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Former President Donald Trump returned to Fox News on Monday night and, in his first interview with the network, released a number of complaints about the investigations he faces, mail-in ballots and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
There was no hint of the distress detailed in these communications, which were released as part of Dominion Voting Systems’ $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against the network. Republican presidential frontrunner Trump spoke with primetime host Sean Hannity for nearly an hour.
Trump links possible indictments facing him in New York City to the 2020 election rigging myth that led to an attack on the Capitol by his supporters, then defended mobsters arrested And he and DeSantis say — his chief rival for the Republican presidential nomination — were never friends.
“This is a new way to cheat in elections,” Trump said when asked about the hush-money investigation by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. “It’s called election interference.”
On March 18, President Trump predicted that he would be arrested within three days, but that turned out to be wrong. But in recent days, he’s shared more impassioned rhetoric about potential indictments, including warnings of “potential death and destruction” if indicted.
Trump said Monday he wasn’t calling for violence, and a post on Truth Social of an article featuring a split photo of him holding a baseball bat opposite Bragg went unnoticed. He added that it was done.
“We didn’t see the pictures. It was a very innocent, very good story in terms of what we were talking about,” he said.
When asked about how he was handling a potential arrest, he expressed relatively little emotion.
“Well, I’ll handle that,” he said of possible prosecution. “We’re dealing with very dishonest people. We’re dealing with thugs. I’m dealing with people who I actually believe hate.”
Elsewhere in the conversation, Trump said a choir of men imprisoned for their role in the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol sang the national anthem and Trump recited the Pledge of Allegiance. Promoted the song “Justice for All”. Trump kicked off a rally in Waco, Texas, on Saturday, playing a video version of the recording that also included images of the riots.
“J6 is beating out Taylor Swift,” Trump said, pointing to the song’s success on various music charts. That’s a big deal, No. 1, Donald Trump.
“This is a tribute to the fact that people at J6 feel they have been treated very unfairly,” he added.
Reflecting on some of his personnel decisions during his presidency, Trump said he “could have made a mistake” in choosing FBI Director Christopher Wray, and that Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell “I didn’t like it,” he added.
But Mr. Trump escaped the harshest criticism of DeSantis.
“Not friends,” Trump said of their relationship before DeSantis was a presidential candidate.
Trump described DeSantis as a “desant” politician and called for support for then-Florida Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam in the 2018 gubernatorial primary “with tears in his eyes. ‘ claimed to have come to him.
As Trump sees it, DeSantis owes his luck and shouldn’t be pitted against him in 2024.
“I helped a lot of people get elected,” he said, adding: Drop out. He’s gone.”
A spokeswoman for DeSantis did not immediately respond to a request for comment. DeSantis is polling as his second-most-supported candidate in the 2024 Republican constituency, but amid heavy attacks by Trump, some donors and supporters have Wondering if he’s ready to be a miserable primary. Trump has turned more and more attention to DeSantis since he mispredicted his arrest date.
The interview was the first one Trump has conducted with a primetime Fox News anchor since September.
Fox Chairman Rupert Murdoch said in an email after the Jan. 6 attacks on the Capitol that the network wanted to “dehumanize Mr. ,” according to legal documents recently filed as part of the Dominion lawsuit.
But Trump’s team feels that Fox’s coverage of him this year has improved from when he last faced a seriously contested primary in 2016.
“They were openly hostile to him in 2016,” an adviser said this month. “They are not openly hostile now.”
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