PALM BEACH, Fla. — Former President Donald Trump tells Breitbart News exclusively that he feels he is winning the battle for public opinion against special counsel Jack Smith, and that the case against Mr. He said he believes that the successive submissions to the law have been proven. He says he thinks Smith will lose the war with Trump.
“He thinks so [Smith] I feel like I'm losing politically because I'm so far ahead of everyone,” Trump told Smith in a more than two-hour interview with Breitbart News at Mar-a-Lago. When asked about him, he said: “I think it's going to lead anyway, but it's not going to lead like this. People are really angry about weaponization, about political opponents, about really stupid people taking control of the Justice Department. [DOJ] — It's really easy to understand because a lot of other countries are doing the same thing, but they're all third world countries, banana republics — but people are angry about it. They don't like to see someone use the FBI, the Department of Justice, and everything else to go after political opponents. This is the most weaponized country. We are not respected.he [Democrat President Joe Biden] Not respected. Our country is not respected. What this man has done for this country in three years is unbelievable. You know, there are words that I say in many of my speeches. You can add up the 10 worst presidents in the history of this country, all of them, his 10 worst, but they haven't done the same damage that Joe Biden has done to our country. do not have. ”
During the interview, Mr. Trump also referred to Mr. Smith as someone who has moved on from being a “main figure.”
President Trump formally asked the court on Thursday to hold Smith in contempt, saying he continued to press charges despite halting proceedings in federal court in Washington, D.C., on January 6. The case is on hold as the appeals process for President Trump's immunity claims progresses, even though a trial date approaches in early March. Trump is immune from prosecution because the actions he took to contest the election results before January 6, 2021 were official actions taken as then-President of the United States, he argues.
President Trump told Breitbart News that Smith recently filed in court to prevent Trump from speaking to then-Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi about refusing to send troops on January 6, 2021. He said he is asking the court. Pelosi rejected his proposal to send thousands of troops to the Capitol, a sign that Smith knows she is losing the battle for public opinion on this front. .
“I think the application that he made this weekend is absolutely ridiculous,” Trump said in a Dec. 28 interview, calling it “the craziest thing I've ever seen.” Can we talk about Nancy Pelosi rejecting 10,000 troops? Can't you talk about him? He doesn't want me to say anything. So they're allowed to speak, they're allowed to indict me, they're allowed to hold press conferences, but I'm not allowed to defend myself? So he must think I am protecting myself very effectively. ”
Trump added that Smith “seems very pathetic” about the part of the case he filed about Pelosi, adding that the truth is that Pelosi stopped the troops. “Well, that's true,” President Trump said. “Nancy Pelosi didn't accept the military.”
In this Breitbart News interview, Trump explained his argument for why he thinks courts should find him immune. “The president is entitled to immunity because I wasn't campaigning. Even if he was campaigning, he was entitled to immunity,” Trump said. “But this has nothing to do with that. This has to do with a fraudulent and corrupt election, and the president has an obligation to study it, analyze it, see if it's true, and I I happen to believe that to be 100 percent true, and it should be judged as part of this entire trial.”
At another point in the interview, Trump further explained his views on the issue.
“The election is now over. I wasn't campaigning,” Trump said. “I wasn't campaigning. The election was over. But what I was doing from a law enforcement and election integrity standpoint definitely was. The election was rigged. , the election was stolen, and I was investigating it. If you were the president of the United States and you felt that way and you didn't investigate, I think it would be terrible. But it's a campaign and I had nothing to do with campaigning. I was not campaigning. Even if I was, I would still be immune. But I had nothing to do with campaigning. I am a member of the United States. Since he was president, he wanted to make sure that our elections were honest and fair, and that our elections were not honest and fair.”
Trump's claim of presidential immunity resulted in a stay of the charges Smith filed against him before federal judge Tanya Chutkan in the nation's capital. The claim is currently before the Appellate Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., after the U.S. Supreme Court denied Smith's request for an emergency review. As such, Mr. Chutkan is suspending all proceedings in the case until the matter is finally resolved. That means that after the appeals court considers the issue of immunity, the losing party will almost certainly go back to the Supreme Court to ask the justices to reconsider. Issues of immunity are resolved before the case proceeds to trial. It is still unclear how quickly the case will progress, but the timeline with the Supreme Court could delay the case beyond the November 2024 general election. That means the trial could be postponed beyond Election Day.
In this regard, President Trump has said that if he is re-elected president, he will fire Smith. He first made this comment in a previous interview with Breitbart News in the summer of 2023 at a golf course in Bedminster, New Jersey. And in this interview with Breitbart News, he reaffirmed that if Smith were elected, he would not remain employed by the federal government. The president again.
“No, I'm not going to keep him,” Trump told Breitbart News at Mar-a-Lago, repeating comments he made this summer. “I think he's a dishonest person.”
Meanwhile, Mr. Biden has maintained that Mr. Smith is an independent special counsel and has personally sought to politically distance himself from Mr. Smith's madness. But Biden himself could fire Smith if he wants to stop this, and he remains an active choice in hiring Smith. Asked whether Biden should fire Smith now and stop weaponizing the Justice Department against him, Biden's biggest political opponent in the 2024 presidential election, Trump told Breitbart News: Mr. Biden said he was harming the United States by keeping Mr. Smith employed.
“Biden is hurting our country with this,” Trump said. “I think this is doing a great disservice to the country. So far, it's obviously helped from a voting standpoint, but he's really hurting the country.”
Mr. Trump expanded on this point by claiming that Mr. Biden opened a door that could later be looked back upon.
“This sets a very bad precedent, because the next president is going to go after him because there's a six-year statute of limitations?” Trump said. “Is he opening the door to allowing the next president because of the precedent he's set to go after him? I think that's very bad. We're going down a very dangerous path. I think that there.”
