Former US president Donald Trump has hinted there could be civil unrest if he is indicted over the mishandling of classified documents found at his residence and club in Florida.
In an interview on Thursday he said there would be “problems in this country the likes of which perhaps we’ve never seen before”.
Speaking to conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt, the former president said: “I don’t think the people of the United States would stand for it.”
He said he was not inciting violence by his comments but rather just stating his opinion.
Mr Trump also said he would have no problem running again for office if he was indicted.
Mr Trump denied any wrongdoing in relation to the documents found at his home which the US department of justice has contended included some that were highly classified.
The former president again claimed that he had declassified all the material concerned although his lawyers have not made this point in court filings on the issue.
Last month Republican senator Lindsey Graham warned there would be “riots in the street” if Trump was prosecuted.
Meanwhile, planes and buses of migrants were ferried to Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts and close to Vice President Kamala Harris’s private residence in Washington DC on Thursday. Two buses sent by Texas Governor Greg Abbott arrived near Harris’s home, the Associated Press reported. The arrival followed a similar dispatch Wednesday when two planes, sent by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, arrived in Martha’s Vineyard, an island off the Massachusetts coast best known as a haven for presidents and wealthy vacationers.
Republican governors in border states have been sending thousands of migrants north — more than 10,000 from Texas alone — to Democratic-led cities including New York, Washington and Chicago, saying they should help handle the results of President Joe Biden’s immigration policies.
In a tweet, Abbott said the decision to send people to DC was meant to force the Biden administration to “secure the border”. The migrants had previously been in Del Rio, Texas, after crossing the US-Mexico border. Abbott’s busing efforts have cost more than $14.1 million as of Aug. 18, local Austin news outlet KXAN reported last week.
In Martha’s Vineyard, bout 50 migrants were receiving shelter and aid Thursday. The two planes carrying the migrants who arrived on the island Wednesday “were part of the state’s relocation program to transport illegal immigrants to sanctuary destinations,” DeSantis spokesperson Taryn Fenske told Fox News Digital. The governor’s rapid-response director, Christina Pushaw, tweeted that Martha’s Vineyard, “a community of billionaires with 8-12 bedroom mansions, was well-equipped to to care for migrants.
Church and community groups quickly stepped up to help the migrants, according to reports from the island, but local lawmakers also expressed anger at the unexpected arrivals.
“The Governor of one of the biggest states in the nation has been spending time hatching a secret plot to round up and ship people — children, families — lying to them about where they’re going just to gain cheap political points,” tweeted Massachusetts state Representative Dylan Fernandes, who represents Martha’s Vineyard. — Additional reporting, Bloomberg
