Trump Says He Had 'Every Right' to Interfere in Election

Donald Trump's remarks Sunday on the updated election interference indictment contained what sounded to some critics like a confession. The former president told Mark Levin on Fox News' Life, Liberty and Levin that he had "every right" to interfere in the 2020 election, the Hill reports. "It's so crazy that my poll numbers go up. Whoever heard you get indicted for interfering with a presidential election where you have every right to do it," Trump said in the interview, per Reuters. "You get indicted and your poll numbers go up."

Trump faces four federal charges, including conspiracy to defraud the US, in the superseding indictment filed last week, which special counsel Jack Smith said was changed to reflect the Supreme Court ruling on presidential immunity. Trump told Levin that the prosecutions against him, including another election interference case in Georgia, were politically motivated, the Hill reports. "They put people in the DA's office," Trump said. "This was all coming out of the Department of Justice in order to get their political opponent—me."

Trump's continued focus on what he calls "election integrity" is at odds with his campaign's strategy of focusing on policy issues, Axios notes. Trump critics, including lawmakers and former prosecutors, attacked his remarks Sunday, saying nobody has the "right" to interfere in an election, the Huffington Post reports. "You think President Biden has the right to interfere in the upcoming election?" Democratic Rep. Ted Lieu asked in a post on X. "Do you want VP Harris to do what you tried to get former VP Mike Pence to do?" He added: "Also, interfering in elections is illegal." (More Donald Trump stories.)