Former president Donald Trump recently said he’d have “no choice” but to lock up his political opponents if he wins the 2024 presidential race because his opponents are already doing the same to him and his allies.
Trump’s comments came during an interview with conservative radio host Glenn Beck on Tuesday.
Beck noted that Trump led chants of “lock her up” about Hillary Clinton in 2016. “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?”
“Well, I’ll give you an example,” Trump said. “The answer is you have no choice because they’re doing it to us.”
“I always had such great respect for the office of the president and the presidency,” he added. “And I never hit Biden as hard as I could have. And then I heard he was trying to indict me and it was him that was doing it.”
While Trump suggested Biden was the driving force behind “every one of” the four indictments he’s facing, he said: “I don’t think he’s sharp enough to think about much, but he was there, and he was probably the one giving the order.”
He accused Biden of colluding with the Manhattan DA’s office and Fulton County district attorney Fani Willis.
The Fulton County indictment was the former president’s fourth in four months. He is facing 13 felony charges in that case. He was already facing four felony counts as a result of special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into his alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election, as well as another 42 felony counts stemming from Smith’s separate investigation into the former president’s alleged mishandling of classified documents.
Before that, Trump was indicted in Manhattan on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with a hush-money payment to adult-film actress Stormy Daniels.
Forbes calculated that Trump faces a maximum of 717 years in jail across all four cases. However, Trump would be unlikely to receive maximum sentences if convicted.
During his interview with Beck, Trump also called E. Jean Carroll, who has accused the former president of sexually assaulting her in the ’90s, “a Democrat operative . . . paid for by the Democrat party.”
Earlier this year, a jury found Trump liable for battery and defamation and ordered the former president to pay Carroll $5 million in combined damages.
Carroll filed another suit after Trump mocked her and repeated his defamatory statements about the alleged sexual assault after the first trial. The second trial will begin on January 15 — the day of the Iowa caucuses. Since it’s a civil proceeding, though, Trump won’t be required to attend the trial in person.