2023-12-06 06:22:01
NEW YORK (AP) — Former U.S. President Donald Trump declined to rule out a possible abuse of power if he returns to the White House, when asked Tuesday by Fox News Channel host Sean Hanity to respond to Democrats’ growing criticism of him. your messages.
The Republican primary front-runner has talked regarding going following his rivals — whom he refers to as “vermin” — and vowed to retaliate if he wins a second term over legal proceedings once morest him that he claims are politically motivated. Trump maintains his dominance of the Republican primaries, and President Joe Biden has been increasing his own warnings, stating that Trump is “determined to destroy American democracy.”
“Do you promise the United States today that under no circumstances would you ever use your power in retaliation once morest anyone?” Hannity asked Trump in the interview recorded in Davenport, Iowa.
“Except for the first day,” Trump responded. “I want to close the border and I want to drill, drill, drill.”
Trump then repeated his statement. “I love this guy,” he said of the Fox News host. “He says, ‘You’re not going to be a dictator, are you?’ I told him: ‘no, no, no, except for the first day. We will close the border and drill, drill, drill. After that, I’m not a dictator.’”
At an earlier point in the interview, Hannity asked Trump if he had “any way,” “any plan at all, if he is re-elected president, to abuse power, to break the law to use the government to persecute people.”
“You mean like they’re doing now?” Trump responded.
Trump’s campaign message and his sweeping plans for a second term, which include firing a significant portion of federal bureaucrats and going following his rivals, have alarmed Democrats and become a key campaign issue for Biden. , which is preparing for a possible reissue of the duel once morest Trump.
“Donald Trump has told us exactly what he will do if he is re-elected, and tonight he said he will be a dictator on day one. “Americans must believe him,” Biden campaign manager Julie Chávez Rodríguez said in a statement.
At a series of campaign events on Tuesday, Biden once more warned that Trump and his allies intend to “destroy” democratic institutions and attacked the Republican favorite, who tried to overturn the results of the 2020 election and faces criminal charges for doing so.
Trump, for his part, has attempted to redirect the argument once morest Biden and on Saturday stated in a speech in Iowa that the president is the true “destroyer of American democracy,” reiterating his old argument that the four criminal proceedings once morest him demonstrate that Biden is fraudulently using the justice system to harm his main political rival.
Trump has promised to prosecute Biden if he wins.
Hannity, a longtime Trump supporter and adviser, appears to have often used his interviews to guide the former president into saying things that benefit his political career. Tuesday’s questions seemed to go along those lines.
The interview aired the day before Trump’s main rivals gathered at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa for the fourth Republican debate.
Trump is scheduled to miss the debate once more and will spend the followingnoon at a fundraiser in Florida.
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