KDKA Exclusive: President Trump Speaks As Anniversary Of Tree Of Life Massacre Approaches, 'These Are Very Sick People'
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- Just days before the one-year anniversary of the Tree of Life shooting, President Trump spoke exclusively about that dreadful day.
KDKA was the only local TV station to interview the President before he went on stage at the Shale Insight Conference.
WATCH: President Donald Trump speaks with KDKA's Jon Delano.
KDKA political editor Jon Delano spoke with President Trump on Wednesday at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center for several minutes on a variety of topics, including energy issues, protestors and the city of Pittsburgh.
Delano: Mr. President, welcome to Pittsburgh.
President Trump: Thank you very much, Jon.
Delano: Sometimes, it feels you're here all the time, and we should give you a voter registration card. What is it you most like about Pittsburgh?
President Trump: Well, I love the state and the place. I also love the fact you have really, in terms of legacy, the greatest steel place in the world. We are bringing that back, and a lot of other things are happening in Pittsburgh. We are very proud of it."
Delano: Do you think you fulfilled those promises or is there more to do?
President Trump: I think I've more than fulfilled them, but we can still do a little bit more. Some of them are statutory ... where we need to wait 180 days and then six months. We have a pipeline now, in terms of regulations, approvals, approving certain pipelines, actual pipelines. We have things to do that are great. But I think I'm way, way ahead of schedule.
Delano: There are protestors outside, now they are concerned about fracking and climate change. What is your message to them?
President Trump: We have a wealthy country. We have things that we're doing, that we want to do, that can only be done if we let our great factories operate. If you want to close down half of your wealth and half of your factories, if you want to close things up and go with wind — which by the way kills the birds and has lots of other problems, and I'm not even knocking it — it's not enough for this country. We are doing so well right now, and if you want to close it up and put everyone out of work, you have to vote for her or somebody on the other side.
Trump was also asked about the Tree of Life shooting, where 11 people were killed last October. The one year mark of the tragedy is this weekend.
WATCH: KDKA's Jon Delano speaks exclusively with President Donald Trump.
He expressed how horrific the whole event was and how moved he was when he talked with people in the area.
Delano: I'm just wondering if you think that this administration and this Congress have done all that they could have done to prevent this kind of tragedy?
President Trump: It's a tremendous mental illness problem, let's face it. This person was just terrible, and this is what happens. These are sick people, very, very sick people. I was here, I saw, and we all suffered together. I've never seen anything like it. The same time, you had some incredibly brave people that really stopped it."
Delano: Do you think there is more we can do as a country to stop this, to even prevent white nationalism and the like from happening?
President Trump: Yeah, we have to stop it all, and other countries to have problems. I think the problems they have, they don't get talked about the same way. We are doing a lot to stop it. A lot does have to do with mental health. You look at so many, they talk about they've been flagged. They know they have problems, and nobody does things about it. As an example, in the school shooting in Florida, we knew how sick that person was, meaning the police could have done something about it. So many different signs. But we are working very hard on it."
