President Donald Trump sat down with Fox News’ Sean Hannity, a self-described “friend,” for the first sit-down interview of his presidency. Here are some takeaways from “part one” of their conversation, which aired Wednesday night.
Trump suggests he would like to see Biden investigated
Trump suggested he would like to see investigations into former President Joe Biden.
Trump is the first President to be convicted of a felony—in a case relating to business records of hush money payments—and had faced criminal charges over his role in trying to overturn the 2020 presidential election. He indicated to Hannity that after his experience, he’s interested in seeing investigations into Biden.
“It’s really hard to say that they shouldn’t have to go through it also,” he said.
Biden pardoned his siblings and their spouses in his final minutes in office to protect them from potential investigations by Trump. Trump said Biden set an “amazing” precedent for him to follow.
Trumps says he may withhold aid to California until it adjusts how it manages water
The President told Hannity that “Los Angeles has changed everything” on Capitol Hill, since “a lot of money” will be needed to rebuild fire-ravaged areas. Trump and some other Republicans have suggested placing conditions on federal assistance or tying other GOP priorities to the funding that will be necessary to assist the heavily Democratic state.
Trump told Hannity that he may withhold aid to California to recover from devastating wildfires until the state adjusts how it manages its scarce water resources.
Trump has falsely claimed that California’s fish conservation efforts in the northern part of the state are responsible for fire hydrants running dry in urban areas.
“I don’t think we should give California anything until they let the water run down,” he says.
Local officials have said the conservation efforts for the delta smelt had nothing to do with the hydrants running dry as firefighters tried to contain blazes around Los Angeles. They said intense demand on a municipal system not designed to battle such blazes was to blame.
Trump says FEMA is ‘getting in the way of everything’ and he wants to reform it
Trump said he wants to reform the Federal Emergency Management Agency, claiming it is “getting in the way of everything” as the U.S. faces the daunting task of rebuilding after storm damage in the southeast and devastating wildfires in California.
Trump told Hannity, “I’d rather see the states take care of their own problems.” He did not elaborate on his proposed reforms, only saying that the agency is “going to be a whole big discussion very shortly.”
Trump is set to make his first presidential trip Friday to view storm damage in North Carolina after last year’s Hurricane Helene, and then on to Los Angeles to view the response to ongoing wildfires.