Interview: Doug Ford on Donald Trump

CityNews reporter Cynthia Mulligan spoke one-on-one with former city councillor, and longtime Conservative, Doug Ford about controversial Republican U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump.

Read the transcript of the interview below:

Cynthia Mulligan: So you’ve actually met Donald Trump.

Doug Ford: Yes, with Rob when he opened the Trump tower in Toronto.

CM: Are you still a supporter of Donald Trump?

DF: Absolutely. I wouldn’t waver. The GOP is wavering, I wouldn’t waver.

CM: Well Republicans are jumping off the ship in droves. Why is it you’re still staying on?

DF: Well they weren’t on the ship at the beginning. So the establishment that he’s run against – the 14 million people in the US are dead against these career politicians – they were never with him. So the Paul Ryans, and the McCains, they’re finding any excuse to jump ship. But they don’t realize it makes their campaigns a lot weaker. What he has said is inexcusable – some of the things.

CM: Then how can you still support him and all these revelations from women coming out saying he has sexually assaulted them? How can you still stand by him?

DF: First you have to make sure it’s true. That’s the first thing. Accusations are coming out.

CM: Sure, but it’s almost reminiscent of Bill Cosby. When they just start piling on and there’s a wing of common accusation here.

DF: It’s inexcusable. But I look at the alternative. The alternative is Crooked Hillary. That if you ever look into their background I have to wonder how they made all this money when she was in government. They didn’t own a business. There were tens of millions of dollars. And she was Secretary of State. So I think this WikiLeaks every day is coming out with new information that should shock the people. Let’s put this into perspective. Over 80% of the media can’t stand him in the US. I’ve never seen a more biased media in my entire life, except Rob Ford. But outside of that I have not seen a more biased media.

CM: Do you see parallels between Donald Trump and Rob Ford?

DF: No, Rob’s totally different than Donald Trump.

CM: But in terms of going against the establishment, not being accepted as you claim by the media —

DF: Absolutely. Rob wasn’t accepted by the Conservative Party, Liberal Party or the NDP even though he had tremendous support and traditional NDP voters and Liberal Voters and Conservative voters. The establishment don’t see eye-to-eye with the Fords and that’s their choice along with the career politicians. Donald Trump’s a businessman, he’s a very successful businessman. I think he’s a marketing genius. They need a change down in the US. Obama has been an absolute disaster in my opinion in the US. I run a business. The healthcare costs are going through the roof for not only the businesses but the people.

CM: But shouldn’t a president or any politician have strong moral fibre? Are you seeing that in Donald Trump?

DF: Well he does have strong morale fibre –

CM: He’s a misogynist. He’s always slamming women!

DF: No, he’s not always slamming women. If you look at the events he’s at there’s a lot of women there. I went home. I have four girls and my wife. So I have five women. I asked them, “Does this bother you what happened eleven years ago?” And all of them – I didn’t coerce them or anything – they all said, “We care about the taxes. We care about our business taxes going up under President Obama. We need more stability. So it’s about the bottom line. Great jobs.

CM: So are you saying the wallet, the bottom line, trumps anything even whether or not he sexually abused women over the years, including allegations of a 13-year-old girl? Is the bottom line and the wallet more important than that?

DF: It’s inexcusable. But if you want to talk about 13-year-old girls let’s talk about Hillary Clinton again protecting a pedophile that went after a 13-year-old girl and then she started to mock this 13-year-old girl which I think is disgusting. So do you have two great candidates? No. Do I think Donald Trump can run the country a lot better and get along with other countries like Russia? Absolutely he can do a better job. He can create a stimulus. He can lower taxes. Right now in the United States the corporate tax is 7-8% higher than in Canada. What he’s proposing is to lower the corporate tax down to 15 per cent, create new jobs, stimulate the economy. And that’s what it comes down to. Creating jobs. (11 22 28) You look at inner cities for example. I spend a lot of time in Chicago. A lot of Canadians. I can bring them to different parts of Chicago, drop them off at 11’o clock at night and there’s a good chance you might not see that person again. We have to create jobs, put money into the taxpayer’s pocket and Hillary Clinton has not shown that she is competent to be President of the United States.

CM: What is it about Donald Trump and Rob Ford that they inspire the populist vote? That they capture that in a way that politicians envy?

DF: Well the average politician speaks out of both sides of their mouth. No matter if it’s here or the United States. And it’s all three levels of government here and all parties. They act one way in front of the people and they think people are stupid and they can blow smoke where the sun doesn’t shine for these people. And people don’t buy it anymore. You look around the world. Look at the vote over in England, or in the UK. The people spoke up. You look over in the Philippines, you look at Iceland, you look at Rob Ford, you look at Donald Trump. Look up Bernie Sanders. People are just fed up with these politicians that get up there, promise something, don’t commit to their promises after they get elected. And it’s all about – you know what it’s all about? Filling their buddies’ pockets full of money, sole-sourced deals, giving contracts. It’s all about the money. No one can buy Donald Trump. And everyone knows that.

CM: Back to his character. You’ve said it yourself, you have daughters.

DF: Yes.

CM: Would you be comfortable with one of your daughters being alone in a room with him?

DF: I would be. Absolutely I would be.

CF: Despite all these allegations?

DF: Absolutely. Donald Trump hires a lot of women out there, he respects women. Would his daughters feel comfortable? Would his wife feel comfortable? See you’re targeting – would I feel comfortable with Hillary Clinton taking care of my money down there? That I pay the taxes, corporate taxes down there? I wouldn’t feel comfortable at all. They’ve just continuously spent money and people are up to here with it.

CM: OK but isn’t your daughter more important than money? Do you really think that he respects women?

DF: Absolutely he respects women. There’s millions of women that have voted for him. So all those millions of women are dumb? I don’t think so. There’s a lot of smart women I’ve talked to down in the US that support him 100%. I just got off the phone with one of my account executives in New Jersey. Female. I have another female that runs my New Jersey facility. She just said, this is a bunch of nonsense. I support Donald Trump 100%. She’s a very bright, educated woman.

CM: Interesting.

DF: That’s just the way it is. The media’s playing this up. And I find it hypocritical. The so-called righteous hypocritical politicians, they’re coming out holier than thou? I can assure you as a guy, you’re in a locker room. And I’ve talked to a lot of guys no matter what level they are, if they’re in a lead, an establishment. Some nonsense gets talked about. It’s nonsense. It’s garbage. It’s locker room garbage. I don’t condone it but it happens. But to get this pulled out? And again, she’s a hypocrite. The reason she’s a hypocrite – look at Bill Clinton. They’re lined up from here to Timbuktu and she turned a blind eye because that was her ladder to become president. That’s really what it comes down to. I find it hypocritical. If Bill Clinton was an angel, maybe she has a foot to stand on. She knew what was going on. So that’s the hypocrisy at his best. What he said? Bill Clinton did. That’s the difference.