Donald Trump talks a lot, and he talks pretty recklessly. Some of what he’s said in the past may even come back to bite him in the butt. For instance, he’s long (falsely) painted Hillary Clinton, his 2016 presidential rival, as a criminal who should be locked up. That claim, incredibly, may prove one of the keys to locking him up. He also once said that having a president who’s been indicted would be bad for the nation. Welp.
As per CNN, at a campaign rally on November 5, 2016 — shortly before his historic win — he mused to a Reno, Nevada crowd about what would happen if a sitting president was brough up on criminal charges, as he would be some seven years later.
“We could very well have a sitting president under felony indictment and ultimately a criminal trial,” Trump thundered. “It would grind government to a halt.”
The rally was held mere days after then-FBI director James Comey opened up an investigation into Clinton’s alleged mishandling of classified information — an investigation that ultimately put her in the clear.
Jump to 2023, and Trump has been accused of the same crime, only with more damning proof — including him basically confessing to the crime on national television.
It wasn’t the first time Trump warned about the dangers of a sitting commander-in-chief being brought up on criminal charges. A few days before, during a rally in Concord, North Carolina on November 3, he said much the same thing.
“If she were to win, it would create an unprecedented Constitutional crisis that would cripple the operations of our government,” Trump said. “She is likely to be under investigation for many years, and also it will probably end up – in my opinion – in a criminal trial. I mean, you take a look. Who knows? But it certainly looks that way.
“She has no right to be running, you know that,” he added. “No right.”
It’s worth noting those rallies were in big cities. Nowadays he tends to make appearances in small towns, possibly because he knows he can no longer summon the same big crowds.
(Via CNN)