Trump won't rule out election violence if he loses to Biden in November: 'It depends'
Seth Wenig / POOL / AFP via Getty Images
- Trump's wouldn't dismiss the possibility of political violence this election season if he loses.
- He said in an interview with TIME that "it always depends on the fairness of an election."
- Trump also reiterated the possibility he'd pardon the 800+ sentenced Capitol rioters.
Former President Donald Trump said in a new interview that he's not ruling out the possibility of election-related violence if he loses to President Joe Biden in November.
TIME released a lengthy interview with the former president on Tuesday conducted mostly on April 12 at his Mar-a-Lago Club. The conversation focuses on his ambitions in a possible second term, like mass deportations, getting rid of "bad people" in government, and how he might fire his attorney general if they refused to prosecute someone at his command.
When first pressed about the prospect of "political violence" resulting from the upcoming presidential election, Trump ruled out the possibility.
"I think we're gonna have a big victory," he said. "And I think there will be no violence."
Two weeks later, Trump spoke with the TIME reporter for a follow-up and the reporter asked specifically if violence might erupt if he doesn't defeat Biden.
"I think we're going to win," he said. "And if we don't win, you know, it depends. It always depends on the fairness of an election."
Trump also said that he'd "absolutely" consider pardoning each of the more than 800 sentenced January 6 rioters, an idea he's brought up before.
"If somebody was evil and bad, I would look at that differently," he said.
In the years following the Capitol riot, the threat of political and election-based violence doesn't appear to have diminished.
A 2023 poll from the United States Association of Former Members of Congress and the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, found that a whopping 84% of ex-members of Congress were worried about election-related violence in 2024. In total, 94% of Democrats said they were "very" or "somewhat" concerned about the threat compared to 74% of Republicans.
Former DC Metropolitan Police Officer Michael Fanone, who was attacked while defending the Capitol on January 6, told Business Insider in February that he was certain election-related violence would return this year, adding that it "never stopped after January 6."