5 Surprising Moments In President Trump's New York Times Interview

WASHINGTON, DC — New York Times reporters Peter Baker, Michael S. Schmidt and Maggie Haberman interviewed President Trump Wednesday, discussing health care, his Paris trip and the Russia investigation.

It's notable that though Trump frequently criticizes the New York Times, he still gives them occasional exclusive interviews — a huge boon for any media organization. (For more information on this and other political stories, subscribe to the White House Patch to receive daily newsletters and breaking news alerts.)

Here are five of the most surprising moments from the interview:

1. Health care reform is hard

"This health care is a tough deal," Trump said. "I said it from the beginning. No. 1, you know, a lot of the papers were saying — actually, these guys couldn’t believe it, how much I know about it. I know a lot about health care."

The GOP is having a difficult time coming to a consensus around a single vision for health care reform. However, during the campaign, Trump did not think health care reform would be a difficult task.

"You’re going to have such great health care at a tiny fraction of the cost," he said at an Oct. 25, 2016, rally. "And it’s going to be so easy.”

2. Trump and Putin discussed the Magnitsky Act at the G20 Summit

"We talked about Russian adoption," Trump said of his discussion with Russian President Putin. "Yeah. I always found that interesting. Because, you know, he ended that years ago. And I actually talked about Russian adoption with him, which is interesting because it was a part of the conversation that Don [Jr., Trump’s son] had in that meeting."

Reports broke Tuesday night that Trump had a previously undisclosed conversation with Putin at the G20 Summit dinner. No other American was present — the pair was aided only by a Kremlin interpreter. The reports suggested that the conversation lasted an hour; Press Secretary Sean Spicer denied this, saying it was brief and only pleasantries were exchanged. Trump said the conversation was 15 minutes long.

The president also said that he and Putin discussed Russian adoptions. Putin blocked adoptions to the United States in retaliation for the government's passage the Magnitsky Act, a round of sanctions passed under President Obama to punish Russian officials for the killing of a human rights lawyer. As Trump notes, the now-famous meeting set up by Donald Trump Jr. and a Russian lawyer during the campaign is said to have centered on this policy.

3. Trump wouldn't have appointed Jeff Sessions to be attorney general had he known Sessions would recuse himself from the Russia investigation.

"Sessions should have never recused himself, and if he was going to recuse himself, he should have told me before he took the job, and I would have picked somebody else," Trump said.

Sessions recused himself from investigation into the Trump campaign after it was revealed he had undisclosed meetings with the Russian ambassador before the election. Under oath, he had testified to the Senate during his confirmation hearing that he had no contacts with Russians in that time.

"The President today effectively asked Sessions for his resignation," said former U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara of the interview. "Will he resign or insist on being fired?"

4. Trump insists that his promise to give a speech on Clinton's "corrupt dealings" made just hours after Trump Jr.'s famous meeting was completely unrelated.

BAKER: On the date you clinched the nominations with New Jersey and California and the primaries, when you give the speech that night, saying you’re going to give a speech about Hillary Clinton’s corrupt dealings with Russia and other countries, and that comes just three hours after Don Jr. —
TRUMP: Number one, remember, I made many of those speeches.
BAKER: People wondered about the timing.
TRUMP: Many of those speeches. I’d go after her all the time.

Trump has denied being aware of Trump Jr.'s meeting with the Russian lawyer until very recently. However, many have noted that shortly after the meeting took place, Trump announced that he would deliver an upcoming speech on Clinton's "corrupt dealings." This suggests Trump might in fact have been aware of the meeting, which Trump Jr. set up after being promised damaging information about Clinton directly from the Russian government.

5. If Special Counsel Robert Mueller looks into Trump's finances, it would be out of bounds.

SCHMIDT: If Mueller was looking at your finances and your family finances, unrelated to Russia — is that a red line?
HABERMAN: Would that be a breach of what his actual charge is?
TRUMP: I would say yeah. I would say yes. By the way, I would say, I don’t — I don’t — I mean, it’s possible there’s a condo or something, so, you know, I sell a lot of condo units, and somebody from Russia buys a condo, who knows?

Mueller has broad authority to pursue an investigation into Russian attempts to influence the 2016 election, potential collusion with the Trump campaign and any other lines of inquiry he comes across in his work. Trump appeared to question that authority, delegated by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, in the interview. Asked whether he would consider forcing Mueller out if he investigated the Trump family finances, the president said he wouldn't answer the question because Mueller wouldn't do so.

In a separate report from the Times, the paper found that Mueller is looking into Trump's finances.

Trump also said that a special counsel should never have been appointed.

Read the full transcript at the New York Times>>

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