HIGHLIGHTS: Donald Trump on Fox News Special Report with Bret Baier

BAIER: “You made an appearance in federal court in Miami, and your explanation of the Presidential Records Act and your defense how you and others believe that that applies here. Obviously, you know, other legal experts, your Attorney General Bill Barr, they do not think that that applies to handling classified national security and defense materials. But that legal battle aside, I just want to ask you a couple of specifics. Why did you have this very sensitive national security defense documents, like the the war plans for a strike on Iran?”
Trump: “So, like every other president, I take things out. In my case, I took it out pretty much in a hurry. People packed it up and we left. I had clothing in there I had all sorts of personal items in there. Much, much stuff. By the way, when Bill Barr, who is a coward — Bill Barr was a coward, Bill Barr didn’t do what he was supposed to do. I fired him and he has great hatred, and that’s okay because some people do and some people love me very much — “

BAIER: “He said he resigned.”

TRUMP: “He didn’t resign. I asked him to give me a letter immediately because he didn’t have the courage to go after so many different things, and you and I have discussed that before. But he was a coward. He obviously doesn’t like me too much, and there are a lot of people that don’t and there are a lot of people that feel just the opposite.”

TRUMP: "A radical left group by the way, and all the sudden my house got raided."

BAIER: “Do you know if you still have any highly sensitive government documents?”

TRUMP: “No, I don’t have anything, no.”

BAIER: “Okay.”

TRUMP: “But what I’m concerned about, they took everything. Right? I don’t know what they took. They could be stuffing it. I don’t know what they put in there. And we wanted to be there when they were taking. They wouldn’t let anybody in the room. They have never treated a president like this.”

BAIER: “And that’s fair for you to point out. I guess what this points to is this recording where you said you could have declassified it when you were president. You didn’t.”

TRUMP: “No, no, I could have when I was president, but there is no document there. Those were newspaper articles. They were copies of articles and magazines. There was no document there. And I couldn’t have done it after I was out.”

BAIER: “But what do you say to the voter who really liked many of your policies—“
Trump: “They still do.”
BAIER: “—but they can’t handle the scandals or the controversies or the name-calling or the vitriol? What do you say to that voter, who is worried that that all leads to a general election loss?”
TRUMP: “So, based on the polls, I’m leading Biden by a lot. Based on the polls, I’m leading all of the Republicans by a lot, like 40 points and more. Right now, I have the best polls I’ve ever had. People see this stuff for what it is. It’s a political witch-hunt, a continuation.”
BAIER: “More independent voters watch Fox News than any other TV source.”
TRUMP: “A lot less than used to watch it.”
BAIER: “They do watch. Those voters usually — “
Trump: “A lot less, Bret.”
BAIER: “They usually make up all the difference in the election. So to the female independent voter in the suburbs, who struggled with family financing because of inflation, she’s now against Biden, disapproves of Biden, but wasn’t with you in 2020 and so far is a hard ‘no’ for you in 2024 — “
Trump: “You’re not looking at the right polls.”