Former President Donald Trump, who is facing four separate criminal indictments, said Sunday he’s not afraid of going to prison and doesn’t “even think about it.”
Trump, appearing on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” added that he was “very unlikely” to pardon himself if he were to win the presidency in 2024.
“What, what did I do wrong? I didn’t do anything wrong,” he said. “You mean because I challenged an election, they want to put me in jail? …. I challenged a crooked election.”
The former president, who is seeking a return to the White House, is under two state and two federal indictments.
The most recent, lodged in Georgia accusing him of trying to interfere with the 2020 presidential election results, could be the most significant because even if he were reelected, he would not be able to pardon himself on state convictions.
The 91 felony charges he faces in total carry potential prison sentences adding up to several hundred years.
But Trump said on NBC that he does not worry about going to prison.
NBC Meet the Press Handout
Former President Donald Trump, who is facing four separate criminal indictments, said Sunday he’s not afraid of going to prison and doesn’t “even think about it.” Trump, appearing on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” added that he was “very unlikely” to pardon himself if he were to win the presidency in 2024.
“I don’t even think about it,” Trump said. “I’m built a little differently I guess, because I have had people come up to me and say, ‘How do you do it, sir? How do you do it?’ I don’t even think about it.
“These are political, these are banana republic indictments,” he said. “I’ve been treated very badly.
“When you say, “Do I sleep?” I sleep, I sleep. Because I truly feel that in the end, we’re going to win.”
Trump also said he was not backing a mass firing of federal workers — a proposal being floated by some other Republicans.
His allies have claimed the government bureaucracy worked against Trump when he was in the White House, and Republican presidential contender Vivek Ramaswamy recently said if elected, he would seek to slash the federal workforce by 75%.
“No, I wouldn’t do that,” said the twice-impeached former president. “I want great people, whether they’re Republican or Democrat. I want great people. But I want people that love our country, not people that hate our country.”
The Biden administration last week took steps to strengthen protections for government workers that would make it more difficult to strip them of civil service protections.
Trump also said he played no part in the Republican move last week to launch an impeachment inquiry into President Biden and said he had not talked about it with California Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who is spearheading the effort.
No, no,” he said. “I don’t talk to him like that.”
With News Wire Services
Ellen Wulfhorst
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