Trump backs arrests of James Comey, John Brennan over Russiagate: ‘They’re sick people'
WASHINGTON, DC: Donald Trump isn’t sweating at the thought of some of his old Washington enemies ending up in handcuffs.
In an interview with The Daily Caller on Friday, August 29, the president said it “would not bother” him if former FBI Director James Comey and former CIA chief John Brennan were arrested as a result of his administration’s ongoing probe into the so-called Russiagate scandal.
Trump wants arrests of people who 'cheated, lied, and harmed the country' with Russiagate
Donald Trump told The Daily Caller's White House correspondent Reagan Reese that while he’s not pulling the strings himself, he’s convinced the investigation should end with people behind bars.
“I don’t know if there’s going to be. There should be,” the 79-year-old said when asked about possible arrests. “What they did is a disgrace. They cheated, they lied, they did so many bad things, evil things that were so bad for the country, and because they did something to me that should have never been done, nobody thought they’d ever do that.”
“These are bad people. They’re sick people. They’re the ones that committed all the crimes. We didn’t commit crimes. They committed all the crimes… They should be arrested,” he added.
Trump torched his former foes in Washington, railing that they turned the tables on him despite being the real lawbreakers.
“They lied, they cheated, they did everything you can do that’s illegal, and then they accused — it’s amazing, even I see it now with me,” he said.
“They say he’s actually looking to arrest him. What the hell did they do with me? You know? And then they’ll say he’s – they make it sound like I’m a bad guy. I had to have a mug shot taken, right? Yeah, these are bad people. They’re sick people, and, you know, the press plays along with it. But they should be [arrested] because they’re crooked and they got caught,” Trump added.
When Reese pressed him specifically on Comey and Brennan possibly being cuffed on live TV, Trump didn’t flinch. "Would not bother me at all," he remarked.
Trump’s comments come as National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard, who is heading the declassification push, released documents in July she claimed proved former President Barack Obama and his national security brass “manufactured and politicized intelligence” after Trump’s 2016 win.
“They’re bad people, and they are very, very sick people, beyond bad. They’re sick,” Trump said of those allegedly involved in the scheme.
The Hillary Clinton comparison
Donald Trump even reflected on how his tone has changed since 2016, when chants of “Lock her up!” followed Hillary Clinton across the campaign trail.
“See, I wouldn’t have answered that question that way four years ago. Do you understand that? I wouldn’t,” he admitted.
“Hillary’s a good example. We had Hillary cold. I didn’t want to see that. I didn’t want the, you know, the wife of a president, to go to jail, but she was stone cold guilty of things,” Trump said.
“And if you remember, at the, at the big rallies, I’d say, ‘Alright, take it easy.’ You know, they’d all say, ‘Lock her up. Lock her up.’ After we won, before I won, just, they could do whatever they wanted. After I won – yeah, I was very gracious. And I assumed that, you know, I was a president, we had a great first term, first, not like this one, though," he continued.
When Reese noted the current moment “feels different,” Trump nodded in agreement. “It’s better," he said. "It’s, I don’t even know, I don’t think it’s experience. If you look at the first term of this, you know, we had a great first and we had a great economy. We rebuilt the military, we did the wall, we did the whole thing. And we did great on immigration.”
But he said the border mess left to him has been far worse. “That immigration was peanuts compared to what they left me, because when I mean they left, people were coming in, millions of people a month. Remember that they had a period of time, seven months, when anybody in the world just poured into this place, and we have to, we have to get them out, because they’re very, very dangerous," he insisted.
