Trump defends personal attacks on Harris, discusses election outcome, release of medical records
Former president and GOP nominee Donald Trump said in an exclusive TV interview that he would release his medical records, as he faces off against Vice President Kamala Harris in the race for the White House. Trump, 78, also defended his repeated insults of Harris' intelligence and said he would accept the election outcome if he believes the election is "free and fair."
He spoke with CBS News political correspondent Caitlin Huey-Burns in Pennsylvania Monday, as Democrats kick off the Democratic convention in Chicago.
"You will release your medical records to the public?" Huey-Burns asked the former president.
"Oh sure, I would do that very gladly, sure," Trump responded.
Barely a month after an attempt on his life at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, Trump insisted that no, he isn't suffering from any post-traumatic stress disorder and hasn't experienced any other lasting effects after a gunman grazed his ear with a bullet.
The Republican nominee said he just had a medical exam and received a "perfect score," and two cognitive tests, which he said he "aced."
"I got everything right," Trump said. "And one of the doctors said, 'I've never seen that before, where you get everything right.' No, I have no problem. I'd go a step further, I think anybody that runs for president, whether they're 75 or 65 or 45, I think should take a cognitive test."
In recent rallies, Trump has been complaining about the replacement of President Biden at the top of the ticket, characterizing Harris' nomination as a "coup." He's also been assailing her intelligence, repeatedly calling her "stupid," despite her long legal career.
Huey-Burns asked Trump if that's the right message to win over moderate voters, the kind of voters Trump will need in key battleground states.
"No, I don't think so," Trump said. "I think that the message is what a bad job they've done. I mean, if you look at this economy, if you look at inflation, and you know, I love this country. I have to do what it takes to win. I have to get this country going, because we're going to lose our country."
But asked for specifics, Trump couldn't point to evidence or examples of deficits in Harris' intellect.
"Our country needs a very smart person, and I don't think she's a very smart person," Trump replied. "So, I'm not looking to — I don't consider that an insult — that's just a fact."
"What evidence do you have for that?" Huey-Burns asked.
"I looked at the things that she's said, I looked at the way she deals, I looked at her record — her crazy record — I look at her policies. I just don't happen to think so," Trump responded. "Now, I could say she is and I know that would be very nice. And the other thing, we have to win this election."
The former president said he would release a shortlist of possible nominees for the Supreme Court in the next month.
"I'll be releasing it I'd say over the next three or four weeks," he said.
The former president, who appointed three justices to the high court, ensuring a 6-3 conservative majority that voted to end the federal right to an abortion in 2022, said he has no regrets over the Supreme Court's decision to strike down Roe v. Wade.
"No regrets, no," he told Huey-Burns. "I wouldn't have regrets. Again, I did something that what most people felt was undoable."
Trump said that the decision about whether to ban abortions "should be in the state governments."
"The federal government should have nothing to do with this issue," he said. "And it's being solved at a state level, and people are very happy about it."
Trump also said that he would not enforce the Comstock Act, which could be used to prohibit the sale of the medication abortion drug mifepristone by mail.
"We will be discussing specifics of it, but generally speaking, no, I would not" enforce the act, he said.
Asked whether medication abortion drugs should be available, he replied, "Well, it's going to be available, and it is now. And as I know it, the Supreme Court has said, 'Keep it going the way it is.' I will enforce and agree with the Supreme Court."
Trump also said he supports expanding the Child Tax Credit, something his running mate, Sen. JD Vance, is touting on the campaign trail. Vance proposed boosting the annual tax credit from the current $2,000 to $5,000. Harris then said she would like to expand the credit to $6,000 for parents of newborns.
"The answer is yes, we'll take care of children in this country," Trump told Huey-Burns.
The Republican nominee also said he would accept the results of a fair and free election, although he didn't in the wake of his loss to Mr. Biden in November 2020. Trump has continued to undermine the credibility and integrity of that election, despite his own top security officials insisting it was the most secure election in history.
"I think if I lose, this country will go into a tailspin, the likes of which it's never seen before — the likes of 1929 — but if I do, and it's free and fair, absolutely, I will accept the results," Trump told Huey-Burns.
"Fair" to Trump "means that votes are counted," he said. "It means that votes are fair. It means that they don't cheat on the election, they don't drop ballots, they don't install new rules and regulations that they don't have the power to do."
"If I see that we had a fair and free election, which I hope to be able to say, but if I see that, I will be — you will never see anybody more honorable than me," Trump said. "I'm an honorable person."
Trump said he thought there were "many problems with the last election" but told Huey-Burns, "I think things have been done over the last four-year period that will make this a free and fair election."
In May, Trump was convicted of felonies in New York stemming from a hush money payment made to an adult film star just before the 2016 presidential election. He faces other criminal charges over his alleged participation in a scheme to interfere with the peaceful transfer of power after he lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden. He has pleaded not guilty.