Late last year, Fox News’ Sean Hannity asked Donald Trump if he had plans to “abuse power, to break the law, to use the government to go after people.” The obvious point was to have the former president say he had no intention of breaking the law or abusing his authority. Trump, however, missed the point and deflected.
So the host tried again to get his guest to say the sensible thing. “Under no circumstances, you are promising America tonight you would never abuse power as retribution against anybody?” Hannity asked. Trump responded by saying he wanted to create a temporary American dictatorship.
Six months later, the duo tried again. “Will you pledge to restore equal justice, equal application of our laws, end this practice of weaponization?” the Fox host asked, pointing to developments that have no basis in reality. “Is that a promise you’re going to make?” Trump eventually responded, “Look, I know you want me to say something so nice, but I don’t want to look naive.”
In the same interview, Hannity also noted those who “want people to believe that you want retribution, that you will use the system of justice to go after your political enemies.” Once again, the former president missed the prompt.
“Look, when this election is over, based on what they have done, I would have every right to go after them,” Trump replied.
This week, it was Laura Ingraham’s turn. It went about as well.
NEW >> Laura Ingraham begs Donald Trump THREE times to say he won't actually lock up his political enemies.
— Ammar Moussa (@ammarmufasa) October 8, 2024
"But you’re not gonna do that?"
"A lot of people say that’s what should happen." pic.twitter.com/Mlyl8LBZvC
The Fox host began by asking the GOP nominee how he intends to “restore faith in our justice system,” adding, “A lot of people will say, ‘Well, he’s just going to do to them what he they did to him back at them.’”
Trump continued to miss the cues. “A lot of people say that’s what should happen, right?” Trump replied and the nearby audience murmured its approval.
Ingraham tried again. “Punitively using government institutions is what got us in this mess in the first place,” she said, pointing to imaginary circumstances that don’t exist. “In our town hall we did back in February, one of the lines that really resonated, I think, with people is when you said, ‘My revenge is going to be success.’”
It appeared that the Fox host was trying to guide the candidate to safer ground. It also appeared that he didn’t care.
“Well, I do believe that, but I will say this: They have started a terrible precedent,” Trump said. “We’ve never had this. We do have that in third-world countries, banana republics, a lot in South America, where they go after somebody politically that’s an opponent.”
It led Ingraham to try a third time to get the Republican to say the responsible thing. “But you’re not going to do that,” she said. “When you get into office, you’re going to look at all your political enemies?” Trump didn’t exactly answer the question directly. “No, I want to make this the most successful country in the world. That’s what I want to do,” he replied. To be sure, part of Ingraham’s line of inquiry was problematic. She treated it as a given, for example, that the Biden administration has weaponized federal law enforcement, despite the fact that this hasn’t happened; the ridiculous conspiracy theories have been thoroughly and repeatedly discredited; and there’s unambiguous evidence pointing in the opposite direction. But Trump’s answers were far worse. The Republican not only took deliberate and abusive steps to target his perceived foes while in office, he’s effectively running on a retaliatory 2024 platform: Trump wants to prosecute his perceived domestic political enemies, and he doesn’t seem especially interested in hiding his intentions. On the contrary, he talks about his desire to abuse presidential powers all the time, even raising the specter of military tribunals for his opponents. A recent New York Times analysis noted that Trump has effectively put the rule of law “on the ballot.” Fox News hosts keep trying to help the former president take the issue off the ballot, but the GOP candidate, hellbent on revenge, simply can’t help himself. This post updates our related earlier coverage.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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