More from the first television interview with Donald Trump since the attempted assassination attempt on July 13, recorded one week later in Grand Rapids, Michigan, took up a significant part of Watters World on the FOX News channel last evening. The first sections are here and here.

Among the segments was Trump’s further recollections about being wounded by gunfire. Jesse Watters’ interview with the former president also included Trump’s running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance.

FOX News Media provided the interview transcript (excerpts below), and two links to the video:

JESSE WATTERS. FOX NEWS HOST:  So the ear's better. You have the smaller bandage on.

FORMER PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP:  Yeah.

WATTERS:  Have you asked to see the wound?

SEN. J.D. VANCE:  I have not. No. I won't, though I do find it hysterical, Jesse, you have these people who are like, why is the president wearing an ear bandage? He got shot in the ear. And these are the same people who were wearing masks, right, five years after COVID. So it's pretty ridiculous.

WATTERS:  When you were down by the podium, we heard a lot of kerfuffle. You said something about shoes, shoes.

TRUMP:  Yeah.

WATTERS:  What was that?

TRUMP:  Well, they wanted to put me on a stretcher. They had a stretcher and they wanted to put me on a stretcher. And I said, I'm not going on a stretcher. Because I just felt it was the ear. And there was a lot of blood coming. I don't know if you've heard this, but the ear causes they say the most [bleeding] in the body. You get hit on the ear, better than just about any other place in one way, but in another way it bleeds more.

And there were a lot of -- there was a lot of blood. But I understood. They thought I'd, I was hit elsewhere. I thought -- they thought I was hit actually in this area. And I wasn't. I said, I'm telling you I'm OK, I'm fine. I'm going to get up. I want to get up. I'm not going to be taken out on a stretcher. We had a little argument. Well, I have six guys lying on top of me. I mean, I had some big guys on top of me.

WATTERS:  Yeah.

TRUMP:  Strong guys too, I can tell you that, by the wrist. The wrist had a little -- they did work on it.

(LAUGHTER)

TRUMP:  And brave guys because they ran onto that stage very quickly. I was down for the most part because when I looked at my hand, I knew it was -- I knew it was something very serious. I put my hand up, I looked at it, it had blood all over it. But I had a lot of big, strong humans on top of me. And they were very brave humans because they were running into fire. And he [the would-be assassin]  kept going. He probably thought he hit -- but it hit the ear.

And when I saw that I got down pretty quickly, I think. I also think people were starting to shout. It's one of the reasons I was able to go down so fast because it almost is amazing that that move of checking here and going almost immediately down. I think so probably people were shouting at the same time, who knows? It was Bedlam.

And I was down and I said, let's get going, come on. Let's go. And the shooting had stopped. So I assumed they probably got him. They did get him. I believe they got him with one shot, one shot from a -- an unbelievable shot. Now if he would've done it earlier, maybe doing it earlier is hard because they haven't -- it's hard to shoot somebody when you're not a hundred percent sure.

But they got him. And had they not gotten them, it could have been a lot worse situation. But two great men were very badly hurt. I've gotten to know him and two -- and one, Corey was, as you know, killed. And you could have had -- you could have had a lot more than that if he didn't. But so they took him out.

So now we're getting up. I said, I'm not -- I'm not lying in the stretcher. I'm not going to do that. So I forced my way up. And once I was up, I realized, because I looked, everybody was stunned. You know, we had thousands and thousands of people, a good group in the back, but they were great. You know, there was just like a backdrop. And nobody stampeded, nobody ran. You know, usually when they hear a shot, if you go to any -- we have people that do this for a living, it's called crowds. And they said, when a bullet goes off, everybody starts running for the exits. Nobody ran, including the thousands. I mean, tens of thousands of people were in front.

WATTERS:  Mm-hmm.

TRUMP:  And nobody ran. And nobody ran in back. The back was like a sample of it.

 And you had one man in the -- the man dressed in black. I mean, they're all becoming famous people, with a black hat and he's -- he's looking like this, he's standing, where are they? And he starts pointing. This man had no fear.

And none of them did. And the women were incredible. Some went down, you know, for a little cover, but nobody ran. And everyone that went down, came up.

TRUMP:  And they thought I was in trouble. They -- and they were right. But they thought I was in trouble because they saw the blood immediately because it was over here.

VANCE:  And so these -- the media always slanders these crowds as, you know, MAGA extremists. And of course they slander the president too. And it really is, I think, a testament to the movement, how calmly people responded to it. That's definitely the thing...

TRUMP:  Yeah.

VANCE:  ... I took away most from it.

TRUMP:  Yeah. Oh, it was amazing. But it was love too. It was just...

VANCE:  Absolutely.

