Republican shrugs off criminal charges over Stormy Daniels ‘hush money’
Donald Trump has vowed he would “never drop out” of next year’s presidential race, even if he is convicted on criminal charges.
In his first major interview since being arrested and charged in New York, the former president told the Fox News host Tucker Carlson that nothing would prevent him from running.
“I’d never drop out,” Trump told Carlson yesterday. “It’s not my thing. I wouldn’t do it.”
Trump faces 34 felony counts over alleged hush money that was paid to Stormy Daniels, the adult film actress. He pleaded not guilty last week to charges of falsifying business records to conceal payments made ahead of the 2016 election and has denied Daniels’ claims they had an affair.
The former president claimed staff and officers at the lower Manhattan courthouse where he was booked were visibly emotional.
“They were incredible,” said Trump. “When I went to the courthouse, which is also a prison in a sense, they signed me in and I’ll tell you people were crying, people that . . . professionally work there, that have no problems putting in murderers and they see everybody.”
If he wins the Republican nomination, Trump is likely to face President Biden, who on Monday said he planned to seek re-election, although a formal announcement has not yet been made.
Trump found himself in the Manhattan criminal courthouse last week, when his defence team included Joe Tacopina and Boris Epshteyn
Speaking to NBC News ahead of the traditional White House Easter Egg Roll, Biden said: “I plan on running . . . but we’re not prepared to announce it yet.”
But Trump, the 45th US president, cast doubt on whether his successor, who is now 80, would be in the 2024 race, claiming Biden was not fit to run again. “I don’t see how it’s possible,” Trump, 76, said. “It’s not an age thing . . . I don’t think he can. I just don’t see Biden doing it from a physical or a mental standpoint. I don’t see it.”
The comments came in the first installment of a two-part interview, with the second part due to be broadcast later today.
Meanwhile, Melania Trump issued a rare public statement hitting back at “assumptions” made in the media about her absence from her husband’s side following his arrest. The former first lady, 52, did not appear as her husband made a speech at their Mar-a-Largo home in Florida in which he railed against the charges made against him. A photograph emerged of the couple having brunch at the resort over Easter, prompting speculation over her support for his new election campaign.
There has been speculation over the level of Melania Trump’s support for her 76-year-old husband
The statement, issued by her office, said: “News organisations have made assumptions about the former first lady’s stance on subjects that are personal, professional and political over the past few weeks. In these articles, unnamed sources are cited to bolster the author’s claims. We ask readers to exercise caution.”
During his Fox interview, Trump commented on a recent trip by President Macron to China, commenting that the French President was “kissing [President Xi’s] ass” on the high-profile visit.
He told Carlson: “You got this crazy world, it’s blowing up and the United States has absolutely no say. And Macron, who’s a friend of mine, is over with China, kissing his ass. ‘OK, in China!’ I said. ‘France is now going to China!’”
In a separate development, Alvin Bragg, the Manhatten district attorney who announced the charges against Trump, yesterday sued the Republican congressman Jim Jordan to stop what Bragg called an “unconstitutional attack” on Trump’s criminal prosecution.
The lawsuit aims to block a subpoena of Mark Pomerantz, a former prosecutor who had led the Manhattan district attorney’s investigation of Trump but who has criticised Bragg’s subsequent handling of the case. The subpoena, issued last week by the House of Representatives’ judiciary committee, which Jordan chairs, seeks Pomerantz’s appearance before the committee for a deposition.
Pomerantz left his job at the district attorney’s office shortly after Bragg took over in early 2022. He published a book criticising his successor and suggested that the case against Trump over alleged hush money payments would not hold up in court. In announcing the subpoena of Pomerantz last week, Jordan said Pomerantz’s public statements showed that Bragg’s prosecution of Trump was politically motivated. Bragg has said Pomerantz’s case was not ready.
“If he wishes to argue that his prosecution is ‘politically motivated,’ he is free to raise that concern to the New York state criminal court,” Bragg’s office wrote in the lawsuit. “Chairman Jordan is not, however, free to unconstitutionally deploy Congress’s limited subpoena power for raw political retaliation, intimidation, or obstruction.”
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