“They’re good people. I don’t want to hurt them”: Did Trump Just Walk Back His Promise to Prosecute Hillary?

Because that’s what it sounds like… and in the first week after being elected, too.

In his first major interview since winning the election, Donald Trump sat down with CBS reporter Lesley Stahl.

Not only did Trump gracefully discuss Hillary’s concession phone call, he switched his tone on the Clintons 180 degrees.

Trump told Stahl Hillary’s concession chat was “lovely” and that, “she couldn’t have been nicer. She just said, ‘Congratulations, Donald, well done,’ and I said, ‘I want to thank you very much. You were a great competitor.’”

Then regarding the woman he spent months on the campaign trail referring to as “Crooked Hillary,” Trump added: “She is very strong and very smart.”

Bill apparently called Trump to congratulate him as well, to which Trump said, “He was very, very, really, very nice.”

Worse, apparently Trump may even consider taking advice from the Clintons, telling Stahl, “I mean, this is a very talented family. Certainly, I would certainly think about that.”

But I thought she was crooked? Why would anyone deliberately take advice from a crooked person?

Then again, after his first official meeting with President Obama, Trump told reporters multiple times that Obama is a “very good man” and has already said he will seek Obama’s counsel in the future as well… when just a few weeks ago on the campaign trail, he swore that Obama is the worst president in U.S. History.

Stahl pressed Trump on whether or not he was going to appoint the special prosecutor to investigate Hillary as he said he would during the second debate, a comment that was easily one of the most dramatic moments of the entire election season.

Trump’s response? At first he tried to change the subject:

Donald Trump: “Well, I’ll tell you what I’m going to do, I’m going to think about it. Um, I feel that I want to focus on jobs, I want to focus on healthcare, I want to focus on the border and immigration and doing a really great immigration bill. We want to have a great immigration bill. And I want to focus on all of these other things that we’ve been talking a  bout.”

But Stahl pressed him directly:

Lesley Stahl: “You called her ‘crooked Hillary,’ said you wanted to get in jail, your people in your audiences kept saying, ‘Lock em’ up.'”

Donald Trump: “Yeah. She did —”

Lesley Stahl: “Do you  —”

Donald Trump: “She did some bad things, I mean she did some bad things —”

Lesley Stahl: “I know, but a special prosecutor? You think you might…”

To which he finally said:

Donald Trump: “I don’t want to hurt them. I don’t want to hurt them. They’re, they’re good people. I don’t want to hurt them. And I will give you a very, very good and definitive answer the next time we do 60 Minutes together.”

…Yeah.

Trump said, “I don’t want to hurt them,” not once, not twice, but three times. He also said the Clintons are “good people” and in other parts of the interview referred to them as talented, very very very nice, strong, and smart… exactly the same sentiments he had about the Clintons up until just before he chose to run for president.

And it’s only been a week since the election. He isn’t even inaugurated yet.

Stahl made it a point to point out, “What we discovered in Mr. Trump’s first television interview as president-elect, was that some of his signature issues at the heart of his campaign were not meant to be taken literally, but as opening bids for negotiation…”

But all those Trump supporters chanting “lock her up” did take those promises literally…

Again, it’s only been a week but as far as a special prosecutor “locking up” Hillary under President Trump, why would the guy who says he doesn’t want to hurt her and who thinks she’s smart and strong and “good people” from a “talented family” want to lock her up?

(H/T: Zero Hedge. Full transcript of the interview below.)

Trump 60 Minutes 2 by zerohedge on Scribd