By BILL BARROW and JONATHAN J. COOPER (Associated Press)
GREENVILLE, S.C. (AP) — Donald Trump doubled down Tuesday on evaluating his felony indictments to the circumstances of Russian dissident Alexei Navalny, the highest political opponent of Russia’s autocratic chief Vladimir Putin who died in a distant arctic jail after being jailed by the Kremlin chief.
Appearing on a Fox News Channel city corridor pre-taped earlier than a stay viewers in Greenville, South Carolina, Trump bemoaned Navalny’s loss of life, which President Joe Biden and different Western leaders have blamed on Putin. Trump then pivoted to himself, repeating his assertions that the prosecutions in opposition to him are pushed by politics regardless of no proof that Biden or the White House ordered them.
“Navalny is a very sad situation and he’s very brave, he was a very brave guy,” Trump mentioned in response to a query from Fox News Channel’s Laura Ingraham. “He went again, he might have stayed away, and albeit in all probability would have been so much higher off staying away and speaking from outdoors of the nation versus having to return in, as a result of folks thought that might occur, and it did occur.
“And it’s a horrible thing, but it’s happening in our country, too,” Trump continued, suggesting his felony indictments — which embody two instances stemming from his efforts to overturn his 2020 defeat — are proof that the U.S. is “turning into a communist country in many ways.”
“I got indicted four times … all because of the fact that I’m in politics,” Trump mentioned. “They indicted me on things that are so ridiculous.”
He prolonged the comparability to his loss in a civil fraud trial final week, during which a New York choose ordered Trump to pay $355 million in penalties after discovering he lied about his wealth for years. With curiosity, Trump owes the state about $454 million.
“It is a form of Navalny,” Trump mentioned. “It is a form of communism, of fascism.”
He didn’t give a transparent reply when requested whether or not he would publish a bond masking the judgment, which is a technique he’d be capable of keep away from having to pay the total quantity whereas he appeals.
Trump made no point out of Putin, a part of his longstanding sample of refusing to denounce and sometimes complimenting the Russian chief going again to when he was within the White House. But his remarks come as House Republicans have refused to supply extra funding to Ukraine in its protection in opposition to Russia’s invasion and as many within the Republican Party develop extra accepting of Russian expansionism.
Putin lately recommended he most well-liked Biden within the White House to Trump. U.S. intelligence assessments of each the 2016 and 2020 elections discovered that Russia was behind affect operations to spice up Trump on the expense of his Democratic Party opponents.
Ingraham interrupted Trump on the city corridor Tuesday to ask whether or not he believed he might change into a “potential political prisoner” for the remainder of his life like Navalny. Trump sidestepped the query.
“If I were losing in the polls, they wouldn’t even be talking about me and I wouldn’t have had any legal fees,” he answered. “If I were out, I think — although they hate me so much, I think if I got out they’d still, ‘let’s pursue this guy, we can’t stand this guy.’”
The Fox city corridor, recorded Tuesday afternoon and broadcast throughout Ingraham’s primetime hour on the community, marked Trump’s first prolonged remarks about Navalny since Russian officers introduced his loss of life. The city corridor got here 4 days earlier than Trump competes in opposition to Nikki Haley in South Carolina’s Republican presidential major.
Ingraham started the dialogue by providing Trump, who has praised Putin for years as a robust chief, an opportunity to make clear his solely earlier public reference to Navalny’s demise. In a social media publish 72 hours after Russian officers confirmed Navalny had died, Trump broke his silence with out mentioning Putin or Navalny’s household.
“The sudden death of Alexei Navalny has made me more and more aware of what is happening in our Country,” he wrote earlier than blasting “CROOKED, Radical Left Politicians, Prosecutors, and Judges leading us down a path to destruction” and repeating his false claims that U.S. elections are riddled with fraud.
Cooper reported from Phoenix.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”