Trump Tells Kristen Welker He’s Open to Prosecuting Biden If ‘I Find Something’
President-elect Donald Trump told NBC News anchor Kristen Welker he would be open to prosecuting President Joe Biden if “I find something that I think is reasonable.”
As President Biden and many others have noted, Trump also made “retribution” a major theme of his campaign — and unyielding loyalty a major theme of his transition. Trump has nominated staunch loyalists Pam Bondi and Kash Patel to lead the Department of Justice and FBI, respectively.
Trump sat for an exclusive interview that aired on Sunday morning’s edition of NBC’s Meet the Press, during which Welker asked Trump about the “retribution” he has publicly demanded for years, and specifically his promise to appoint a special prosecutor to “go after” Biden
When Trump said he didn’t remember saying that, Welker provided the receipt — and Trump went off on a weave:
KRISTEN WELKER: Well, let me ask you this. You said, President Biden, quote, that you’re going to appoint a real special prosecutor to go after Joe Biden. You said that during –
PRESIDENT-ELECT DONALD TRUMP: Where did I say that?
KRISTEN WELKER: — the campaign
PRESIDENT-ELECT DONALD TRUMP: Where?
KRISTEN WELKER: You said that on Truth Social, June 12, 2023: “I will appoint a real special prosecutor to go after the most corrupt president in the history of the United States, Joe Biden –
PRESIDENT-ELECT DONALD TRUMP: Well, that part is true.
KRISTEN WELKER: — and the entire Biden crime family.” Are you going to do that? Are you going to go after Joe Biden?
PRESIDENT-ELECT DONALD TRUMP: I’m really looking to make our country successful. I’m not looking to go back into the past.
Welker eventually redirected Trump back to the question, and Trump said he’d only consider going after Biden if “I find something that I think is reasonable” — but claimed it wouldn’t be his decision:
KRISTEN WELKER: I want to pause here, because what you’re saying is significant. Because you wrote on Truth Social in 2023 that you’re going to appoint a real special prosecutor to go after Joe Biden. Now you’re saying you’re not going to do that.
PRESIDENT-ELECT DONALD TRUMP: I will say this, no, I’m not doing that unless I find something that I think is reasonable, but that’s not going to be my decision. That’s going to be Pam Bondi’s decision, and, to a different extent, Kash Patel, assuming they’re both there, and I think they’re both going to get approved. But I — I — you know, while you ask me that, what they’ve done to me with weaponization is a disgrace.
KRISTEN WELKER: We’ll get to some of that, sir —
PRESIDENT-ELECT DONALD TRUMP: No, no, wait, wait, wait, you can’t do one without the other. In the history of our country, nothing like this has ever happened. And I’ve won these cases. I’ve won every one and the rest are in the process of being won. Deranged Jack Smith is on his way back to The Hague where he can execute people. This is where he should have stayed. I don’t — I think he’s dangerous even being there. But I’ll tell you what, what they’ve done to me in terms of weaponization, indictments, impeachments and everything else. And in the end, it probably helped, because I got the biggest vote, the most votes any Republican’s ever gotten in history.
Watch above via NBC’s Meet the Press.
