In an interview Thursday, former President Donald Trump said that he would quickly fire the man who brought dozens of federal felony charges against him if voters give him a second term in the White House.

What You Need To Know

  • In an interview with a conservative radio host on Thursday, former President Donald Trump said he would fire Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith "within two seconds"

  • When asked if he would pardon himself or move to fire Smith, Trump said that the choice to do the latter would be "so easy" 

  • Smith oversaw the federal prosecutions accusing Trump of illegally working to subvert the 2020 election and alleging that he mishandled classified documents and resisted the federal government’s efforts to retrieve them

  • Trump has pleaded not guilty to four felony charges in the election subversion case; the classified documents case was dismissed by a judge he nominated to the federal bench, but Smith is appealing the ruling
 

Conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt asked Trump what he would choose to do on his first day in office: pardon himself, or terminate Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith, who oversaw the federal prosecutions accusing him of illegally working to subvert the 2020 election and alleging that he mishandled classified documents and resisted the federal government’s efforts to retrieve them.

Trump said that the choice would be “so easy.”

“I would fire him within two seconds,” Trump said of Smith, later adding that he didn’t believe House Democrats would move to impeach him if he did so if they won back control of the chamber in November.

“No I don’t think they will impeach me if I fire Jack Smith,” Trump said. “Jack Smith is a scoundrel, he’s a very dishonest man in my opinion, very dishonest man, and he’s a mean man, a mean man, but his problem is he’s so mean that he always goes too far.”

He later threatened to sue Smith over the raid at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida related to the classified documents case.

The authority to hire or dismiss a special counsel typically lies with the attorney general, through Trump could easily nominate one who would do so, as well as move to shut down the federal cases against him.

While president, Trump urged then-White House counsel Don McGahn to push the Justice Department to oust then-special counsel Robert Mueller, who was investigating possible Russian interference in the 2016 election. McGahn refused to do so.

Trump faces four felony charges in the election subversion case, including conspiracy to defraud the United States and conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding. He has pleaded not guilty and decried the case as politically motivated. Proceedings in the case have resumed after the Supreme Court ruled on claim of immunity earlier this summer.

The classified documents case was dismissed by a Trump-nominated federal judge, but Smith is appealing the ruling. Trump on Thursday praised the judge, Aileen Cannon, who is reportedly on his shortlist for attorney general, as “brilliant” and “brave.”

Neither Smith nor the Justice Department are involved in the two state-level cases against Trump. The former president was found guilty of 34 felony counts of business fraud related to a hush money payment made to an adult film star ahead of the 2016 election, and a case in Fulton County, Georgia, accuses Trump of working to subvert the state’s election results in 2020.

Trump has repeatedly attacked Smith, blasting him as “deranged” and calling for him to be jailed — or institutionalized.

Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign hammered Trump over his comments and pointed to comments from his former chief of staff John Kelly saying that he believes the former president matches the definition of a “fascist” and would love to be a dictator if he returns to the White House.

“Donald Trump thinks he’s above the law, and these latest comments are right in line with the warnings made by Trump’s former Chief of Staff that he wants to rule as a dictator with unchecked power,” Harris campaign rapid response director Ammar Moussa said in a statement. “A second Trump term, where a more unstable and unhinged Trump has essentially no guardrails and is surrounded by loyalists who will enable his worst instincts, is guaranteed to be more dangerous. America can’t risk a second Trump term.”

Trump also weighed in on the vice president’s Wednesday night town hall on CNN, calling her “an embarrassment.”

“I watched her charade story last night on CNN,” Trump said. “It was an embarrassment that she was running for president, representing a major party.”

The CNN town hall was in lieu of a debate on the network that Trump declined after his first face-off against Harris last month. He also declined CNN’s invitation for a town hall of his own.