Trump Says He Had 'Every Right' to Interfere With Presidential Election - Newsweek
By: Gabe Whisnant (Newsweek)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Former President Donald Trump said in an interview with Fox News' Mark Levin that he had "every right" to interfere with a presidential election.
The host of the Life, Liberty and Levin program talked about the Republican nominee's ongoing legal concerns amid the 2024 campaign, including Department of Justice special counsel Jack Smith's federal election subversion case.
Levin, a lawyer and longtime conservative commentator, said that President Joe Biden or Vice President and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris could tell the Attorney General to "knock it off" regarding the federal cases against Trump. He went on to ask, "this election interference never ends, does it?"
"Actually, but you know the good news it's so crazy that my poll numbers go up. Whoever heard you get indicted for interfering with a presidential election, where you have every right to do it, you get indicted, and your poll numbers go up. When people get indicted your poll numbers go down," Trump said during the second part of a recorded interview that aired Sunday night.
Trump, the GOP's presidential nominee, faces four federal charges in the case into his alleged attempts to thwart the 2020 election results, which the former president has claimed was stolen from him via widespread voter fraud despite a lack of substantial evidence.
The charges include conspiracy to defraud the U.S., conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, attempting to obstruct an official proceeding and conspiracy against rights. Trump has pleaded not guilty to all charges and alleges the case is politically motivated.
On Tuesday, Smith filed a revised indictment against Trump, which comes after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in July that presidents have immunity from prosecution for official acts, but not for acts as a private citizen or candidate. Trump has argued his actions were official acts so he should not be prosecuted.
However, prosecutors allege he was acting as a private citizen for many of his alleged attempts at overturning the election results. In the latest indictment, Smith emphasized that Trump was acting as a candidate—not as president—when trying to overturn the 2020 election. The indictment still includes the same four criminal counts on which Trump was initially charged.
The former president also faces an election interference case that alleges that Trump tried to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia, a swing state that narrowly backed President Joe Biden four years ago. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis' probe focuses on Trump's call to Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in which Trump urged him to "find" enough votes to tilt the election in his favor, as well as an alleged plot to submit a false slate of pro-Trump electors to the Electoral College.
It remains unclear when, or if, a trial will be held in Georgia, but the case is unlikely to go to trial before November's presidential election.
In a case brought forward by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, a Manhattan jury in late May convicted Trump on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to subvert the 2016 presidential election by obscuring "hush money" payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels, with whom he allegedly had an affair approximately one decade earlier.
The former president, who denies that an affair took place and claims all of his court cases are part of a Democrat-led "witch hunt," has argued that the Supreme Court's recent ruling on presidential immunity, which grants immunity for some official acts by sitting presidents, means that his convictions should be thrown out.
Trump also faced 40 federal charges in federal Judge Aileen Cannon's court over his alleged handling of sensitive materials seized from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, after leaving the White House in January 2021. He was also accused of obstructing efforts by federal authorities to retrieve them.
Cannon, a Trump appointee to Florida federal court, dismissed all charges against the former president in his classified documents case after claiming Smith was wrongfully appointed as special counsel.
Smith is now appealing that decision to a federal appellate court in Florida and wrote in a filing on August 26 that Cannon's "private citizen" remark was more than 150 years out of date.
On Monday, Harris-Walz 2024 spokesperson Sarafina Chitika released the following statement regarding Trump's remarks to Fox News.
"Everything Donald Trump has promised on the campaign trail - from 'terminating' the Constitution, to imprisoning his political opponents and promising to rule as a dictator on 'day one' - makes it clear that he believes he is above the law. Now, Trump is claiming he had 'every right' to interfere in the 2020 election. He did not.
"While Donald Trump is pushing his false history about the past, the American people are ready for a new way forward. They know Vice President Harris is the tough-as-nails prosecutor we need to turn the page on chaos, fear, and division, and uphold the rule of law."
Newsweek emailed the Trump campaign for comment Sunday night.
Trump: Who ever heard you get indicted for interfering with a presidential election where you have every right to do it. pic.twitter.com/EneMFJg7kD
— Acyn (@Acyn) September 2, 2024
Trump's comments to Levin that aired Sunday night were met with immediate response online.
Legal analyst and MSNBC host Katie Phang reposted a clip of the Fox News interview on X, formerly Twitter, and wrote, "Criming and then confessing to the criming. That's a Trump specialty."
Former federal prosecutor Joyce Vance wrote on X, "There's no right to 'interfere' with a presidential election," she said. "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."
In the first part of the interview with Levin that aired Saturday night, Trump discussed Vice President Kamala Harris' aggressive style of questioning, ahead of their debate scheduled for September 10.
