Trump says he'll never drop out of 2024 presidential race - even if convicted
Former US president Donald Trump has said adamantly he will "never drop out" of the 2024 race, even if he were to be convicted of a crime.
Speaking to Fox News' Tucker Carlson, the businessman simply said: "It's not my thing" as he sat down at Mar-a-Lago in his first interview since his arraignment.
During the interview, he was asked if any legal troubles could make him drop out of the race. His response was: "No, I'd never drop out - it's not my thing. I wouldn't do it."
The former president is the first current or former president in history to face arraignment on criminal charges, having been charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records relating to hush money payments made to porn star Stormy Daniels in the 2016 presidental campaign.
Trump's former attorney Michael Cohen was reimbursed for hush money payments made to Ms Daniels, however Trump recorded $130,000 in expenses as the cost of legal services for Mr Cohen - not as reimbursement for the hush money.
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Trump spoke with Tucker Carlson (FOX News)Ms Daniels claimed to have had an affair with Trump while he was married, a story which Trump was worried would impact his chances of getting into the White House in 2016.
However, he is running once again, despite his legal challenges, and told Mr Carlson he does not intend on dropping out of the race, no matter the outcome of the indictment.
Speaking to the Fox News host about whether current president Joe Biden will remain in the race, he said: "Look, I watch him just like you do and I think it's almost inappropriate for me to say it. But I deal with other people, I don't see how it's possible.
Supporters of Trump wave signs and flags (Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)"And it's not an age thing. I say I have friends that are 88, 89, 92, Bernie Marcus Home Depot is 95, smart as hell, as sharp as he was. He's, you know, mentally, Bernie Marcus, Home Depot, founder of Home Depot, one of the founders.
"I mean I had a meeting with him a few months ago he was 100 per cent. I know peple that built their fortunes from 80 to 90, they were always struggling and they made a fortune from 80 to 90, a couple of people in particular, it's amazing.
"He's not too old, I think they do the age thing because I'm four or five years behind, they say 'this is a way of getting Trump, let's go', but there's something wrong.
He appears in court for his arraignment, in New York on April 4, 2023 (Seth Wenig/AP/REX/Shutterstock)"I saw his answer today on television about whether or not he was going to run to a very nice guy named Al Roker. When you can't get a softer question that that, that was a long answer talking about the eggs and this and that.
"Look, I don't think he can. But say what you want, they didn't expect him to get it."
The 76-year-old continued: "I just don't see Biden doing it from a physical or a mental staff, I don't see it. But it's been a crazy period of time in the world of politics, but he's surrounded by people, you know they expected Bernie [Sanders] to win.
"Now Bernie's older than Biden, whether you like him or not, he's sharp. I watched him being interviewed the other day, he's 100 per cent sharp, he hasn't lost much if anything, Bernie Sanders. But you know, he's older. So it's not an age thing, I just don't see it."
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Former US president Donald Trump speaks during a press conference (AFP via Getty Images)Carlson went on to speak about the lawsuits and indictments facing Trump, saying "they're trying to prevent you from making it to the general election".
He asked "if this goes to trial and you get convicted, how would you respond in the middle of a presidential campaign?"
Trump replied: "Well it's so off the statute of limitations are years off, it's hard to believe.
"Usually when you have something like this, the Democrats say 'oh he's terrible, guilty'. The Democrats have even said I'm innocent."
Apeaking during a press conference following his court appearance (AFP via Getty Images)He went on to say: "I've been through seven years of b******t investigations, seven years. They've looked at, I have a very big company, much bigger than they understand - in fact when they finally got my taxes they said 'woah'.
"It took them years to get the taxes, they got them, that was the last you ever heard. You never heard one thing about them, but it took them years to get them because they shouldn't be looking at my taxes.
"I was surprised the Supreme Court gave them the right, they shouldn't be looking at people. That's another one of the tenants, you don't do that.
Supporters of at a rally in West Palm Beach as he returns to Mar-a-Lago following his arraignment in New York City (Wilfredo Lee/AP/REX/Shutterstock)"But I didn't care that much, I just, on principle, I fought them. And they looked at you do the things that I do and you employ thousands and thousands of people over the years, just thousands, we've done a great job.
"And then I ran for president, people were surprised that I won. But I used to see these rallies, and I'll tell you the rallies are bigger now than they've ever been, the enthusiasm is more now than I've ever seen."
Asked how he thinks his opponents will respond, specifically the Democratic party using the legal system, the former president said: "Well, what they're doing is they're finding anything of this.
It was the first interview with Trump since his arraignment (Fox News)"They say 11 million pages or whatever it is through all of these Democrats investigations, I had the Muller hoax, I had the impeachment hoax number one, impeachment hoax number two, Ukraine, Ukraine, Ukraine, Russia, Russia, Russia... It turned out to be a total fake."
He continued: "But think of this, I tell this story very seldom, because it's a sad story, so the Russia Russia Russia hoax was made up by crooked HIllary Clinton, Adam Schiff, the DNC, the Democrat Party, the dossier is a total fake thing, we're suing them now as you know on that.
"We're suing them a lot because unfortunately Bill Barr didn't have the courage to do what he should have done, he was so afraid of being impeached.
He gives a thumbs up at the UFC 287 MMA event (AFP via Getty Images)"So I have to do it civilly, I have to sue people the Justice Department should have done because these are criminals, but think of this.
"So you have all of these millions and millions of pages and they get you on a non-disclosure agreement?
"I mean big numbers, billions and billions of dollars, and they get you on a perfect non-disclosure agreement or they get you on nothing."
Asked to "bottom line it", Trump said: "If I weren't running, or I had bad poll numbers let's say, and remember the Democrats are the party of misinformation - if they want to run against somebody they're going to go the opposite."
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