Former Trump White House attorney Ty Cobb says “there should be concern” for what former President Trump could do to his political opponents in a second term as he repeatedly commits to getting revenge as he faces criminal charges.
Trump, who was convicted on 34 felony counts last month, has since said multiple times that he wants retribution against Democrats, who he falsely claims orchestrated his legal troubles for political gain.
“I think there should be concern,” Cobb told NBC News on Tuesday. “From a 30,000-foot view, what I see is Trump angrier now than he was before because he is convicted now.”
In an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity last week, Trump said he would be justified in going after his political opponents, including President Biden.
“Look, when this election is over, based on what they’ve done, I would have every right to go after them,” he said. “And it’s easy because it’s Joe Biden, and you see all the criminality, all of the money that’s going into the family and him, all of this money from China, from Russia, from Ukraine.”
In a conversation with TV personality ‘Dr. Phil’ McGraw a day later, he again brought up the idea of getting back at Democrats.
“Well, revenge does take time, I will say that,” Trump said Thursday. “And sometimes revenge can be justified, Phil, I have to be honest. Sometimes it can.”
Demanding revenge is not new for Trump. The concept has surrounded his 2024 presidential campaign for months and raised alarms among political historians and politicians alike.
GOP Senate leaders have shown reluctance to embrace Trump’s ideas to prosecute Biden and his family, while the House continues a so far fruitless impeachment investigation.
Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) told The Hill he thought Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s (D) case against Trump was “an unjust prosecution.”
But he’s concerned about Trump’s vow to retaliate with politically motivated prosecutions from his own Justice Department if he’s elected in November.
“This is not the direction we want this country to go,” he said. “I think it’s time for adults to take over with regard to the Senate, and it’s time for adults to take over in regards [to] how we treat the judicial climate in this country.
“I don’t want to see a tit for tat on prosecution. I think that’s the wrong direction; I think that’s the wrong path for us to go down,” Rounds said. “I think we’ve got to get back to what the Founding Fathers wanted in the first place, which is a judiciary which is not full of political appointees that are hard far left or hard far right.”
Democrats have been even louder in their criticism of the rhetoric.
“The use of our criminal system to prosecute enemies, or political adversaries, is completely counter to the fundamental values and laws and norms that our country is built on,” Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) said.
“The Republicans like to try to make out the various different prosecutions against Donald Trump to be political, but they are not and there’s no evidence to support the fact that anything about the Manhattan DA’s verdict or special counsel Jack Smith is politically motivated at all,” he added.