TRUMP:  They didn't -- they didn't move. But when I came up, they saw me come up and they thought it was over. They thought it was over when I went down because they saw the blood immediately. And then when I put the hand up, everybody was happy. That was a time -- that was when they realized I was OK. And it's just an incredible country. It was a beautiful moment.

WATTERS: Joe Biden called you --

TRUMP: Yes, he did.

WATTERS: -- after this guy tried to take your life. How'd that conversation go?

TRUMP: It was good. It was a nice conversation. He said you're lucky you turned to the right. So I was in -- it was, you know, obviously somebody briefed him. But he did say that to me. He said, you're lucky you turned to the right. I said, I think so.

WATTERS: This country would be lucky if it turned to the right.

TRUMP: Well, I guess maybe. Certainly to a certain extent it would. Wouldn't it be nice?

Following a commercial break, Watters had more questions for Trump and Vance about the assassination attempt.

WATTERS: Mistakes were made. They were monitoring this guy [the would-be assassin] for an hour beforehand.

TRUMP: Yes.

WATTERS: No one told you not to take the stage?

TRUMP: No. Nobody mentioned it. Nobody said there was a problem. And I would've waited for 15. They could have said, let's wait for 15 minutes, 20 minutes, five minutes, something. Nobody said, I think that was a mistake. The -- the Secret Service, they call them snipers, but it was, you know, world class shot. I guess he didn't want to take the shot. I can understand that one a little bit because maybe he didn't see, you know, maybe he doesn't know. You don't want to shoot somebody if the person's not -- not going to be carrying a gun. I don't know if they had a gun.

They had a policeman that actually saw the man with a gun and you would've thought that, uh, that would've been conveyed to other people. So there were some -- there were some mistakes. But I can tell you this, just to go on the more positive side, the people on the stage were unbelievable and brave that they were all Secret Service that came running up. And they were running past bullets. Bullets were -- when I went down, bullets were coming over my head and you hear them, it's like a zip, zip. So I'm lucky I went down fast.

But I don't even consider that the lucky part. I consider the lucky part turning exactly right in the one position where, you know, you're going to get hit here, but you're not going to get hit in the wrong location, which is, you know what that is.

WATTERS: Senator, the FBI is doing an investigation on the assassination attempt. Do you trust the bureau?

VANCE: I don't trust the bureau leadership, but I certainly think there are a lot of good field agents guys on the grounds who have the country's best interest at heart. I think like the President, obviously he was there and I wasn't. But my initial reaction was exactly the same. What bravery from the guys who reacted immediately, but what the hell was going on? How was that guy ever allowed to be there in the first place? Which I think somebody, whether it's higher up or -- or somebody else involved really did screw up. And we have to get to the bottom of it because, you know, now me and my family are under protection.

And obviously the President's safety is of paramount importance. I mean, these people who realize whether you're a Democrat or Republican, what an unbelievable, you know, bullet that we all dodged, right? Of course the President's life is -- is the most important thing. The unrest in this country, the anger, it would've taken this country a half a century to get over it. And, you know, we -- we really did, I think, as a country get really lucky, not just the President.

I know many people in the FBI. They're great. They tend to be at the mid and lower levels. They're unbelievable. And they're --

VANCE: That's right.

TRUMP: -- they're MAGA. Believe me, they're MAGA. They make America great again people. But, you know, there's some things going on with our government that we have to really worry about. Did we have enough people? Why didn't we have enough people? Somebody said that a lot of people will put on Biden's detail. The problem is Biden doesn't draw anybody. He draws flies. He draws nobody. And, you know, you don't need very many people for that because he does not draw --

VANCE: Yes.

TRUMP: -- like 30 people show up and we have 55, 60,000 people show up. And so you have to take care of those big crowds.

VANCE: Secret Service detail of 20, you can have a one to one ratio at a Biden rally, right? The President actually needs substantial protection. So I -- I -- I 100 percent believe that some people got to be investigated and probably some people need to be fired. 

WATTERS: It was a pot shot. Are you at all suspicious, he had help?

TRUMP: Well, you just don't know. He -- he doesn't -- it doesn't look like it doesn't. But now we're finding out that he had some encrypted phone numbers and to foreign countries, which a little bit surprises me. When you look at him, he was somebody that was bullied in school. And, you know, you -- you hear all different stories. I would say probably he was a loner, but you don't know that. They have to check out the phone numbers. They have to check out the phone.

I think they were able to break into his phone, I think, I hope, I would hope so. For in -- for -- for a -- a crime like this, you have to be able to break into a phone, you know, because they pride themselves on not allowing people to break in. And government can't get in. Apple could let you in. So I don't know exactly what happened. But assassination is big stuff. And you have to get to it. So we'll see what happens.

