Former President Donald Trump, in an interview aired Sunday, said he had “every right to” interfere with a presidential election, as he faces an updated indictment in the federal election interference case against him.
“It’s so crazy that my poll numbers go up. Whoever heard you get indicted for interfering with a presidential election where you have every right to do it. You get indicted and your poll numbers go up,” Trump said in an interview with Fox News.
Special counsel Jack Smith filed a superseding indictment last week in his investigation into the former president’s and his allies’ alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election. The new indictment slims the allegations against the 2024 Republican presidential nominee in light of the Supreme Court’s immunity ruling, though none of the four charges have been dropped.
Trump said of Vice President Kamala Harris:
“She’s a nasty person. The way she treated Mike Pence was horrible.”
Pence, who served as Trump’s vice president, has been critical of Trump after the deadly insurrection at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, and has said he won’t endorse Trump for president. Pence was targeted that day by a mob of pro-Trump supporters — including some chanting “Hang Mike Pence” — who were trying to stop the election results from being certified. Trump continues to falsely claim that Pence had the power to stop the certification of the results.
Trump, who is set to debate Harris next week, referenced the viral moment where she said to Pence, “I’m speaking,” when he was interrupting her during their vice presidential debate in 2020.
Trump was initially talking about Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, which Harris was a part of as a senator from California, and said Harris was “vicious” during the hearing.
“She was vicious, oh she was the most vicious. She was going after them. Just like with Mike Pence, where she said, you’re interrupting me, I want to talk. And that’s why, look, ABC is probably the worst in terms of fairness,” Trump said.
