On Wednesday, President Donald Trump hosted Fox News anchor Sean Hannity in the Oval Office for his first public interview since returning to the White House for his second term; and of course, he chose Rupert Murdoch’s loyal television network that has unabashedly supported him for many years.
A number of points were discussed during the interview, starting with the outcome of last November’s election, the natural disasters that hit North Carolina and Los Angeles, and the presidential pardons that Joe Biden signed shortly before leaving the White House.
Trump, from the outset, argued that many of the challenges America is facing are “solvable,” but will take “time, effort and, unfortunately, money.” However, he did not go into details.
“We can get our country back on the right track, but if we had not won this election, I really believe our country would have been lost forever,” he said.
Regarding the case of presidential pardons, Trump told Hannity that at the end of his first term in the White House he had been offered the option of pardoning himself, but had declined.
“I was given the option. I was told, ‘Sir, will you pardon everyone, including yourself?’ I replied, ‘I will not pardon anyone. We have done nothing wrong,” Trump said.
Trump then implied that President Biden made a huge mistake in not pardoning himself in his final hours as president.
“This guy has gone around pardoning everybody,” Trump said. “And you know, the funny thing, maybe the sad thing, is that he didn’t pardon himself. And if you notice, everything has to do with him. Joe Biden has bad advisers. Somebody has advised Joe Biden to pardon everybody but him,” Trump reiterated; words that are easy to read as a threat.
Trump told Hannity that he will leave to Congress the final decision on whether or not to launch an investigation into Biden and his choice to grant preemptive pardons to members of his family and Trump’s critics, such as retired General Mark Milley, former Congresswoman Liz Cheney, and members of the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6 attack on Capitol Hill.
The president then sharply criticized the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), suggesting that states should manage their own response to natural disasters while continuing to receive funds from the federal government.
“FEMA has not done its job for the past four years…. But if there’s not some kind of leadership, things get complicated,” Trump said. “And FEMA will soon be the subject of a big discussion, because I would prefer that the states deal with their problems on their own.”
In this regard, this Friday Trump will be making his first presidential trip to North Carolina and California to lend support and observe recovery efforts after the disasters. However, it is unclear whether he will meet with the respective governors, Josh Stein (NC) and Gavin Newsom (CA), both Democrats and his political opponents.
On Monday, Trump signed an executive order instructing departments to “route more water” from Northern California to Southern California; the order drew criticism from Democrats, particularly Congressman John Garamendi, representative of the Northern California district, who retorted, “The President’s executive order is a blatant political ploy that does nothing to implement methods backed by science that would strengthen water supply or support firefighting capabilities.”
There was also discussion of TikTok, a topic that has catalyzed media attention around the world.
On his first day in office, Trump took executive action to “save” the TikTok app, which was under threat of being banned in the United States after ignoring bipartisan legislation requiring it to sever ties with Chinese parent company ByteDance. He then granted TikTok a 75-day extension and began working on an alternative agreement.
Trump reiterated to Hannity that any electronic device made in China, from phones to computers, could be used to spy on Americans.
“We have so many things made in China. So why aren’t they talking about it?” said Trump. “The interesting thing about TikTok, though, is that you are dealing with a lot of young people. Is it so important for China to spy on young people? Young people watching crazy videos and things like that.”
Hannity then asked the President about his decision to pardon the 1,500 or so people involved in the Jan. 6, 2021 riots at the Capitol, who had also carried out violence against police. “They were locked up for three and a half years…treated worse than anyone has ever been treated. So badly. They’ve been treated like the worst criminals in history,” Trump said. “The other thing is this. Some of these people interacted with the police, it’s true. But these were minor incidents. They were magnified by some fake individuals who are always on CNN,” he added.