Trump said Harris "fought people like I've never seen," during the confirmation hearing for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh in 2018.
"And for her whole life, she fought people like I've never seen anything like it...look at the way she fought Justice Kavanaugh. The viciousness and the violence," he said. "She's a Marxist," Trump said.
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Trump has confessed to election interference. The jury in his criminal trial should be able to reach a guilty verdict fairly rapidly.
He actually said he was more popular (his poll numbers went up) when he was charged with a criminal offence (election interference)? That says something, IMO, worse about a lot of American people than it does about him, unless he was lying, and that wouldn't be unusual either.
it says something worse about those who would vote for him
no matter what
Which is what I was saying.
1. It says terrible things about a lot of people who would vote for him.
2. He lies incessantly.
3. He deserves the maximum sentence he can receive for every criminal conviction, now and in the future.
Sorry - I missed the 'a lot of American people'
I just saw 'the American people'
We all haven't lost our minds, only about 30% which is still too damn much
It tells us millions of our citizenry agree with turning this country away from the Rule of Law and into old 'familiar' territory of majority rule ('Might makes Right.") Such people don't give a damn about liberty, freedom, justice, for all!
He's confessed to all kinds of stuff. I'm sure Jack Smith is taking note of every single one.
I'm sure he is.
Does the fucking moron not realize that this can be used against him - if it ever makes it to trial?
he needs to keep his moronic base riled up for the eventual call to arms when he either gets sentenced to prison or loses the election...
I just got back from the beach. There’s a couple hours of rural driving to get there, and the Trump signs are out about every other mile. This is what has them convinced that Trump is going to win in a landslide. They don’t comprehend that driving ten miles in the country you only pass 20 residences, but in densely populated areas Trump is anathema.
Evening Hal..geez how far do you live away from the sea??
As for the signs, that's when to pray for lightening strikes..
I’m about four hours away from the coast. However, beach traffic can extend far inland and easily turn it into six hours. Still worth it.
It’s funny, we stopped in an antique store along the way home that had a Trump sign on the corner of the property. We went in and the owner had another hanging inside the building. He was a friendly sort and liked to talk. Another customer asked if there were any other antique stores in the area and he was reluctant to direct them to others. After that customer left he told us he doesn’t get along with the neighboring establishments because they don’t like him because they think he is stealing their business. I didn’t want to tell him, but it’s more likely because he has made the stupid mistake of mixing his politics with his business.
I have friends that went down that rabbit hole and lost business, but still remain militant. dumb asses...
Elon Musk comes to mind. What kind of business man is so clueless or 'high' that the can't understand that at the level he, Elon, operates at . . . he should not be looking to alienate 'anybody' as a potential or repeat customer/client/partner?
gee, what can he do to cut his future business prospects in half and attract negative feedback?
He tells them to fuck off and then sues them for not advertising on his site
that fucker needs to be under surveillance 24/7/365.
Fuck you Trump.
I don't think that there is much more to be said, except to all the people who believe what he says, and that is just a big "WTF"????
Agreed 100%.
Can you imagine someone who was President claiming he had "every right" to interfere in an election? Contemptible and disgusting.
Donald is one big 'piece of work' that this nation really needs to rid itself of in the public domain. He won't leave us alone voluntarily so we simply must force him to LEAVE US ALONE! We have had enough of him sucking 99% of the oxygen out of the nation!
What Donald says is this: LIES, LIES, AND MORE LIES! ((I am pretty sure Donald is somewhere lying right this instance!)
Meh, he was just doing the 'Weave' ... again.
his only successful weave so far was behind the podium in butler penn...
"Trump said in an interview with Fox News' Mark Levin that he had "every right" to interfere with a presidential election."
Every time you think this lunatic couldn't possibly say anything more stupid than he has already said - "Oops He did it again" and a new standard for the stupidest thing possible to say is set.
He is trying very hard to lose this election all of a sudden
He cant help himself, he is mentally ill. Why people hide from this truth is beyond me.
Sadly, he represents a fairly large segment of Americans who have been gaslit by his lies but now seem to have no choice but to double down on their stupidity because if they admit it now, it will only prove what gullible idiots they've been all along. Now they must defend him no matter what he does. He could reveal to them that he abducts liberal's children and has them killed and cooked and enjoys them with fava beans and a nice chianti and his sycophants would still find a way to defend him.
Donald has pretty much scandalized every veteran who is supporting him with his remarks and activities at Arlington Cemetery. And do not think for one moment that Donald will accept that the Army upbraided him for what he did to it and its staff! He will 'hit' them back . . . oh yes, . . . it's coming. Watch this space! Scandalous.
