NBC's Lester Holt Confronts Trump Over His Debunked Clinton Email And Benghazi Lies

Holt: “You Made Some Very Bold Claims About Her That Didn't Stand Up ... There's No Evidence”

From the June 23 edition of NBC's Nightly News with Lester Holt:

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LESTER HOLT (HOST): A day after his blistering speech attacking Hillary Clinton's honesty, Donald Trump sat down with NBC News today where he continued to press that attack in our conversation in his New York apartment. The presumptive Republican nominee also responded to our reporting last night that found some of his claims about Clinton in that speech are inaccurate or unsupported.

HOLT: You delivered a speech yesterday, you went hard after Hillary Clinton. She says your speech was full of conspiracy theories and that you attacked her because you had no answers on substance. What is your reaction?

DONALD TRUMP: I attacked her because she has been terrible at what she does, whether it's Libya, whether it's the great migration that you see, which is largely her and certainly her and Obama. She's done a horrible job. You look all over Europe, it's a disaster what's taken place and she'll be a terrible president. So the attack is an attack really on the fact that she will be a terrible president.

HOLT: You made some very bold claims about her that didn't stand up when we put it --

TRUMP: Well, you don't know if they stand up. What claim are you talking about?

HOLT: Well, let's talk about your claim she was asleep during the Benghazi attack.

TRUMP: He was left helpless to die as Hillary Clinton soundly slept in her bed.

TRUMP: Were you there? Were you there? Were you with her?

HOLT: She has testified before the committee that she wasn't asleep, it happened during the daytime. There's no evidence.

TRUMP: It happened all during the day and the story was going on for a long period of time --

HOLT: I guess what I'm asking, what are you -- what do you base that on?

TRUMP: Excuse me, wait, it went on for a long period of time and she was asleep at the wheel, whether she was sleeping or not, who knows if she was sleeping --

HOLT: You said she was sleeping.

TRUMP: She might have been sleeping. What? Because she put out a tweet, somebody said she put out a tweet, therefore she wasn't sleeping? Nobody else could put out a tweet?

HOLT: So you stand by what you said?

TRUMP: I can tell you this, whether she was sleeping or not and she might have been sleeping, it was a disaster. It was a horrific disaster and it was on her watch.

HOLT: You also made the claim that her e-mail, personal e-mail server had been hacked.

TRUMP: Her server was easily hacked by foreign governments.

HOLT: Suggesting that as president --

TRUMP: You don't know that it hasn't been --

HOLT: Wait a minute. Suggesting that she would be compromised as president. What evidence do you have?

TRUMP: First of all, she shouldn't have had a personal server, okay? She shouldn't have had it, it's illegal. What she did is illegal. Now she might not be judged that way because we have a rigged system, but what she did is illegal. She shouldn't have had a personal server.

HOLT: But is there any evidence it was hacked other than routine phishing?

TRUMP: I think I read that, and I heard it, and somebody also gave me that information.

HOLT: Where?

TRUMP: I will report back to you. I will give it to you.

HOLT: You said it with such certainty yesterday.

TRUMP: I don't know if certainty. Probably she was hacked. You know what, you can be hacked and not know but it she probably was hacked. The fact is she should not have had a personal server.

Previously:

Trump’s Benghazi Lies Came From Fox News

Watch Politifact’s Angie Holan Dissect and Dismantle Three Trump Lies In Three Minutes

Watch CNN Fact-Check Trump’s Most Recent Stream Of Lies