During an interview on Fox News Wednesday night, host Sean Hannity asked Trump about people suggesting he would seek “retribution” through the criminal justice system if he were returned to the White House.
“Number one, they’re wrong. This has to stop or we won’t have a country,” Trump said, baselessly accusing President Biden and his family of crimes.
“Look, after this election is over, I have every right to go after them, given what they’ve done,” he added, “and it’s easy to do, because it’s Joe Biden and their criminal conduct is visible.”
In response to the interview, Biden’s re-election campaign released a statement suggesting Trump had “clearly lost his temper” and claimed his candidacy was becoming more precarious by the day.
“Tonight in primetime, America saw Donald Trump raging and visibly upset over his felony conviction,” Biden campaign spokesman Michael Tyler said. “Donald Trump is consumed with personal grievances and doesn’t care who he hurts as long as it benefits him.”
Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, continues to claim without evidence that the prosecution against him is politically motivated and that his political opponents are behind it. In addition to the New York hush-money case, Trump faces 54 criminal charges in three cases, two of which relate to efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
Hannity also asked Trump on Wednesday whether he would pledge to “restore equal justice” if re-elected, tacitly acknowledging Trump’s false claims that his prosecution was politically motivated.
“It has to be done, but it would be terrible,” Trump said.
Trump’s comments Wednesday night were slightly more tame than those he made in an interview with Newsmax that aired Tuesday, in which he spoke openly about political opponents facing prosecution, including his 2016 presidential rival, Hillary Clinton.
“The wife of the president and the former secretary of state, think about it, wouldn’t it be terrible to put a former secretary of state and the wife of the president in prison,” Trump told Newsmax.
“But they want to do that,” Trump said, apparently referring to his opponents. “It’s a very, very scary path that they’re trying to lead us down, and it’s very possible that they will too.”
Trump has made retribution against his opponents a central part of his campaign, at one point telling a crowd, “I am your revenge.” As The Washington Post previously reported, Trump has privately told advisers and friends that he wants the Justice Department to investigate certain former aides and allies who are now critical of Trump. Trump has also promised to appoint a special counsel to vet Biden and his family.
But Trump’s messaging has sometimes been confusing: “We’re not going to waste time on retaliation. We’re going to make this country successful again. We’re not going to waste time on retaliation,” he said at an event in Iowa in January.
Trump’s Republican allies also downplayed his recent felony convictions, criticized the New York hush-money trial and repeated his claim that the justice system has been “weaponized” against Trump. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) announced Tuesday that Republican lawmakers would “do everything we can” to target the Justice Department and other authorities with jurisdiction over investigating or prosecuting Trump. He vowed to use the House’s oversight powers while cutting funding in the government spending process and taking other unspecified legislative steps.
Hannah Knowles, Marianna Sotomayor and Liz Goodwin contributed to this report.
