Trump Signals an Aggressive Opening, Threatening 'Jail' for Cheney and Others

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

64% : "I can't say I'm thrilled with him," Trump said.
61% : "I'm really looking to make our country successful," Trump said when asked about investigating Biden and his family.
57% : In his first sit-down broadcast network interview since being reelected, Trump said that on Day 1 of his new administration next month, he would extend clemency to the hundreds of his backers who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and try to bar automatic citizenship for children born in the United States to immigrant parents.
52% : But in fact, it was President Barack Obama who first took executive action in 2012 to spare about 700,000 Dreamers from deportation through a policy called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA.
43% : But Trump suggested that he would look for a way to keep the so-called Dreamers in the country.
39% : "We're going to have to get it changed," Trump said.
36% : Wray was originally appointed by Trump in 2017, but the president-elect made clear he was personally aggrieved against him for the FBI search of his Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago, in 2022 for classified documents that he had improperly taken after leaving the White House, even though the search warrant was approved by a judge.
35% : "Trump sought to downplay fears of Kash Patel, a far-right loyalist he plans to nominate to take over the FBI, who has vowed to "come after" the president-elect's perceived enemies and named about 60 people he considered "members of the executive branch deep state" as the appendix to a 2023 book.
35% : "No, I don't think so," Trump said.
34% : "When I was shot in the ear, he said, 'Oh, maybe it was shrapnel,'" Trump said.
31% : And although he vowed to end birthright citizenship, Trump said he would try to work with Democrats to spare immigrants brought to the country illegally as children, known as Dreamers, from deportation.
31% : "No, I don't think so," Trump said when asked if Patel would pursue investigations against political adversaries.
29% : As for birthright citizenship, Trump said he would try to reverse the constitutional guarantee that anyone born in the United States is a citizen regardless of the status of their parents.
27% : Asked if he would pardon "everyone" who attacked the Capitol, Trump said, "Yeah.
26% : "Trump offered no explanation of what crimes he thought the members of the Jan. 6 committee might have committed.
23% : Without indicating a time frame, Trump also indicated that he would fire FBI Director Christopher Wray, out of personal pique because "he invaded my home" and was insufficiently certain at first whether Trump's wound during an assassination attempt this year was caused by a bullet or shrapnel.
21% : Trump, by contrast, tried to rescind the policy, arguing that it was unconstitutional, only to be blocked by the Supreme Court on procedural grounds.
20% : "For what they did, honestly, they should go to jail," Trump said of Cheney, a Republican who represented Wyoming, and the rest of the bipartisan House committee that looked into the attack.
20% : At the same time, Trump seemed to signal that he would not appoint a special counsel to investigate President Joe Biden and his family, as he once vowed.
20% : "Trump was vague about how he would proceed and whether he would seek to reverse the common interpretation of the amendment through executive action that would surely be challenged in the courts.
19% : To install Patel, Trump would have to fire Wray, who has a 10-year term under a law meant to avoid politicizing the FBI.
19% : I don't think so."Trump did not explicitly say he would fire Wray, but he left little doubt about it.
12% : Biden and his team have grown increasingly concerned that the selection of Patel indicates that Trump will follow through on his threats of "retribution" against those who have crossed him.
12% : "He also cited Wray's comment after the assassination attempt in July that it was not initially clear whether Trump was hit by a bullet or shrapnel.

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