Former President Donald Trump said that if he is elected president, he would pursue indictments against political opponents.
Trump spoke with The Blaze founder and conservative radio host Glenn Beck on Tuesday and suggested that President Joe Biden and other elected Democrats could face investigations and indictments from a Trump Department of Justice.
Trump has been indicted four times — twice at the federal level and once each in New York and Georgia — in roughly four months. Beck questioned Trump over his 2016 campaign and the “lock her up” chants against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that were a hallmark of his rallies at the time. Beck asked how Trump intends to handle prosecutions against political prosecutions if he wins the White House again.
“You said in 2016, you know, ‘lock her up,’ and then when you became president, you said, we don’t do that in America, that’s just not the right thing to do,” Beck said. “That’s what they’re doing. Do you regret not locking her up? And if you’re president again, will you lock people up?”
“The answer is,” Trump said, “you’ll have no choice because they’re doing it to us.”
“I always had such great respect for the office of the president … I never hit Biden as hard as I could have,” he continued. “And then I heard that he was trying to indict me. And it was him that was doing it, you know. I don’t think he’s sharp enough to think about much, but he was there. He was probably the one giving the order.”
“These are sick people. These are evil people,” he said.
.@glennbeck: "Do you regret not locking her up, and if you're president again will you lock people up?"@realDonaldTrump: "The answer is you have no choice because they're doing it to us." pic.twitter.com/L1G6zCGQtL
— TheBlaze (@theblaze) August 29, 2023
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Trump is facing indictments in Florida, Georgia, New York, and Washington, D.C. The Georgia and New York indictments were brought by local prosecutors, both elected Democrats. The Florida and D.C. indictments were filed by special counsel Jack Smith, appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland in November to take over Justice Department investigations into Trump’s alleged mishandling of classified documents and the former president’s alleged role in the U.S. Capitol riot.
Trump has denounced the indictments as political prosecution and said they were brought to serve as “election interference.”
During the 2016 campaign, Trump had threatened Clinton with a federal investigation. According to then-FBI Director James Comey, Clinton had improperly stored tens of thousands of government emails on a private server, an act that Comey said was “extremely careless.” Comey did not recommend that Clinton face charges.
“And I’ll tell you what. I didn’t think I’d say this, but I’m going to say it, and I hate to say it,” Trump told Clinton during one debate. “But if I win, I am going to instruct my attorney general to get a special prosecutor to look into your situation, because there has never been so many lies, so much deception.”
Trump backed off the threat after winning the White House. “That plays great before the election – now we don’t care, right?” Trump told a crowd of supporters at a post-election rally.