2020 Election Live Updates: Down in the Polls and Confined to White House, President Trump Calls for Prosecuting His Political Enemies
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2020/10/08/us/harris-pence-trump-biden
The campaigns sparred over the debate schedule after President Trump rejected the Commission on Presidential Debates’s plan to hold the next face-off remotely for safety. Joe Biden, campaigning in Arizona, continued to evade the question of whether he would pack the Supreme Court.
Amid a cascade of daunting poll numbers and an ill-timed bout with the coronavirus that has kept him confined to the White House just weeks before the election, President Trump gave vent to his grievances Thursday in a television interview in which he chastised his own cabinet for failing to prosecute his political enemies.
He assailed his secretary of state, attorney general, F.B.I. director and a senior Justice Department prosecutor because they have not charged Democrats or released politically damaging information about them. “These people should be indicted,” he said.
The president’s comments came during an interview that, even for him, was a scattershot and manic performance, one that advisers said reflected increasing frustration over his political fortunes just 26 days before an election that surveys show him losing by double digits. In focusing his ire on his own team, he seemed to indicate that he saw October prosecutions as his best chance to rebound.
Mr. Trump called Senator Kamala Harris, the Democratic vice-presidential nominee and the first woman of color on a major national ticket, a “monster.” He said the F.B.I. director, Christopher A. Wray, was “disappointing.” He posited that he might have contracted the coronavirus from a member of a military family. He maintained that he is almost off medical treatments for the virus. And he complained about not being allowed to hold rallies while he remains in isolation.
“I don’t think I’m contagious at all,” Mr. Trump said, although his positive diagnosis was revealed last Friday and people with the virus are typically contagious for at least a week and often longer. Of his treatments, he insisted, “I think I’m taking almost nothing.” His doctor has not said how long he will remain on steroids.
The president’s circuitous conversation with the host Maria Bartiromo came as he has been eager to dispel questions about his health after spending four days at Walter Reed military hospital and suffering a drop in his oxygen levels and a fever, chills and a cough related to the virus.
Mr. Trump criticized both Attorney General Bill Barr and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, two cabinet members often described as among his closest aides.
Mr. Trump said of investigations into the origins of the inquiry into his 2016 campaign and whether it conspired with Russian officials, “Bill Barr is going to go down either as the greatest attorney general in the history of the country or he’s going to go down as a very sad, sad situation. I mean, I’ll be honest with you. He’s got all the information he needs.”
At another point, Mr. Trump took aim at Mr. Pompeo for not releasing documents related to Hillary Clinton, who was secretary of state under President Obama.
“They’re in the State Department, but Mike Pompeo has been unable to get them out, which is very sad, actually. I’m not happy about him for that reason,” Mr. Trump said. The president has been tweeting this week about documents that purportedly show that Mrs. Clinton planned to gin up a scandal tying Mr. Trump to Russia. Democrats say the documents that the administration released are misleading.
“These people should be indicted — this was the greatest political crime in the history of our country,” Mr. Trump said. “And that includes Obama, and it includes Biden.”
Mr. Trump also criticized Mr. Wray, the F.B.I. director, for not backing up Mr. Trump’s baseless allegations that voting by mail was rife with fraud, and he declined to commit to keeping Mr. Wray in a second term.
And he referred to Ms. Harris, Mr. Biden’s running mate, as a “monster” twice and a “communist” four times.
And he theorized that he could have caught the virus from a relative of a fallen service member at a ceremony he hosted for Gold Star families.
Mr. Trump said those relatives insisted on hugging him or thanking him. “I can’t back up, Maria, and say, ‘Give me room, I want room, give me 12 feet, stay 12 feet away.’ They come within an inch of my face sometimes,” he said. “They want to hug me and they want to kiss me. And they do. And frankly, I’m not telling them to back up.”
— Maggie Haberman and Peter Baker
