In an exclusive one-on-one interview with host Rich Zeoli at WPHT Radio, former President Donald Trump heavily criticized many things about the hush money case against him in New York, claiming the trial was orchestrated by the White House to rig the election for Joe Biden.
The interview with Zeoli happened before Trump had to face
Judge Juan Merchan Tuesday for a hearing on whether his social media posts had violated a gag order set last month by New York state Judge Juan Merchan that prohibits him from publicly attacking witnesses and jurors.
In his WPHT interview that aired on Monday, Trump went as far as to say that the case was simply a ploy by Democrats to stop his 2024 presidential campaign.
He railed against the composition of the area from which the jury was pulled, saying, "This is horrible. This is a terrible thing. I haven't seen anybody that said there is (a crime). But, you know, we're in a 95% Democrat area, which they did. This all comes out of the White House."
While the former president is facing 34 counts of falsifying business records over an alleged $130,000 hush money payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels, Trump maintains that he did nothing wrong. The money was sent via Trump's former attorney Michael Cohen in the crucial days leading up to the 2016 election. Trump says it was a legal expense.
Before the start of the trial, Trump’s team had requested that the judge recuse himself from the case but were denied. The former president doubled down on criticizing the judge who is overseeing the case that began today.
“He is the most conflicted person. He is so conflicted, he should not be allowed to be the judge of this case,” Trump said. “And he is pushing it at levels, at breakneck speed. You heard it was going to take two or three weeks for the jury. He did it in a few days.”
Trump went on to criticize President Joe Biden, his presumptive opponent in the upcoming election, over how he has handled the border and immigration.
The former president slammed Biden for allowing millions of migrants into the country, some of whom he said were “terrorists and drug dealers.”
“And they come from jails, they come from prisons, they come from mental institutions and insane asylums,” Trump said, adding that what’s “happening in our country is unbelievable.”
He continued, saying that the waves of migrants coming into the country were not just from Mexico and South America but from all around the globe.
“The other day, they had from the Congo, a large group of people coming in from prisons in the Congo. They’re releasing prisoners from all over the world,” Trump said. “If I were running some nation, I’d say, ‘Let’s get rid of our prisoners. Let’s send them to the United States.’”
Trump also went at Biden’s foreign policy, placing blame for the war in Ukraine and Israel on him, saying that if he is reelected, we could be facing a global conflict.
“Well, you could very well have World War III. That’s something that could happen,” Trump said. “With him, anything could happen, but you could have World War III.”