Donald Trump said that he's "fine" with the Supreme Court's decision to ensure marriage equality in the United States, during his first televised interview since his election to the presidency.
Trump sat down on CBS News' 60 Minutes to answer some tough questions about what he plans to do when he takes office in January. He addressed foreign policy issues such as ISIS and North Korea, leftover issues from the campaign such as whether or not he actually plans to prosecute Hillary Clinton, and domestic social issues as abortion, immigration, and marriage equality.
60 Minutes' Lesley Stahl asked the president-elect: "Do you support marriage equality?"
Note that Trump answered Stahl's question by saying his personal views on supporting marriage equality are "irrelevant." PolitiFact has reported that he is against same-sex marriage.
During his campaign, Trump said he planned to fill the late Antonin Scalia's vacant Supreme Court seat with a conservative, Scalia-style judge who could overturn Roe vs. Wade, which effectively legalized abortion in the the United States. Stahl asked if he planned to follow through with that campaign promise.
In answering, Trump quickly pivoted to the Second Amendment, which protects citizens right to bear arms and has nothing to do with abortion. He said plans to appoint "very pro-Second Amendment" judges.
Then, he said:
So basically, Trump is saying that if Roe v. Wade were overturned, states would make their own decisions on abortion, so a person seeking an abortion in a hyper-conservative state like Texas could be forced to travel to a more progressive state like California, similarly to how same-sex couples needed to travel to get married before the Obergefell vs. Hodges decision in 2014.
When Stahl grilled Trump on whether or not he plans to follow through on his campaign promise to build a "big, beautiful" wall, he had a clear answer. But apparently, that "big beautiful wall" might be a big, beautiful fence instead.
There you have it. According to the interview, Trump still plans to deport "probably two million, it could be even three million," immigrants with criminal records, after which he will "determine" what to do about the "terrific" people who are also undocumented.
Since the election, quite a few racist incidents and hate crimes have been committed in the name of Donald Trump and his supporters. But Trump apparently hasn't heard anything about them. He said he was "surprised" they were taking place.
It's actually not "a very small amount" of hate crimes. The Southern Poverty Law Center has counted over 200 hate crimes reported since the election five days ago. And those are only incidents that were reported.
To the perpetrators of these hate crimes, Donald Trump says, "'Stop it.' If it — if it helps. I will say this, and I will say right to the cameras: Stop it."
Read the rest of the 60 Minutes transcript here.
Related: 10 Promises Donald Trump Has Made During His Presidential Campaign
Check this out:
