Former US president Donald Trump appeared on television on Monday for the first time since he announced his presidential campaign for 2024 and criticised the ongoing investigations against him attributing it to “election interference”.
While speaking in an interview with Fox News on Sean Hannity’s program, “It’s a new way of cheating in elections,” Trump said when asked about Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s hush money probe. “It’s called election interference.”
The former president also responded to a question regarding mail-in voting to which he said “Mail-in ballots are automatically corrupt. If you have mail-in ballots, you’re going to have a very dishonest election.”
Citing an example from France he said that “and by 10 o’clock in the evening, everyone was happy — it was announced and that was it.”
Trump has been furious over his imminent indictment and predicted on March 18 that his arrest is imminent and that if he were to be indicted there would be death and destruction.
The former president also noted that he is not encouraging violence to take place, adding that the photo shared on his social media platform Truth Social showing “him with a baseball bat opposite Bragg was unintentional.”
“We didn’t see pictures. We put up a story that was very exculpatory, very good story from the standpoint of what we’re talking about,” Trump stated.
While responding to the question of his possible arrest and indictment he told Sean Hannity that he would deal with it.
Donald Trump has also held a rally of thousands of supporters in Waco, Texas last week in which he also criticised the investigators and justice system calling it a department of “injustice” system and regarding the probe “witch hunt” against him.
Former US President Donald Trump speaks during a rally at the Waco Regional Airport on March 25, 2023, in Waco, Texas. — AFP
Former US President Donald Trump speaks during a rally at the Waco Regional Airport on March 25, 2023, in Waco, Texas. — AFP
“We’re dealing with very dishonest people. We’re dealing with thugs. We’re dealing with people I actually believe that hate our country”, he remarked.
Noting the people who were arrested in the events on January 6, he added: “That’s a tribute to the fact that people feel the J6 people have been very unfairly treated”.
While recalling some of the decisions which he made as a US president, he underlined that he “may have made a mistake” in appointing FBI Director Christopher Wray adding, “Wary didn’t like Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell.”
He also attacked Florida Governor Ron DeSantis saying he is not friends with him and he didn’t know him well before he announced to take part in the presidential race.
He said DeSantis is a “desperate” politician and claimed that he came to him [Trump] with “tears in his eyes” asking for an endorsement in a 2018 primary race for governor against Adam Putnum, then the Florida agriculture commissioner.
Trump thinks that DeSantis shouldn’t run for president against him in 2024 as his fortune increased with the help of Trump.
“I helped a lot of people get elected,” Trump noted, adding: “But some I got in. Ron, I got in. He was losing. There was no way. It was over. He was dead. He was going to drop out. He was gone.”
Despite DeSantis being second most favourite in GOP but sceptics have been wondering whether he is ready for taking such a fight against Trump.
