Former President Donald Trump has in recent days escalated suggestions that he could prosecute his political enemies if elected in November.
In interviews aired Thursday and earlier this week, Trump’s comments showed how he is trying to frame his legal troubles as a referendum on the American justice system and the rule of law. His allies in the Republican Party have also joined his calls for retaliatory prosecutions and other retaliation against Democrats in response to his felony convictions by a jury in a New York court on 34 charges.
Trump has been given several opportunities in recent days by sympathetic interviewers to clarify or reverse his previous statements. Trump instead defended his position, saying at some points that “I don’t want to seem naive” and that “revenge can sometimes be justified.”
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Dr. Phil McGraw, the television host and self-identified donor to Trump’s campaign, brought up the former president’s past statements in an interview Thursday, giving him the opportunity to say, as McGraw put it: “Enough is enough. Too much is too much. This is a race to the bottom and it stops here. It ends now.”
Trump initially responded, “I’m fine with that,” but added, “Sometimes I’m sure at certain times I wouldn’t be, you know, if you go through what I went through.”
When McGraw then said that revenge and retaliation were unhealthy for the country and that Trump didn’t have time to “get revenge,” the former president responded, “Vengeance takes time.” I’ll say that. And sometimes revenge can be justified. Phil, I have to be honest, sometimes that’s possible.”
In an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity that aired Wednesday night, Trump was also given several opportunities to promise that he would not “retaliate” against his political opponents.
Trump was asked to respond to critics who fear he will seek “retribution” if he wins in November and returns to the White House. “So No. 1, they’re wrong,” he said. “It has to stop, otherwise we won’t have a country.”
Trump instead said that “based on what they’ve done” – referring to Democrats – “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 crime, all the money going to the family and to him.”
Hannity then urged the former president to condemn “this practice of weaponization.”
Trump responded: “You have to do it. But it’s terrible. Look, I know you want me to say something nice like that,” but he added, “I don’t want to look naive.”
The former president was also asked about prosecuting his opponents in an interview with ABC15 News in Arizona that aired Thursday, and he suggested he was considering it.
“I thought it would be a terrible thing to do to Hillary Clinton,” Trump said, repeating a recent false suggestion that he had never called for Clinton to be “locked up.” But he added: “The world is different now. So if you ask me the question, would we do that? I’ll talk to you in about three years.”
On Tuesday he also suggested that his opponents could be prosecuted.
‘You know, it’s a very terrible thing. It’s a terrible precedent for our country. Does this mean the next president will do this to them? That’s really the question,” Trump told Newsmax host Greg Kelly when asked whether the conviction could help him politically.
He added: “So you know, it’s a terrible, terrible path that they’re leading us down, and it’s entirely possible that it’s going to have to happen to them.”
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