Photo: Evan Vucci / AP
President Trump was asked about his campaign pledge to lock Hillary Clinton up in an interview with conservative radio host Larry O'Connor on Thursday:
"The saddest thing is that because I'm the President of the United States I'm not supposed to be involved with the Justice Department, I'm not supposed to be involved with the FBI, I'm not supposed to be doing the kinds of things I would love to be doing and I'm very frustrated by it. I look at what's happening with the Justice Department, why aren't they going after Hillary Clinton with her emails and with the dossier and the kind of money...?"
Why it matters: This is interesting timing for Trump to talk about a desire to bring pressure to bear at the Justice Dept. On this topic and on immigration (below) he is reverting to the kind of polarizing rhetoric we heard from him during the most unscripted moments of the campaign.
More on Justice Dept.
"... it's very discouraging to me, I'll be honest, I'm very unhappy with it that the Justice Department isn't going—now maybe they are but you know as president, you're not supposed to be involved in that process but hopefully they are doing something and maybe at some point we can all have it out."
On Diversity visas
Trump said he had a meeting with 7 Republican senators about reaching an immigration deal that includes eliminating diversity visas:
- "It's just common sense, these countries aren't giving us their finest people. So when they put them in the lottery, if they even do a fair lottery, they probably don't do that they probably just hand us people that they don't want like this character, this animal, this horror show that just came in and did this horrible damage [in New York]...."
- "We're supposed to take people that the rest of the world doesn't want and we're supposed to say it's a lovely event, it's not going to happen that way anymore with me."
The facts: The diversity visa program has a merit requirement that applicants must have at least a high school education or have worked two years, of the last five, in a job that requires at least two years of training.