According to the Washington Examiner, in a recent interview, former president Donald Trump refuted that he failed to “drain the swamp” and said that his only regret from his four years in office was some of his cabinet appointments.
Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures” host Maria Bartiromo recently criticized Trump for not “draining the swamp” as he claims he has. In response, Trump pointed to his decision to fire former FBI Director James Comey as evidence that he has.
Trump claimed that if he hadn’t fired James Comey, he probably wouldn’t have been “able to serve out my term because that was a plot.”
Bartiromo pointed up Trump’s history of appointing people who would later criticize him as president, citing former secretaries of defense Mark Esper and William Barr as examples, and then asked Trump what he would do differently in that situation if he were to be elected president in 2024.
Trump claimed that the American people would be his “mistake” as president. Because he is “weak and pathetic,” he declared he would not nominate William Barr.
Trump has also claimed that he made a mistake by reappointing Jeff Sessions as attorney general.
Trump reiterated that he made some bad appointments and that while most of his picks “were good,” he did choose some with people he did not agree with, such as Mark Esper. Trump continued, calling Esper “incompetent.”
Given Trump’s apparent distaste for these individuals, Bartiromo naturally wondered why he had “put them in the job” to begin with.
The ex-president stated that he did not know some of the people he nominated, but that he now knows them “better than anybody has ever known.”
Trump also would not commit during the interview to attending the first Republican primary debate. But he said he did not need to participate in the debate because he is ahead in the national primary polls.
