Exact one week after Donald Trump’s arraignment in Manhattan, New York last Tuesday, the former president sat down with Fox News Channel’s Tucker Carlson for his first exclusive interview on the historic event. Trump disclosed startling details about what court officers said to him during his booking on charges brought by the new Manhattan district attorney, Alvin Bragg, while discussing the events of that day.
On Tuesday, when the former president was detained, he claimed that court officers were weeping and apologizing to him on their behalf.
Despite his attacks on Alvin Bragg and other senior prosecutors investigating his business and conduct, Trump praised police and court personnel publicly, calling them “unbelievably nice.”
When Carlson inquired about his experience with them, Trump described them as “incredible.”
‘When I went to the courthouse, which is also a prison in a sense, they signed me in and I’ll tell you people were crying – people that work there, professionally work there, that have no problems putting in murderers and they see everybody,’ Trump said. ‘It’s tough, tough place, and they were crying. They were actually crying. They said “I’m sorry.”‘
“So in one sense it was beautiful,” Trump said. “Because they get it.”
During his interview, the former president quipped that arraignments were never taught at Wharton, where he studied business. He added that it was a’sad’ day for him and the nation.
Donald Trump is the first American president to be indicted after leaving office.
Trump entered a not guilty plea at the New York Criminal Court following the unsealing of a 16-page indictment that included 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in relation to a $30,000 bribe to a doorman attempting to sell information about a child Trump allegedly fathered out of wedlock, $150,000 to former Playboy model Karen McDougal, and a $130,000 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels.
On the evening of his arraignment, after returning to Mar-a-Lago in Florida from New York, Trump made his first public statements regarding the allegations. In that televised address, he attacked crucial prosecutors and justices. Trump described how Bragg campaigned on the premise that he would become president. He also attacked Judge Juan Manuel Merchan, who presided over his alleged “hush-money” case.
From his podium at Mar-a-Lago, Trump didn’t hold back when he expressed his distrust in the system saying, “I have a Trump-hating judge, with a Trump-hating wife and family, whose daughter worked for Kamala Harris and now receives money from the Biden-Harris campaign and a lot of it.”
He also attacked Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who is supervising a case in Georgia in which Trump could be charged for allegedly attempting to overturn the state’s 2020 election result. During his speech at Mar-a-Lago, he described her as a “local racist Democrat district attorney in Atlanta.”
Trump also referred to New York Attorney General Letitia James, who, like Willis, is African American, as a “racist in reverse” for pursing fraud cases against his enterprises.
The former president also addressed Special Counsel Jack Smith, who was appointed by Joe Biden’s Attorney General Merrick Garland to investigate his handling of classified documents after departing the White House and his involvement in the January 6 attack on the Capitol. Trump referred to Smith as a “lunatic” in his remarks regarding what appears to be another witch investigation into his personal and business affairs, ostensibly with the intention of preventing Trump from winning another presidential election.
Trump issued a statement commending the professionalism of the police officers and court employees he interacted with the day after his monumental impassioned post-arraignment first speech.
“The GREAT PATRIOTS inside and outside of the Courthouse on Tuesday were unbelievably nice, in fact, they couldn’t have been nicer,” Trump said. “Court attendants, Police Officers, and others were all very professional, and represented New York City sooo well.”