Trump downplays talk of retribution against Biden over indictments if elected: ‘The country doesn’t want that’
Former President Donald Trump said Wednesday that Americans don’t want to see President Biden indicted when he leaves office, suggesting that he won’t seek retribution for the criminal cases leveled against him if he’s elected to the White House in November.
Trump, 77, alleged that the 81-year-old president and his administration have engaged in “tremendous criminality” related to the indictments brought against him since announcing his White House run and argued that it would be “easy” to go after Biden with the full force of the Justice Department while downplaying his interest in doing so.
“We can’t have this stuff go on,” the presumptive Republican nominee for president told Fox News host Sean Hannity, referring to GOP claims that the Biden administration has been engaging in lawfare to stymie his presidential campaign.
“Because you know what? When Biden goes out and everyone says, ‘Bye bye,’ and then he gets indicted two days later — the country doesn’t want that,” Trump said.
“They didn’t want it with Hillary Clinton either,” the former president continued, noting that he didn’t use the DOJ to go after the former secretary of state despite his supporters clamoring for him to “lock her up” on the 2016 campaign trail.
“Wouldn’t it be terrible if I locked up the wife of the president of the United States – former – and locked up the former Secretary of State?” he argued. “It’s a terrible thing.”
“I want to bring the country together.”
Trump said anyone suggesting that he’s planning on going after his political foes if elected to a second term is “wrong.”
“It has to stop,” Trump said of what he called the “weaponization” of the Justice Department.
He noted, however, that “based on what [the Biden administration has] done, I would have every right to go after them.”
When asked by the Fox News host if he would pledge to “restore equal justice and equal application of the law” Trump said, “You have to do it,” before noting his belief that the Biden administration has targeted him since he left office.
Last week, Trump was found guilty of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in his Manhattan hush money trial.
He still faces three other criminal cases including in Georgia state court for allegedly attempting to interfere in the 2020 election result, in Washington DC federal court for his alleged involvement in the Jan. 6 Capitol Riot and in Florida federal court for allegedly mishandling classified documents.
Trump has pleaded not guilty on all charges against him.
