Exclusive: Donald Trump Says Political Violence ‘Depends’ on ‘Fairness’ of 2024 Election – By Vera Bergengruen and Eric Cortellessa (TIME) / April 30, 2024
Read our full cover story on Donald Trump here. You can also read the transcript of the interviews here and a full fact check here.
In an exclusive interview with TIME, former President Donald Trump raised the specter of potential political violence if he loses the 2024 election. “I think we’re going to win,” he says on April 27 when asked about the prospect of political violence tied to November’s elections. “And if we don’t win, you know, it depends. It always depends on the fairness of an election.”
Trump left office in January 2021 after an unprecedented assault on the U.S. Capitol by a mob of his supporters who believed his false allegations that the 2020 election was “stolen” from him by widespread voter fraud.
Trump says he doesn’t think that’s going to happen again. “I do think we’re gonna win,” he says. Alluding to his unfounded claims that the last election was “rigged” by his political rivals, he says: “I don’t believe they’ll be able to do the things that they did the last time. I don’t think they’ll be able to get away with it.”
Trump also tells TIME he might pardon the more than 800 men and women charged in connection with the Jan. 6 attack, most of whom have pleaded guilty. The assault left more than 140 law enforcement officers injured and sent lawmakers into hiding. More than 120 people have been accused of using a deadly or dangerous weapon or causing serious bodily injury to an officer, and members of extremist groups were found guilty of seditious conspiracy.
CONTINUE > https://time.com/6972163/donald-trump-political-violence-interview-exclusive/
