Former US President Donald Trump has said he would not drop out of the 2024 race even as he faces state and federal criminal charges.
Trump is set to appear in a federal courtroom in Miami on Tuesday, June 13 after becoming the first former president in US history to face federal charges.
Speaking on a radio show hosted by his longtime ally Roger Stone, he was asked by Roger Stone: “You may or may not be facing additional charges that I believe will be politically motivated. This demonstrates the Democrats are petrified about facing you in another election.
So is there any circumstances under which you could see yourself dropping out of the 2024 presidential election?”
To which Donald Trump responded: “No, none whatsoever.”
Also on Sunday, Trump said he wouldn’t bother taking a plea deal if offered one following his federal indictment on 37 counts related to his handling of classified documents since leaving office.
The 2024 GOP front-runner also vowed again to stay in the presidential race, even if convicted.
“I’ll never leave,” Trump told Politico in an interview aboard his plane. “Look, if I would have left, I would have left prior to the original race in 2016. That was a rough one. In theory that was not doable.”
“Nobody wants to be indicted,” Trump told Politico. “I don’t care that my poll numbers went up by a lot. I don’t want to be indicted. I’ve never been indicted. I went through my whole life, now I get indicted every two months. It’s been political.”
Trump attorney Alina Habba, who is not on his defense team for the classified documents case but still advises the former president, said on “Fox News Sunday” that she could “never imagine” him taking a plea deal.
“You take a plea deal to make something go away. That’s an admission of guilt. He would never admit guilt because there was nothing wrong with declassifying documents, taking documents with you, negotiating with NARA,” Habba said.