Senator JD Vance's recent assertion regarding former President Donald Trump's conduct towards political adversaries has been called into question.
According to CNN, Vance's claim that Trump did not target his political opponents during his presidency is demonstrably false.
The Republican vice presidential nominee made this statement during an interview with ABC News host Martha Raddatz on Sunday. Vance, who had previously emphasized the importance of the attorney general role in a potential second Trump administration, firmly denied that Trump would pursue his political rivals if re-elected.
Contrary to Vance's assertion, Trump repeatedly and publicly pressured the Justice Department to investigate and prosecute numerous political opponents during his tenure as president. These public calls targeted a wide range of individuals, including Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, Hunter Biden, John Kerry, John Bolton, Barack Obama, and various congressional Democrats.
Trump's public statements often took the form of tweets and remarks directed at his attorney general. For instance, he frequently criticized then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions for taking a "weak position" on alleged Clinton crimes and demanded investigations into various allegations against her.
In 2019, Trump publicly called for Ukraine and China to investigate both Joe and Hunter Biden. The following year, he openly demanded that Attorney General William Barr indict Joe Biden, Barack Obama, and others for their supposed involvement in the investigation of his 2016 campaign's connections to Russia.
Trump stated:
Unless Bill Barr indicts these people for crimes, the greatest political crime in the history of our country, then we're going to get little satisfaction unless I win and we'll just have to go – because I won't forget it. But these people should be indicted. This was the greatest political crime in the history of our country. And that includes Obama and it includes Biden.
Beyond his public statements, Trump reportedly exerted private pressure on the Justice Department and administration officials to pursue his political opponents. Former officials and news reports have shed light on these behind-the-scenes efforts.
According to the Mueller report, Trump pressured Sessions in 2017 to abandon his recusal from election-related investigations to prosecute Clinton. While Sessions didn't comply with this request, he did appoint a federal prosecutor to investigate various allegations against Clinton in November 2017.
John Bolton, in his 2020 book, described Trump as "obsessed" with prosecuting John Kerry for alleged violations of an old law regarding contact with Iranian officials. Bolton wrote that Trump repeatedly asked Attorney General William Barr to launch a prosecution against Kerry.
While it's difficult to establish a direct causal relationship, some of Trump's demands appear to have influenced Justice Department actions. In 2019, Barr tasked a federal prosecutor with investigating the origins of the FBI's Russia probe, later granting him special counsel status.
In early 2020, Barr also assigned a different federal prosecutor to review information from the public, including Trump's lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, related to allegations about the Bidens and Ukraine.
In conclusion, Senator JD Vance falsely claimed that Donald Trump did not target his political opponents during his presidency, a statement contradicted by substantial evidence of Trump's efforts to initiate investigations and prosecutions against them. Trump explicitly and publicly pressured the Justice Department to act against rivals such as Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, and other Democrats and also sought investigations from foreign governments.
