Former President Donald Trump claimed in an interview that aired Sunday that 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 alleged efforts by the former president and his allies to overturn the 2020 election. The new indictment slims down the allegations against the 2024 Republican presidential nominee in light of the Supreme Court’s controversial immunity ruling, though none of the four charges have been dropped.
Trump also said in the interview that the way Vice President Kamala Harris “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 in 2024. 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 was initially talking about Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s Senate confirmation hearing, which then-Sen. Harris took part in.
“She was vicious. Oh, she was the most vicious,” Trump said of Harris. “She was going after them. Just like with Mike Pence, where she said, ‘You’re interrupting me, I want to talk.’”
The former president, who is set to debate Harris next week, was referencing the viral moment from the 2020 vice presidential debate in which Harris said to Pence, “I’m speaking” when he was interrupting her.