He cant help himself, he is mentally ill. Why people hide from this truth is beyond me.
I don't know if he is actually mentally ill, but he sure lacks any semblance of ability to control his mouth, or to think before he speaks
Yes, Trump is actually mentally ill.
Most shrinks have come to that conclusion.
Those who support him are also insane.
Sad that so many people who couldn't graduate from high school think that they should rule the world. Fox gave ignorant fools a voice.
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The late great Hannibal Lechter
Brain rotted by untreated syphilis, dementia, Alzheimer's', all of the above? Amounts to the same thing. A mentally brain dead moron.
You'd fucking have to be ....
Children are delicious!
so tender
... still on the fence, robert?
Which makes you a fool.
Which makes you a fool.
Actually it makes me other than a rd or blue sheep following the horn of the shepherd leading the pack.
You have every right to your opinion which I respect, but you do not have the right to tell me what my opinion ought to be
To not vote for Harris is quite foolish.
NO one has told you what your opinion ought to be. Voting for Harris does not make us sheep. Throwing away your vote is quite foolish.
you'll flip that R lever to avoid the "impending leftist doomsday" as sure as everyone here is breathing...
just like the last time.
Ya.
But weren't you "Purple" at one point?
It is like watching Joe McCarthy cracking up on TV 70 years ago. The end days of Trump and MAGA look a lot like the end of McCarthyism!
We Are Not Going Back!
Seventy years ago I was one year old and not watching much political TV (if there was any)
I hope the cult of Trump is nearing its end
I do not think Harris is the answer to the nation's problems, but Trump is surely not either
Me, too. I think the earliest political stuff I remember was the 1960 election campaign.
The cult of Trump might be nearing its end if things work out the way they should, but the malevolent streak within the right wing currently represented by the Trump cult is not going away any time soon.
She might prove to be better than you think, especially if she surrounds herself with the right people.
Not for a fucking second.
I like her a lot.
She has an amazing history.
She will make a great president.
all evidence to the contrary actually
That could be said and has been said about every president in history and they seldom turn out to be as good as many hoped or as poor as many feared, but almost none turn out to be great presidents.
Learn from history. Pick up a book. Being 1 year old at the time is no reason to ignore history.
such as?
That's a pretty defeatist attitude.
Respectfully, Robert, which election in your lifetime was any different?
The nation always has problems, they don't go away in four or eight year cycles.
Well she accomplished little or nothing as VP
Defeatist perhaps but true - absolutely
Tessylo
Thanks for that great advice
Actually have a degree in history and am well aware of the election mentioned and many others, I was making the point that virtually no one on NT actually watched McCarthy on television. If you want to see the true challenges to McCarthy check out Edward Murrow
Again thanks for the advice to learn from history - we should all do that
Eisenhower - interstate road system, expanded social security, ended Korean War, rebuilt Europe
Kennedy - kept Russia out of Cuba
Johnson - Civil Rights Acts, Medicare, the war on poverty
Clinton - Welfare to Work law, NAFTA
Reagan/Bush Sr - Berlin Wall falls
Which VPs have?
Do VPs generally accomplish things? I thought they were back filler for the POTUS and the president of the Senate
That's what VPs do.
Whatever
Nice list but you missed the point and you weren't involved in any election until probably Reagan.
Eisenhower or Stevensen, having just experienced the average educational level of a million American troops and officers, Eisenhower appealed to women voters and emphasized education to win election and raise the quality of US soldiers of the future.
Kennedy could just as easily started WW3 had it not been for Nikita Krushchev and it certainly wasn't a campaign issue.
Johnson the only VP who accomplished anything.
The Berlin Wall would have fallen from internal pressure without Reagan's grandstanding
Clinton Nafta, maybe but Bush also supported it, only Perot opposed it. It would have passed if Bush had won.
We have always been faced with sane choices for POTUS which would not alter the way we live in 4 year slices of sane GOP or Democrat leadership
Until Newt Gingrich, Carl Rowe and Grover Norquist lowered the bar of civility to the point where Trump thinks he is the Rodney Dangerfield of American royalty. No comment too bizarre, no lie too small to invent or repeat.
This election, more so than the last two is the most important in our lives.
Awesome, thank you. Hilarious how some totally miss the point and pretend they didn't and then act like a know it all. A smug know it all.
So just throw away your vote. Attaboy.
Well many people thought that Dick Cheney was the brain behind George Bush but only remember that he shot someone in the face while hunting quail.
Pence's 4 years will be forgotten except for the January 6 certification ceremony he completed against Trumps vocal "wishes".
Gerald Ford succeeded Nixon but will always be remembered for how many times he was filmed or photographed tripping on something or nothing.
