Trump says ‘it depends’ if there will be violence if he loses 2024 election to Biden

(WASHINGTON) — Former President Donald Trump is playing down but not ruling out the possibility of political violence if he loses the November election.

“I don’t think we’re going to have that. I think we’re going to win,” Trump told Time magazine in a cover story published on Tuesday.

He had been asked about an earlier comment to Time that “I think we’re gonna have a big victory and I think there will be no violence” — but “what if you don’t win, sir?” the Time reporter said.

“If we don’t win, you know, it depends. It always depends on the fairness of an election,” Trump went on to say.

He has previously warned of problems if things go wrong for him, writing on social media last year, before he faced any of his four criminal indictments, that “false” charges against him would bring “potential death & destruction.” (He denies all wrongdoing.)

And in March, during a campaign rally, as he talked about the auto industry, Trump said that the country would face a broader “bloodbath” if he’s not elected in November.

Speaking with Time for the new cover story, he alluded to his frequent, evidence-free claims of widespread election fraud and said, “I don’t believe they’ll be able to do the things that they did the last time. I don’t think they’ll be able to get away with it. And if that’s the case, we’re gonna win in record-setting fashion.”

The former president himself faces federal charges for his actions related to attempts to overturn his 2020 election loss in the lead-up to a violent riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, as Congress gathered to certify his defeat.

Trump has since embraced and defended the people prosecuted for their alleged actions during Jan. 6. The Department of Justice said this month that nearly 1,400 people have been charged in connection with the attack, including 129 people accused of “using a deadly or dangerous weapon or causing serious bodily injury to an officer.”

Approximately 800 people have pleaded guilty to their charges and another 156 people have been convicted at trial, according to the DOJ.

Trump told Time that he would “absolutely” consider pardoning every one of the people prosecuted.

“I think it’s a two-tier system of justice. I think it’s a very, very sad thing,” he said of the rioters whom he has called “hostages.” In his Time interviews, he called them “patriots.”

“If somebody was evil and bad, I would look at that differently,” he noted.

Elsewhere in his interviews, Trump claimed that should he win a second term, he would not attempt to defy the Constitution and try to stay in power for longer — with a third term — as some have warned.

“I don’t really have a choice, but I would,” Trump said about retiring after a second term.

He “wouldn’t be in favor of a challenge” to the 22nd Amendment, which imposes term limits, he said. “I intend to serve four years and do a great job.”

And as he continues to focus on a theme of retribution for his supporters and claims of persecution regarding his various legal troubles during his campaign, Trump told Time that as president he might fire U.S. attorneys who refuse his orders to prosecute someone, saying, “It would depend on the situation.”

Trump suggested that as president he wouldn’t “want” to prosecute the district attorneys who have brought cases against him, like Alvin Bragg and Fani Willis, but he did not give a direct answer when asked by Time if he would still order his DOJ to do so.

He previously said on the campaign trail that Bragg should be prosecuted, but he denied making that comment to Time.

“We’re gonna look at a lot of things like they’re looking. What they’ve done is a terrible thing. No, I don’t want to do [prosecute them],” he told Time, later saying, “Our retribution is going to be through success of our country.”

Though Trump has said he would appoint a special prosecutor to “go after” the Bidens, he told Time that “it depends what happens with the Supreme Court,” as the justices consider whether to grant Trump some immunity from prosecution for conduct while in the White House.

“A president should have immunity. That includes [Joe] Biden. If they’ve ruled that they don’t have immunity, Biden, probably nothing to do with me, he would be prosecuted,” Trump told Time, claiming without evidence that Biden has broken the law.

The Biden campaign attacked Trump’s latest comments.

“Not since the Civil War have freedom and democracy been under assault at home as they are today – because of Donald Trump,” Biden campaign spokesperson James Singer said in a statement on Tuesday.

“Joe Biden believes democracy is still a sacred cause and his campaign is about the future America is going to build together,” Singer said, “not one small, weak man’s delusion of a dictatorship.”