Donald Trump is leaning in hard on the classics to deflect responsibility for the charges against him in the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case, and especially so in the wake of new, seemingly incriminating tapes of him admitting to aspects of the charges he currently faces. His latest remarks to Fox News are a pivot back to a vintage yet reliable genre of Trumpism, using “stable genius” energy and “fake news” schoolyard bullying to shrug off the fact that the audio recording CNN published this week features him admitting he shouldn’t have the classified documents he’s flinging around for all to see.
Maybe it’s because he’s dealt with tapes before.
During an interview with Fox Digital Tuesday, Trump said he wasn’t worried about more tapes coming to light after the recent CNN one as he faces 37 counts related to his alleged retention of classified records and possible obstruction because he doesn’t “do things wrong.”
“I do things right,” Trump told Fox Digital. “I’m a legitimate person.”
He went on to touch on the familiar enemies — the media, unspecified hoaxes — while also feigning innocence due to his unorthodox filing system and general pig pen office style.
“I said it very clearly — I had a whole desk full of lots of papers, mostly newspaper articles, copies of magazines, copies of different plans, copies of stories, having to do with many, many subjects, and what was said was absolutely fine. … We did nothing wrong. This is a whole hoax.”
“My voice was fine. What did I say wrong on those recordings? I didn’t even see the recording. All I know is I did nothing wrong,” he continued. “We had a lot of papers, a lot of papers stacked up. In fact, you hear the rustle of the paper. And nobody said that I did anything wrong other than the fake news, which is Fox, too.”
It’s a return to form for the former president who is running his 2024 campaign on 2020 grievances and broader “deep state” fearmongering paired with a looming possibility that offensive or incriminating tapes could surface at any moment, all 2016 déjà vu, coupled with the fact that he now faces New York state and federal indictments, with the potential for more charges to come.
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