Trump repeated his vow that even a conviction would not stop his presidential campaign.
The former president faces an array of legal problems, including new charges related to his handling of classified documents.
“This isn’t like he held a gun in plain view and shot someone …,” Trump said about how the public views his issues.
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Former President Donald Trump on Friday vowed that he will not abandon his presidential campaign even if he is convicted and sentenced.
“Not at all,” Trump told conservative radio host John Fredericks when asked if a conviction and sentence would end his campaign. “There’s nothing in the Constitution to say that it could — even the radical left crazies are saying no that wouldn’t stop. It wouldn’t stop me either.”
The former president is correct there is nothing that would stop a presidential candidate from campaigning if one were to be convicted. In fact, two previous non-major party hopefuls ran from prison, Eugene V. Debs in 1920 and Lyndon LaRouche in 1992.
The former president’s pledge comes less than a day after special counsel Jack Smith filed a superseding indictment that added additional charges to the classified documents case, including two obstruction of justice charges. Trump has previously said he expects to be indicted for his conduct after the 2020 presidential election and before the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot. The former president has argued that he did not mishandle classified documents or refuse to turn them over when he was asked to do so.
Trump said the American people know how to put his legal problems in perspective.
“First of all, the public is very smart,” Trump said. ‘They know it. They study it. This isn’t like he held a gun in plain view and shot someone or he robbed a bank and got caught.”
Trump faces a growing array of legal issues, underlining how his presidential campaign has increasingly become a fight for his own survival. If he were to win, Trump may actually try the untested power of a president pardoning himself.
The former president holds a commanding lead in national polling for the GOP presidential primary. According to FiveThirtyEight’s weighted tracker, Trump holds a nearly 37-point lead over Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, his only Republican challenger that is also in double digits.
Asked about how the legal clouds are affecting his family, Trump said it is “always unpleasant” to have to tell former first lady Melania Trump that he’s going to be indicted. Earlier this week, The New York Times reported that Melania Trump’s main focus has been helping their son Barron with his college search.
“It’s always unpleasant when you have to go and tell your wife, tomorrow sometime I’m going to be indicted,” Trump said. “And she says, ‘For what?’ I say, ‘I have no idea.’ Normally, you know exactly but these people are thugs.”
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