Former President Donald Trump called those pushing criminal cases against him “savages” and warned about “a level of hatred I’ve never seen” in the country, in an interview posted Wednesday just before the other major GOP presidential candidates debated for the first time.
He also said he expects opponents will try to steal the 2024 election from him, or any other Republican who emerges from the primary.
“They’re going to try,” he told Tucker Carlson in an 45-minute interview on X, formerly Twitter.
The host at one point ticked off the impeachments and criminal cases against Mr. Trump, and wondered whether the former president’s opponents will now “try to kill you.”
“They’re savage animals. They are people that are sick, really sick,” Mr. Trump said.
He sat out the first debate of the GOP primary and has suggested he may avoid all of the debates, figuring that as the clear front-runner he has everything to lose by sharing a stage with candidates who trail him so badly in polling.
Mr. Trump said the border would be his top priority if he gets another chance in the White House, building on his 2016 promise of erecting a border wall. He also reprised his 2015 campaign claims about bad actors amid the unprecedented stream of illegal immigrants.
“They’re emptying out their prisons all over South America. They’re emptying out their mental institutions. Terrorists are pouring into our country,” the former president said.
But for the most part the interview sidestepped talk of a second Trump White House agenda and focused on his view of politics and his rivals.
He delivered a withering critique of President Biden’s tenure, saying he’s amassed the worst record of any president in history ranging from the border to environmental policy. Several times, Mr. Trump complained about the Biden administration’s attempt to push consumers toward electric cars.
“You have a four-hour drive but the car only goes an hour and a half,” he said.
In an email to supporters on Wednesday, Mr. Trump defended his decision not to debate.
He said a drawn-out primary would make it easier for President Biden to win reelection, and he said by debating the other candidates “play right into Biden’s hands … by bickering and attacking yours truly.”
“That’s why, tonight, instead of dividing our Party, I’ll be UNITING it by talking to a TRUE ALLY of the America First cause — Tucker Carlson — about how we are going to SAVE AMERICA from Crooked Joe and a Deep State that truly hates our country,” Mr. Trump said.
The email concluded with a plea for campaign contributions.
In the Wednesday interview with Mr. Carlson, Mr. Trump also said he doesn’t want to go on Fox News, which was airing the debate.
He called Fox News, which also had an acrimonious split with Mr. Carlson, “a network that isn’t particularly friendly to me.”
The interview aired a day before Mr. Trump has said he will turn himself in to Georgia authorities to comply with the demands of a prosecutor who has indicted him on a series of charges relating to attempt to overturn Mr. Biden’s victory in the state.
Mr. Trump defended his thinking in trying to get then-Vice President Mike Pence to reject slates of electors from states where the former president thought there had been fraud. He said there was a debate among the lawyers over what was allowed, but “Mike Pence had the right, in my opinion, to send them back.”
Mr. Pence is now running against Mr. Trump for the GOP nomination.
Mr. Trump unloaded on other GOP rivals, too:
• He said former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson is “weak and pathetic” and said he calls him “Ada,” but refused to explain why, saying it would get him in trouble.
• He called Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis “a lost cause.”
• He said former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie didn’t get a job in the Trump administration because he wasn’t trustworthy.
Even before the interview aired, Mr. Biden’s campaign complained that Mr. Trump would be given “softball” questions by Mr. Carlson, a hero to anti-establishment conservatives.
“In his softball ‘interview’ posting tonight, Donald Trump will again make clear that he’s running on the same extreme and deeply unpopular MAGA agenda the American people have rejected time and time again,” said Kevin Munoz, a campaign spokesperson.
Mr. Trump, in his interview, took several shots at Mr. Biden, wondering whether he will “make it to the gate” for the 2024 election.
He said Mr. Biden looks ill, and struggles even to walk to the helicopter at the White House even though, Mr. Trump pointed out, the grass on the president’s lawn is cut to just two inches.
“I think he’s worse mentally than he is physically,” Mr. Trump added.
On policy, he said Mr. Biden has fueled the war between Russia and Ukraine with America’s involvement, even as he fails to confront adversarial nations closer to home.
“We have a Manchurian candidate and he’s afraid to tell Russia to get out of Cuba. He’s afraid to tell China to get out of Cuba,” Mr. Trump said.
The former president said he would be able to chase China out of the hemisphere.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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