President Donald Trump directly threatened a reporter with prosecution when he asked about similar comments made Attorney General Pam Bondi.
The attorney general has promised to crack down on what she calls "hate speech" against conservatives following the assassination of right-wing influence Charlie Kirk, and the president reacted ominously when veteran ABC News correspondent Jonathan Karl asked about Bondi's threats.
"They should probably go after people like you because you treat me so unfairly," Trump said. "It's hate, you have a lot of hate in your heart. Maybe they'll come after ABC. Well, ABC paid me $16 million recently for a form of hate speech, right? Your company paid me $16 million for a form of hate speech. So maybe they'll have to go after you."
ABC agreed in December to settle a libel complaint with Trump for $16 million after a trial judge found that viewers could have been misled by on-air statements made by correspondent George Stephanopoulos, who said that he had been found liable for rape, when in fact another judge found him liable for the sexual assault of writer E. Jean Carroll decades ago.
"Look, we want everything to be fair," Trump added. "It hasn't been fair, and the radical left has done tremendous damage to the country. But we're fixing it. We have right now the hottest country anywhere in the world. And remember, one year ago, our country was dead, and now Washington, D.C., is fixed and I fixed it. The mayor was fine, the mayor was just fine, okay, the mayor had the city for many years. She's been mayor for many years. The one that fixed it was me and my people, and it is so safe."
"You should take your beautiful wife tonight and have dinner down there," he added. "You won't be shot, you won't be accosted, you won't even be looked at incorrectly by anybody. Washington, D.C. is safe now."
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