“Under no circumstances – you promise America tonight – will you never abuse power to retaliate against anyone?” Hannity asked Trump during a later exchange.
“Except for one day,” Trump quickly responded, prompting one of the audience members to shout “Yes!”
“He’s going crazy!” Trump Hannity looked confused.
“Except for one day. Meaning?” Hannity asked.
“I want to close the border, I want to drill, drill, drill,” Trump said.
“That’s not revenge,” Hannity responded.
“We love this guy,” Trump said of Hannity. “He says: ‘You wouldn’t be a dictator, would you?’ I say: ‘No, no, no – except the first day’.”
Trump doubled down on his promise to close the US-Mexico border and expand oil drilling on his first day: “After that, I’m not a dictator.”
“It sounds to me like you’re going back to the principles of when you were president,” Hannity said before cutting to commercial.
The Fox News anchor prefaced Trump by saying that the media was “attacking” him for his authoritarian rhetoric and tendencies.
Later Tuesday, the Biden campaign released video of the exchange in response to Trump’s “dictator” comments.
“Donald Trump has been telling us what he would do if re-elected, and tonight he said he would be a dictator on day one,” Biden campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez said in a statement. “Americans should trust him.”
At a town hall earlier Tuesday, he asked, “Any plans to abuse power, break the law, use the government to go after people, if re-elected president?” Hannity asked Trump to clarify.
“You mean like they use now?” Trump repeated his claim that President Biden had weaponized the Justice Department against him. He then began complaining about the charges and criminal charges he was facing, calling them “made up”.
“I often say Al Capone, he’s the greatest of all time — if you like criminals,” Trump said. “He was impeached once. I was impeached four times.
Trump has been sued by special counsel Jack Smith in two federal cases, one related to his possession of secret records and the other over allegations that he conspired to prevent Joe Biden’s election victory in late 2020 and early 2021. Trump also faces criminal charges related to efforts to alter the election results in Georgia.
Trump has appeared on several occasions to use the White House to target his opponents.
Trump, for example, said in June after his arrest in Florida that if elected next year, he would “appoint a real special prosecutor to go after Joe Biden, the most corrupt president in the history of the United States.” And the entire Biden crime family.”
And in October, Trump urged people to “get behind” New York State Attorney General Letitia James (D), who filed a civil suit against him on charges of business fraud.