Nixon learned nothing from Eisenhower apparently proving that character cannot be taught to adults.
AL Gore made the tie breaking vote that funded Palo Alto's communications project to connect research facilities and universities which became the backbone of the modern "internet".
As for Ford, i remember him more for the Nixon Pardon , if he had not done that , and let things go through the courts back then , what happened with trump likely would have been a settled deal then . In my opinion , that pardon was a very large mistake .
you missed Quayle , the big thing about his term was how to spell potato/potatoe .
Trump could have made it all go away by going away like any other President would who got his dumb butt whooped by Joe Biden!
Face It, the Country sent Trump a message. Go away already!
Well its a sure thing to say of the 2 candidates one of them is going to win , who it is is still very much up in the air in my opinion , i like neither .
whichever wins already has a built in opposition they wont be able to overcome .
But i have prepared things in the event either wins , some wont like it but , thats life .
I knew there someone else forgettable in there, lol.
only reason i remember the potato incident is because of the lord of the rings movies and sams scene with gollum about POE-TA-TOES
The first presidential election I voted in was 1972 and I voted for George McGovern
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So just throw away your vote. Attaboy.
Throwing away my vote would be voting for a candidate that I do not believe is suited for the job - Trump and Harris both fit the category
No protest vote in a presidential election has ever signified anything. Ross Perot was probably the most successful third party candidate ever in 1992, he got millions of votes. The next day after the election nobody cared.
We have a two party system and any vote for anyone else is a wasted vote.
Some folks just have to have the last word.
Indeed
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John
You are right and I have never disputed the point you make.
But the day after the election I will feel good about myself, because I did not settle and I voted my conscience.
I will also accept the winner (as you point out a D or a R) as my president, as the POTUS
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in '68 my social studies teacher, mr mccoy, suggested I wouldn't be receiving a passing grade in his class without some extra credit work. luckily for me, he had some available on saturday going door to door campaigning for nixon. armed with a handful of nixon flyers, the second doorbell I rang featured an old man that started yelling at me and then he opened his screen door allowing his elderly beagle to attack my right leg. mr mccoy erupted from his vehicle on the street and rushed to my rescue. he told me to wait at his car while a heated argument developed between the resident and himself. he swore me to secrecy and since I lived only a few blocks away, I got to go home. I finished the year with a b average in his class. if you asked him in class about any LBJ policies, there was never any time left for homework to be assigned.
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IIRC, VPs aren't necessarily supposed to accomplish things-- they serve the President who does (or does not!) accomplish things.
People speakof the VP sas the second in command-- but ironically its one of the most powerless position in the gov't!
Unless the President dies or is otherwise incapacitated.
(And on rare occasions, when there's a tie vote in The House the VP breaks the tie).
kamala has set the high bar in the senate for the most tie breaking votes cast.
he got me into the habit of reading the morning newspaper for current events though ...
LOCK HIM UP
fuck him up and then lock him up...
So the guy that's been crying about election fraud and interference for the last 3.5 years, is suddenly fine with it, as long as he is the one doing it...
If trump is still your guy after this shit? All I got to say is, "wow".
maga blind loyalty and immunity from documented hypocrisy.
I don't even want to converse with those people. I think I will ignore them from here til the election
So much better for the blood pressure
Yes, it is considering how much of a pain in the ass it is to take that tiny pill every morning
There are a few here on NT. (Most pretend they are notsupporting trump, but whenever he's attacked they support him-- and of course they constantly criticize the Dems.)
Even some on this site who mentally quote Shakespeare in Romeo and Juliet, thinking the line "A plague on both your houses".
Not a single word from the apologists…as the only apology will be required at his sentencing.
It's surprising that the maga cultists aren't out in force claiming, alternatively, that he did have every right to interfere in the election, that he was just joking, that he didn't really say it, that no one cares what he says, that the "progressive" media is biased, that "TDS is strong in some" and that liberals are just hurt because Hillary lost.
looks like excuses vary too...
Those are the excuses they use for everything Trump, no matter how contradictory. That's pretty much all they have.
Maybe Trump should start marketing Maga Magic 8 Balls with those responses for his supporters convenience.
I get so tired of that 'opinions vary' bullshit. The truth does not vary. Reality does not vary.
He should. They would buy them.
The thing is that they use the same excuses for everything that comes up. One minute it's one excuse, immediately followed by a different one.
The person who uses it thinks it makes him sound smarter. I think it makes him sound boring since he uses it over and over again. Also unimaginative
idiotic...
Indeed
mundane.
So the same republicans that screamed about Dems supporting a felon, George Floyd, are now going to vote for a convicted felon for the highest office in the land? Got it, good talk.
the law and order party...