I don't have anything. I have no classified documents. And, by the way, they become automatically declassified when I took them.
Q: No, you had to declassify them.
TRUMP: Excuse me, just the opposite.
Q: Well, Chris Miller was your acting Defense secretary. He says you never gave that order.
TRUMP: He did not say that.
Q: He has testified that.
TRUMP: He did not say that.
Forbes Fact Check: Miller was asked to be precise. "Just so we're clear," an investigator asked him, "you did not have 10,000 troops, quote, 'to be on the ready,' prior to January 6th."
"A nonmilitary person probably could have some sort of weird interpretation, but no," Miller responded. "The answer to your question is no. That was not part of my plan or the department of defense's plan."
TRUMP: Because we're giving away so much equipment, we don't want have ammunition for ourselves right now. But I were president, this would have never happened. Now, here's the problem. We've given so far $171 billion. The European Union, which is approximately the same size altogether as our economy, they've given about $20 billion.
Q: But would you give Ukraine weapons and funding if you were elected?
TRUMP: If I'm president, I will have that war settled in one day, 24 hours.
Q: How?
TRUMP: I'll meet with Putin, I'll meet with Zelenskyy. And within 24 hours, that war with be settled. It'll be over.
Q: Do you want Ukraine to win this war?
TRUMP: I don't think in terms of winning and losing. I think in terms of getting it settled, so stop killing all these people.
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The above quotations are from 2024 CNN Town Halls.
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