Trump also questions whether Democrat Joe Biden would be in the 2024 race, saying “don’t see how it’s possible.”
Former US President Donald Trump has vowed to “never drop out” of the 2024 race for the White House in his first interview since facing criminal charges in New York last week.
The Republican real estate magnate, facing 34 counts in New York over allegedly paying hush money to an adult film actress, told Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson nothing would stop him from running — not even a conviction.
“I would never drop out,” he said. “It’s not my thing. I would not do it.”
Trump, 76, cast doubt on whether Democratic President Joe Biden, 80, would be in the 2024 race in his first interview since his arrest and fingerprinting last week.
“I don’t see how it’s possible,” he said.
‘It’s not an age issue… I don’t think he can.
“I just don’t see Biden doing it from a physical or mental point of view. I do not see it.”
Trump and other senior Republicans have repeatedly questioned Biden’s mental acuity and apparent vulnerability.
Right-wing outlets like Fox News often highlight his verbal blunders and moments when he seems to have lost his train of thought.
“No, I would never drop out, it’s not my thing. I wouldn’t,” Trump says on Fox News when asked if there’s anything that would make him drop out, particularly the cloud of multiple investigations, including the New York indictment and potentially others.
— Katherine Faulders (@KFaulders) April 12, 2023
During his interview, Trump also took the opportunity to describe the tremendous support he claimed to have experienced in court, saying that when he got there, “people were crying.”
“People who work there work there professionally… they cried. They said I’m sorry,” he told Carlson.
The platform on right-hand outlets
During his own presidency, Fox provided an uncritical forum for Trump to voice his grievances, with the then-commander-in-chief sometimes making unannounced calls to shows and talking at length with hosts.
The relationship cooled after Trump’s defeat to Biden at the ballot box in 2020, but has grown steadily again as the Republican nominating race heats up.
The interview, part two of which is expected to air on Wednesday, comes weeks after texts surfaced in which Carlson spoke disparagingly about Trump following his election loss.
The messages were discovered as part of a $1.6 billion lawsuit brought by Dominion Voting Systems against the Rupert Murdoch-led Fox News over its coverage of Trump and his allies’ baseless claims of widespread fraud in the 2020 election .
“We are very, very close to being able to ignore Trump most nights. I really can’t wait,” says a text from Carlson sent two days before a Trump-supporting gang — inspired by the then-president’s false claims of “stolen elections” — raided the U.S. Capitol in Washington DC.
“I hate him passionately,” says another.
No mention was made of the texts or other evidence produced at the discovery.