‘I’ll never leave’: Trump vows to stay in 2024 presidential race even if convicted

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Donald Trump has pledged to continue his 2024 presidential campaign even if he is convicted of a felony, saying he would campaign from prison if necessary.

“I’ll never leave,” the former US president told Politico in an interview carried out on his plane between two campaign events. He also dismissed the possibility of pardoning himself, telling the outlet: “I didn’t do anything wrong.”

US law does not bar Trump from running while under indictment, nor would it block him if he was convicted.

“These are thugs and degenerates who are after me,” he said, continuing his use of inflammatory language to describe his opponents and extensive legal troubles.

The defiant comments from Trump came two days after the US Department of Justice charged him with 37 criminal counts related to his mishandling of classified documents and obstructing the department’s investigation into the matter.

Trump, who is the leading contender in the Republican field aiming to snag the party nomination to fight Joe Biden for the White House, is the first former US president to face federal charges – an extraordinary moment in American history.

Trump has already started seizing on the charges to try an appeal to Republicans for support, holding them up as yet another example of the way that political rivals are trying to persecute him.

“The ridiculous and baseless indictment by the Biden administration’s weaponized department of injustice will go down as among the most horrific abuses of power in the history of our country,” he said during a speech at the Georgia Republican party’s convention.

He received an enthusiastic welcome at the event from supporters, the Associated Press reported.

About 48% of Americans believe Trump should have been indicted over his handling of classified documents, according to a new ABC/Ipsos study, while 35% believe he should not have been. There is a significant partisan split in responses reflecting the US’s deep divides: 86% of self-identified Democrats say he should have been indicted, while 67% of self-identified Republicans say he should not have.

Trump leads a wide Republican presidential field fairly easily and most of his rivals have not used the indictment to attack him, a signal of the sway the former president still has over the Republican party.

“The weaponization of federal law enforcement represents a mortal threat to a free society. We have for years witnessed an uneven application of the law depending upon political affiliation. Why so zealous in pursuing Trump yet so passive about Hillary or Hunter?” Florida’s rightwing governor, Ron DeSantis, tweeted on Thursday.

A day later, in a speech in North Carolina, DeSantis, who is seen as Trump’s most serious rival, seemed a bit more willing to needle Trump, saying he would have been “court-martialed in a New York minute” if he had mishandled classified documents when he was a navy lawyer.

DeSantis, who sits a distant second in the polls to Trump, was also endorsed by Oklahoma’s governor, Kevin Stitt, this week – his first gubernatorial endorsement in the race.

Mike Pence, Trump’s former vice-president and another 2024 rival, said Attorney General Merrick Garland should have to publicly explain the charges.

“Stop hiding behind the special counsel and stand before the American people and explain why this indictment went forward,” he said in a North Carolina speech on Saturday. Garland appointed a special counsel, Jack Smith, to oversee the case in November to ensure independence due to the political sensitivity of the matter.

“I had hoped the Department of Justice would see its way clear to resolve these issues with the former president without moving forward with charges, and I’m deeply troubled to see this indictment move forward,” Pence said on Friday.

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Other 2024 candidates echoed those sentiments.

Trump’s former US ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, also suggested the prosecution was political. “The American people are exhausted by the prosecutorial overreach, double standards, and vendetta politics,” she tweeted. “It’s time to move beyond the endless drama and distractions.”

Tim Scott, the South Carolina senator, said the “scales are weighted” in the US justice system and pledged to “purge all of the injustices and impurities in our system”.

But Chris Christie, the former New Jersey governor who is running for president and has willingly criticized Trump, called the indictment “devastating” and “evidence filled” on CNN on Friday.

“The bigger issue for our country is: is this the type of conduct that we want from someone who wants to be president of the United States?” he said.

Former Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson, also a sometimes vocal Trump critic running for president, called on Trump to drop out.

“What we see in the facts thus far is that he treated [the documents] like entertainment tools,” he said. “Staying in the race does a disservice to the office of presidency and to the country and to the important decision that we have to make.”

Trump is expected to appear on Tuesday at 3pm at the federal courthouse in Miami for an arraignment. The Secret Service is reportedly determining a plan for transporting Trump to the courthouse for the appearance, which is likely to be a spectacle. The case will at least initially be overseen by Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee who was rebuked by an appeals court for rulings favorable to the ex-president at an earlier point in the case.

Trump already faces separate criminal charges in Manhattan over hush-money payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels. More criminal charges could come this year from both the justice department and prosecutors in Atlanta related to his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

Even Trump, who survived two impeachments while president and has avoided accountability nearly his entire career, seemed to acknowledge his mounting legal woes.

“Nobody wants to be indicted,” he told Politico. “I don’t care that my poll numbers went up by a lot. I don’t want to be indicted. I’ve never been indicted. I went through my whole life, now I get indicted every two months. It’s been political.”