Donald Trump derailed one of his legal defenses during his interview with NBC’s Kristen Welker that aired on Sunday’s “Meet The Press,” legal experts said.
Trump told Welker it was his decision – not his lawyers’ – to challenge the 2020 election results.
“But are you ultimately in charge, Mr. President?” Welker asked Trump. The ex-POTUS responded: “Whether I believed it was rigged or not? Oh, sure… it was my decision. But I listened to some people. Some people have said that.”
Laurence Tribe, a professor of constitutional law at Harvard University, said Trump “simply abandoned his entire defense that he followed the advice of my lawyers.”
“No, let me correct that: Not just under the bus, but under a roaring, speeding, giant freight train,” Tribe added on X, formerly Twitter.
Former acting Attorney General Neal Katyal, appearing on MSNBC’s “Inside With Jen Psaki,” agreed.
The Obama-era DOJ official said Trump’s comments made U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan’s election interference case against him “much easier.”
Former federal prosecutor Andrew Weissmann, meanwhile, told Psaki that it was actually a “double” admission by the former president, as Trump also admitted to Welker that he had called for the vote counting to stop.
“He just said it on air to NBC: Stop counting the votes.” “Well, that’s not allowed,” Weissmann explained.