Donald Trump is showing “the banality of evil” by claiming he had the right to interfere in the 2020 election, a former federal prosecutor has said.
Joyce Vance, a frequent Trump critic, was responding to Trump‘s comment in an interview with Fox News‘ Mark Levin, in which he said he had “every right” to interfere with the presidential election.
Trump was indicted on four counts of allegedly working to illegally interfere in the results of the 2020 election in the run-up to the January 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. The Republican presidential nominee has pleaded not guilty and has said the case is part of a political witch hunt.
Donald Trump speaks during a campaign event on August 29, 2024, in La Crosse, Wisconsin. Trump told Fox News on Sunday that he had every right to interfere in the 2020 election.
Scott Olson/Getty Images
Trump told Levin that his poll numbers went up after he was indicted.
“Actually, but you know the good news is it’s so crazy that my poll numbers go up. Whoever heard you get indicted for interfering with a presidential election, where you have every right to do it, you get indicted, and your poll numbers go up.”
“When people get indicted your pull numbers go down,” Trump said during the second part of the interview, which was broadcast on Sunday night.
In response, Vance wrote on X, formerly Twitter: “There’s no right to ‘interfere’ with a presidential election.”
“This is the banality of evil right here—Trump asserting he can override the will of the voters to claim victory in an election he lost. And, he will do it again. We must vote against him in overwhelming numbers.”
The phrase “banality of evil” was first used by philosopher Hannah Arendt about the trial of Nazi leader Adolf Eichmann in Jerusalem.
Several Trump supporters replied to Vance on X, saying she was deliberately taking Trump out of context.
One used a meme to suggest her liberal tears tasted “delicious.”
Newsweek sought email comment from Vance and from Trump’s attorney on Monday.
MSNBC legal analyst Katie Phang reposted a clip from the Trump interview on X with the words: “Criming and then confessing to the criming. That’s a Trump specialty.”
Trump’s lawyers are currently seeking long delays in his election interference case in light of the July 1 Supreme Court ruling that gave presidents broad immunity from prosecution.
Trump had taken a Supreme Court challenge to Smith’s election interference case.
In a submission to trial judge Tanya Chutkan on Friday, Trump’s lawyers suggested that the disclosure requests in the case need to be reconsidered before the court even begins to weigh the extent of presidential immunity in the case.
They also suggested that motions should continue until January 2025 with “defense replies in support of motions to dismiss and compel” on January 24, 2025, and “non-evidentiary hearings regarding motions to dismiss and compel” beginning on the week of January 27, 2025, and likely continuing into February.
They then raised the prospect of “additional proceedings, if necessary” in the spring and fall of 2025.
