Trump tells Fox News he had ‘every right’ to interfere in presidential election

Donald Trump has claimed that he had “every right” to interfere with the 2020 presidential election in a new interview with Fox News.

During his latest sit-down with media ally Mark Levin, the former president appeared to “confess”, legal experts said, to allegedly committing a crime by trying to overturn the results of the election – while also claiming that Kamala Harris is “a nasty person” who was “horrible” to Mike Pence.

Trump was talking about how it was “crazy” his “poll numbers went up” after he was indicted on charges over his alleged efforts to overturn the results of the election .

“Who ever heard you get indicted for interfering with a presidential election, where you have every right to do it,” he told Levin casually, who did not challenge Trump.

“You get indicted and your poll numbers go up... when people get indicted your poll numbers go down.”

Before he made the comment, Levin told the former president how special counsel Jack Smith’s superseding indictment of Trump in the federal election interference case “intended to breathe life back into the case” following the Supreme Court’s ruling that former presidents have immunity for official acts undertaken while president.

Legal commentators were quick to react on social media.

Former federal prosecutor Joyce Vance said on X: “There’s no right to ‘interfere’ with a presidential election. This is the banality of evil right here – Trump asserting he can override the will of the voters to claim victory in an election he lost. And, he will do it again. We must vote against him in overwhelming numbers.”

Katie Phang, legal analyst and MSNBC host, also chimed in: “Criming and then confessing to the criming. That’s a Trump specialty.”

Another attorney Taylor E Darcy said: “No one has the right to interfere with an election. Either 1) Trump believes his lies, or 2) Trump is old and delusional. Either way, he is unfit to be president.”

Many others simply tagged the Department of Justice X account to direct it to a clip of the interview, saying they hoped Smith’s office was “taking notes”.

In a court filing last week, lawyers for Trump revealed their intentions to urge a judge to dismiss the federal election subversion case against the former president after the Supreme Court ruling narrowed the scope of the landmark prosecution,

The defense team, in a joint filing late Friday with prosecutors that lays out dueling proposals for the next steps, foreshadowed a series of anticipated challenges that would draw the case out into next year.

Trump also used the interview as an opportunity to unleash another personal attack on Harris, calling her “a nasty person”.

“She’s a nasty person. The way she treated Mike Pence was horrible. The way she treats people is horrible,” he said.

Trump was likely referring to the 2020 vice presidential debate between the now-Democratic presidential nominee and Trump’s then-vice president Pence, where Harris scolded the Republican for interrupting her. “Mr Vice President, I’m speaking. I’m speaking,” she said. At the time, Trump called Harris a “monster” and said she was “totally unlikeable”.

But Trump was quickly called out on social media given his treatment of Pence in the aftermath of the 2020 election.

Following his loss to President Joe Biden, Trump falsely claimed that Pence could stop the certification of the results in the Democrat’s favor. When Pence refused, thousands of Trump’s supporters stormed the US Capitol on January 6 2021 – many of them chanting “hang Mike Pence .”

At the time, Trump told his advisors that his vice president “deserves it,” according to Liz Cheney, the Republican vice-chair of the January 6 select committee.

“You will hear that president Trump was yelling. He was really angry at advisers that told him he needed to be doing something more,” she said in 2022.

“And aware of the rioter’s chants to hang Mike Pence, the president responded with this sentiment: ‘Maybe our supporters have the right idea. Mike Pence deserves it.’”

Several social media users reminded Trump of this on Sunday night.

“I would argue the way HE treated Mike Pence was worse. Kamala didn’t have gallows waiting for his VP...Trump’s lies did,” one person said on X.

Another wrote: “Did he forget about the crowd he unleashed on Pence?”

“Kamala Harris famously sent a mob of Trump supporters to the Capitol after Mike Pence,” someone else joked.