But it just shouldn't have been when you have a -- essentially a flat open roof like that, and it's direct to the target with absolutely nothing in its way. How can somebody be up there? And he was up there for a long period of time because they have tape of him moving all over the place. And then they see him and they don't report him. Who was the -- who was the policeman or the, I guess he was local police, who looked at him, saw him standing with a gun. I think the guy saw him and this guy dropped off the roof. And I don't blame him for that.

What I do blame him for is -- is why is he calling everybody screaming and say, there's a guy with a gun up there. What did they -- what did he do when he dropped off the roof? Did he just go away and say like nothing? That's a big, you know, that's a big factor. Who was he? And why did he do that? Why didn't we know about that? Because I would've, you know, oftentimes based on weather and based on other things, they'd say, sir, would you wait 10 minutes before you go out, please. We never had a case like this but certainly if they said, would you wait five, 10, 15, 20 minutes because we have a possible problem, unlikely but possible. I wish somebody would have done that because Corey would be alive. And two people that were seriously hurt would not be hurt. And we wouldn't have had all of the things that we've gone through over the last period of time.

VANCE: And, sir, I think it illustrates something that's so different about the Trump administration versus the Biden administration. Look, screw ups sometimes happen, even very big screw ups. But it's the responsibility of leaders to stand before the country and say, all right, we screwed up. We're going to get to the bottom of it. We're going to answer questions and do it in public.

I think the fact that there's been no transparency here is what makes a lot of us say, well, what the hell happened and why we -- you know, are we actually making -- taking steps to ensure it doesn't happen again?

WATTERS: If you're elected, you can declassify the assassination attempt files. You could clear things up like that. You'll do that, right?

TRUMP: I would, yes, sure. I mean, there's nothing -- there should be nothing to hide here.

VANCE: It's his decision. Yes.

TRUMP: I think, frankly, yes, but I think, frankly, many things are known right now. But some of the things that are known are bad. How did somebody get on that roof? And why wasn't he reported? Because people saw that he was on the roof.

I mean, you had Trumpers screaming. A woman in the red shirt. She was screaming, there's a man on the roof. And then other people said, there's a man on the roof who's got a gun. And that was quite a bit before I walked onto the stage.

So you would have thought somebody would have done something about it. And that's what most bothers people is, why didn't they do something? It's not like he just showed up all of a sudden, nobody's up. You have a -- and now with, you know, modern technology and everybody on a cell phone having a tape, you're seeing things that, I mean, I just saw a new one today that just came out where somebody has pictures of him standing on the roof or lying on the roof. You would have thought something would have happened.

After another commercial break, Watters asked Trump and Vance about the investigations into the failed assassination and the role of Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle.

WATTERS: You spoke to Cheatle, how'd that go?

TRUMP: She came to see me actually. And, well, I mean, it went very nicely. She was very nice, I thought. But, you know, somebody should have made sure there was nobody on that roof. That roof was a dead aim right onto the stage. And they said they didn't have the manpower for it, which is crazy. A hundred and thirty yards, your friends, Don and Eric [Trump], they're hunters and shooters much more so than I am. They said 130 yards is like sinking a one foot put. It's considered really close.

VANCE: Absolutely right.

TRUMP: It sounds like a lot, but it's really, from that standpoint, it's a very, you know, it's very close. And I was surprised by that actually. They said it's really, it's a -- a bad shot would usually hit the target. And so I mean, it's got to be, somebody's got to be there. And it's essentially a flat roof. I mean, I noticed that she said, well, this is a slope roof where you think of like a barn where you have, this thing had just a little -- a little upswing in it, a few degrees. This was a not -- it essentially was a flat roof.

So I don't know. Somebody gave her [Cheatle] false information when she talked about the slope of the roof. I thought she was very nice. But, you know, you have to answer why couldn't I have stayed off the stage for five minutes while they do their work. Why couldn't, you know, how does a situation happen where a roof that's plainly in sight from the location where I was speaking, why would somebody not have seen that?

VANCE: I -- I had the highest expert rating, expert marksman rating when I was in the Marine Corps. And sir, you're exactly right, 130 yards is nothing. I mean, you -- you shoot from 500 yards to qualify in -- in the Marine Corps with a rifle. And it really means miraculous, miraculous that the guy didn't have a better shot. Miraculous how the -- the Secret Service guys responded. But thank God, because this could have been a very dark -- dark week in our country's history.

WATTERS: You were briefed. Your office was briefed by Cheatle. Are you satisfied with this situation?

VANCE: No. 

WATTERS: And do you feel safe with Cheatle running the Secret Service?

VANCE: Look, I think clearly, she needs to be more forthcoming. She needs to actually sit before people, answer all their questions and let people know what happened. When you try to hide information and hide from question asking, that's I think what leads people to believe that there's something to be hidden from.

More segments of the Trump-Vance interview will be shown on Watters World tonight, Tuesday July 23, at 8:00 p.m. ET/10:00 p.m. PT.

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