Key lines from Trump’s first Oval Office TV interview
By Michael Williams, CNN
(CNN) — President Donald Trump wouldn’t rule out investigating former President Joe Biden in a Fox News interview aired Wednesday.
Speaking with Fox News’ Sean Hannity, Trump also repeatedly criticized California Gov. Gavin Newsom, put possible conditions on funds for wildfire-ravaged California and swore to punish cities that don’t cooperate with his immigration agenda.
Here are key lines from the interview:
Trump says it’s a ‘sad thing’ Biden didn’t pardon himself
Trump criticized Biden’s decision to pardon members of his own family and some figures who Trump has singled out, including members of the January 6 committee and witnesses and Dr. Anthony Fauci.
He then said it was a maybe a “sad thing” that Biden hadn’t issued a pardon for himself.
“And you know, the funny thing, maybe the sad thing is, he didn’t give himself a pardon,” Trump told Hannity.
Later in the interview, he added: “Well, I went through four years of hell by this scum that we had to deal with. I went through four years of hell. I spent millions of dollars in legal fees, and I won, but I did it the hard way. And it’s really hard to say that they shouldn’t have to go through it all. So it is very hard to say that.”
Asked whether he would like Congress to investigate his predecessor, Trump replied: “I think we’ll let Congress decide.”
Asked whether he would want the attorney general to investigate Biden, Trump said he could have had “a big number done” on his 2016 rival Hillary Clinton.
“You know, I was always against that,” Trump, who has been threatening to lock Clinton up for nearly a decade, added.
Repeats vow to release FBI records on JFK assassination
Trump said he would seek to “immediately” release the FBI files on John F. Kennedy, once the files are reviewed.
Asked by Hannity whether he would release the files on the assassination of Kennedy, Trump mentioned that he already released some of those files as president, but was discouraged by then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo from releasing further information.
“I did it with Kennedy, to an extent,” Trump said. “But I was asked by some of our government officials not to, and, you know, you have to respect them.”
Trump promised early in his first term to release files on the Kennedy assassination. In October 2017, the US government released over 2,800 records pertaining to the assassination but avoided releasing more after last-minute requests from national security agencies.
Trump said Pompeo felt “it was just not a good time to release them.” He added he was going to release the files “immediately” upon getting the information.
Dismisses China, TikTok concerns
Trump brushed aside concerns TikTok’s data collection could leave American’s personal information vulnerable to China, telling Hannity, “Is it that important for China to be spying on young people? On young kids watching crazy videos?”
Trump was pressed by Hannity on concerns that TikTok – which is owned by Chinese-based parent company ByteDance and is thus subject to China’s data collection requirements – is a “spying app for the Communist Chinese.”
“But you can say that about everything made in China – look, we have our telephones made in China for the most part, we have so many things made in China, so why don’t they mention that?” Trump said.
One of Trump’s first actions after taking office Monday was to sign an executive order delaying enforcement of the TikTok’s federal ban, which took effect on January 19. During Wednesday’s interview, he told Hannity that “a lot of people want to buy” the app in the US, which would allow it to continue to operate domestically without running afoul of the law.
Trump’s embrace of the platform is a reversal from his first term in office, when he issued an executive order effectively banning TikTok, saying the app’s data collection “threatens to allow the Chinese Communist Party access to Americans’ personal and proprietary information” and could enable Beijing to “build dossiers of personal information for blackmail, and conduct corporate espionage.”
Sets terms on federal aid to California
Trump criticized Newsom’s response to the state’s recent devastating wildfires and said the federal government should not “give California anything” unless it changes its water policy.
Discussing the fires, Trump repeated criticisms of the state’s handling of its forests and blamed its water policy for exacerbating the fires, accusing Newsom of keeping water in reservoirs in Northern California to protect delta smelt, an endangered species.
“I’m going to put a statement out today, I don’t think we should give California anything until they let water flow down,” Trump told Hannity.
While there has been a water shortage in Southern California, experts previously told CNN there is no basis for linking the fires to smelt-protection efforts.
CNN’s Donald Judd and Alejandra Jaramillo contributed to this report.
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