After surrendering to authorities in Georgia on Thursday, former President Donald Trump addressed the unprecedented situation in a brief public address and an interview on Newsmax TV.
He is one of 19 individuals facing charges related to an alleged conspiracy to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
Shortly after his surrender, he asserted that everyone involved is innocent of the charges and described the entire ordeal as a form of “election interference” ahead of his current campaign for a second term in the White House.
“If you challenge an election, you should be able to challenge an election,” Trump said. “I thought the election was a rigged election, a stolen election, and I should have every right to do that.”
He went on to insist that “we have every right, every single right to challenge an election that we think is dishonest, that we think is very dishonest.”
The former president described his arrest as “a very sad day for America” and a “travesty of justice.”
Later that night, he spoke to Newsmax TV personality Greg Kelly and elaborated on his reaction to the “terrible experience.”
President Trump’s full interview with @gregkellyusa.
This was his first interview after being booked today in Fulton County, GA.
We stand with President Trump! 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/lfYaU6oymT
— TheStormHasArrived (@TheStormRedux) August 25, 2023
Although he said he was “treated very nicely,” Trump expressed outrage over the entire process, claiming that he had “never heard the words mug shot.”
He added: “They didn’t teach me that at the Wharton School of Finance. I have to go through a process. It is election interference.”
After praising Kelly’s coverage of the situation, Trump added: “It’s a very sad experience and it’s a very sad day for our country. This is a weaponized Justice Department and all of these indictments and cases. I have a couple of cases, not indictments, just cases where you have these lawyers suing like a woman that I never saw it before other than that she took a picture 25 years ago … on a contributor’s line or something or charity line.”
Describing the ongoing legal hurdles as “one thing after the next,” he expressed a commitment to keep fighting in the face of his challenges.
“What they want to do is they want to try and wear you out, which they will never do,” Trump declared.
