Important statements from Trump's first Oval Office interview

Important statements from Trump's first Oval Office interview

In an interview with Fox News that aired Wednesday, President Donald Trump said he would not rule out investigating his predecessor, Joe Biden. This conversation took place with Sean Hannity, during which Trump also repeatedly criticized California Governor Gavin Newsom and set possible conditions for financial aid for the wildfire-stricken states. He also vowed to punish cities that don't cooperate with his immigration policies.

Trump on Biden's decisions

Trump criticized Biden's decision to pardon members of his own family as well as some other figures Trump has targeted. These include members of the investigative committee of January 6th and Dr. Anthony Fauci. He noted that it was a “sad thing” that Biden did not pardon himself.

“And you know, the funny thing, maybe the sad thing, is that he didn’t issue himself a pardon,” Trump told Hannity. He further explained, "I went through four years of hell with this scum we were dealing with. I spent millions on lawyers and I won, but I did it the hard way. It's really hard to say that they shouldn't go through all that. So it's very hard to say."

Asked whether he would like Congress to investigate his predecessor, Trump replied: "I think we'll let Congress decide." When Hannity asked him if he wanted the attorney general to investigate Biden, Trump pointed out that he also opposed an investigation of Hillary Clinton, his 2016 rival.

FBI files on the JFK assassination

Trump announced that he would release the FBI files on John F. Kennedy “immediately” after they were reviewed. When Hannity asked whether he would release the files on the Kennedy assassination, Trump recalled that as president he had already released some of those files but was discouraged from releasing more information by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at the time.

“I did it partly with Kennedy,” Trump said. "But I was advised not to do it by some of our government officials. And you have to respect them." He promised to release the files “immediately” as soon as he receives the information.

Statements about TikTok and China

Trump brushed aside concerns that TikTok's data collection could put Americans' personal information at risk. He questioned how important it was for China to “spy on young people watching crazy videos.” Hannity had alerted him to the risks posed by Chinese parent company ByteDance, which can be classified as a “spy app for the communist Chinese” due to data collection requirements in China.

"But you could say that about anything made in China. Look, we have our phones made in China for the most part, there are so many things made in China, so why isn't that mentioned?" Trump added.

Conditions for Federal Aid in California

Trump criticized Newsom's response to the devastating wildfires in California and said the federal government should not provide anything to the state unless it changes its water policies. When discussing the fires, Trump repeated his criticism of the state's management of its forests and blamed water policies for exacerbating the fires. He accused Newsom of withholding water in Northern California's reservoirs to protect an endangered species of fish, the Delta smelt.

"Today I'm going to make a statement, I think we shouldn't give anything to California until they let the water flow," Trump told Hannity. However, while California is indeed suffering from water shortages, experts have previously told CNN that there is no basis to believe the fires are related to smelter protection measures.

These assessments and statements from Trump show how controversial the political debate about Biden, the FBI files, China and the catastrophic wildfires in California is. Trump's various topics and clear rhetoric aim to make voters aware of his arguments.