PALM BEACH, Florida — Former President Donald Trump told Breitbart News exclusively that he feels like he is winning the war for public opinion against Special Counsel Jack Smith and that he believes a flurry of filings Smith has made in recent weeks in the cases against him demonstrate that Smith thinks he is losing the war with Trump.
“I think he [Smith] feels like he’s losing politically because I’m leading everybody by a lot,” Trump said when asked about Smith during a more-than-two-hour-long interview with Breitbart News at Mar-a-Lago. “I think I’d be leading anyway, but I wouldn’t be leading by this much. People are really angry about the weaponization, about a political opponent, about a really dumb person taking the Justice Department [DOJ] — it’s really easy to figure that out because so many other countries do it, but they’re all third-world countries, and they are banana republics — but people are angry about it. They don’t like seeing where someone would use the FBI, the DOJ, and everything to go after a political opponent. This is the most weaponized country. We’re not respected. He [Democrat President Joe Biden] is not respected. Our country is not respected. What this guy has done to this country in three years is unbelievable. You know, I have a saying I make in a lot of the speeches where I say if you add up the ten worst presidents in the history of our country — all of them, the ten worst, you could add them up cumulatively — they haven’t done the damage that Joe Biden has done to our country.”
Also, during the interview, Trump called Smith someone who is straight out of “central casting.”
Trump on Thursday formally moved to ask the court to hold Smith in contempt because he continues to make filings despite a stay on proceedings in the January 6 case in federal court in Washington, DC. The case, despite a looming trial date in early March, has been stayed as the appeals process for Trump’s immunity argument plays out. Trump argues he is immune from prosecution because the actions he took in the lead-up to January 6, 2021, in challenging the election results were official actions he took as the then-president of the United States.
Trump told Breitbart News that recent filings Smith has made before the court asking the court to prevent Trump from speaking about then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s refusal to accept the deployment of troops on January 6, 2021 — one of Trump’s key defenses about that day as Pelosi did refuse his offer to send thousands of troops to the Capitol — is a sign that Smith knows he is losing the war for public opinion on this front.
“I think the filing he made this weekend is absolutely ridiculous,” Trump said in the interview on December 28. “It’s the craziest thing I’ve ever seen. I can’t speak about Nancy Pelosi turning down 10,000 troops? I can’t speak about him? He doesn’t want me to speak about anything. So, they’re allowed to speak, and they’re allowed to indict me, and they’re allowed to have news conferences, but I’m not allowed to defend myself? Which must mean he thinks I’m very effectively defending myself.”
Trump added that Smith “looks so pathetic” with the filing about the Pelosi part of this and that the truth is that Pelosi blocked the troops. “Well, it’s true,” Trump said. “Nancy Pelosi didn’t accept the troops.”
Trump, in this Breitbart News interview, explained his argument for why he believes the courts should determine he has immunity. “The president is entitled to immunity because I wasn’t campaigning — even if I was, I was still entitled to it,” Trump said. “But this has nothing to do with that. This has to do with a rigged and corrupt election, and a president has an obligation to study that, analyze that, see if it’s true, and I happen to believe it’s true 100 percent, and it should be tried as part of this whole trial.”
At another point in the interview, Trump further explained his views on this matter.
“With this, the election was over; I was not campaigning,” Trump said. “I was not campaigning — the election was over. But what I was doing from the perspective of law enforcement and fairness in elections, I absolutely was — the election was rigged, and the election was stolen, and I was investigating that. I think if you were the president of the United States and you felt that way and you didn’t investigate it, it would be terrible. But that has nothing to do with campaigning — I wasn’t campaigning. Even if you were, you still have immunity. But I had nothing to do with campaigning. I was the president of the United States, and I wanted to make sure our elections were honest and fair, and our elections are not honest and fair.”
Trump’s presidential immunity claim has led to a holdup in the charges Smith brought against him in the nation’s capital before federal judge Tanya Chutkan. The claim is currently before the appellate circuit court in D.C. after the U.S. Supreme Court declined a request from Smith for an emergency rush to review it. As such, Chutkan has stayed all proceedings in the case until the matter is resolved ultimately — which means that after the appellate court weighs in on the immunity issue, the losing side will almost certainly go back to the Supreme Court to ask the Justices to review the immunity question before the case could move forward to trial. While it is yet unclear how quickly this plays out, the timeline for that to play out with the Supreme Court could drag the case past the general election in November 2024 — which means the trial could get delayed beyond election day.
On that note, Trump has said he would fire Smith if elected president again. He first made the comments in a previous Breitbart News interview at his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf course in the summer of 2023 — and he reaffirmed in this latest Breitbart News interview that he would not keep Smith employed by the federal government if he were elected president again.
“No, I wouldn’t keep him,” Trump told Breitbart News at Mar-a-Lago, reiterating what he said this past summer. “I think he’s a dishonest person.”
Biden, meanwhile, has tried to personally distance himself politically from the Smith madness, claiming that Smith is an independent special counsel. But Biden himself could fire Smith if he wanted this to stop, and he continues to proactively choose to employ Smith. Asked if Biden should fire Smith now and end the weaponization of the use of the Justice Department against him — Biden’s top political opponent in the 2024 presidential election year — Trump told Breitbart News that Biden is harming the United States by keeping Smith employed.
“Biden is hurting our country with this,” Trump said. “I think it is really hurting the country. Thus far, it’s obviously been helpful from the standpoint of voting, but he’s really hurting the country.”
Trump expanded on this point by arguing that Biden has opened a door that may swing back around on him later.
“It sets a very bad precedent because does this mean the next president goes after him because there’s a six-year statute of limitations?” Trump said. “Is he opening the door to allowing the next president because of the precedent he sets to go after him? I think it’s a very bad thing. I think we’re going down a very dangerous path.”
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