In an interview with Fox News on Wednesday night, host Sean Hannity asked Trump about those who have suggested Trump would seek “retribution” through the criminal justice system if he returned to the White House.
“So number one, they’re wrong. It has to stop because otherwise we’re not going to have a country,” Trump said, before baselessly accusing President Biden and his family of crimes.
“Look, when this election is over, based on what they’ve done, I would have every right to go after them,” he added. “And it’s easy because it’s Joe Biden and you see all the criminality.”
In response to the interview, Biden’s reelection campaign released a statement that suggested Trump had “clearly snapped” and asserted his candidacy was becoming more dangerous each day.
“Tonight in prime time, America saw Donald Trump consumed by rage and visibly rattled following his felony conviction,” Biden campaign spokesman Michael Tyler said. “Donald Trump is so consumed with personal grievance that he does not care who he hurts so long as Donald Trump benefits.”
Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, continues to claim without evidence that his prosecutions are politically motivated and that his political rivals are behind them. In addition to the New York hush money case, Trump faces 54 criminal charges in three cases, two of which are related to his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
On Wednesday, Hannity also asked whether Trump would pledge to “restore equal justice” if reelected, tacitly validating Trump’s false claims that his prosecutions were politically motivated.
“You have to do it. But it’s awful,” Trump said.
Trump’s remarks Wednesday night were slightly less overt than those he gave in an interview with Newsmax that aired Tuesday, in which he openly mused about his political opponents — including his 2016 rival Hillary Clinton — facing prosecution.
“Wouldn’t it be terrible to throw the president’s wife and the former secretary of state — think of it, the former secretary of state — but the president’s wife into jail?” Trump told Newsmax.
“But they want to do it,” Trump said, appearing to refer to his opponents. “So, you know, it’s a terrible, terrible path that they’re leading us to, and it’s very possible that it’s going to have to happen to them.”
Trump has made payback for opponents central to his campaign, at one point declaring to a crowd: “I am your retribution.” In private, he told advisers and friends that he wants the Justice Department to investigate specific former aides and allies who are now critical of him, The Washington Post previously reported. And he has promised to appoint a special prosecutor to scrutinize Biden and his family.
But Trump’s message also has been muddled at times. “I’m not going to have time for retribution. We’re going to make this country so successful again, I’m not going to have time for retribution,” he said at an event in Iowa in January.
Trump’s Republican allies also downplayed his recent felony convictions, criticizing the New York hush money trial and echoing Trump’s claims that the justice system was “weaponized” against him. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) announced Tuesday that GOP lawmakers would “do everything we can” to target the Justice Department and other jurisdictions that investigated or charged Trump. He vowed to use the chamber’s oversight powers while cutting funds in the government appropriations process and taking other unspecified legislative measures.
Hannah Knowles, Marianna Sotomayor and Liz Goodwin contributed to this report.
