Donald Trump has tried to turn the tables by claiming that he was the victim of an attempted coup to remove him from office.
The former president made the wild claim despite new details emerging of his own attempt to steal Joe Biden’s 2020 election win.
Mr Trump’s aides drafted two versions of an executive order to seize voting machines intended for the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security, sources told CNN.
The orders were never carried out but show how determined the former reality TV star was to subvert democracy to cling on to power after his legal defeat to Mr Biden.
Mr Trump told Rob Schmitt of right-wing news channel Newsmax that Democrats had tried to kill-off his presidency.
“Don’t forget, the first day we came in we were hit with the phony Russia, Russia, Russia deal and we had to fight that, so we were fighting that and doing more than any president just about has done for our country, we rebuilt the economy, we rebuilt the military, we opened Space Force, we had low interest rates,” said Mr Trump.
“But at the same time we were fighting the radical left on the impeachment hoaxes, which was what over a perfect phone call to Ukraine? It was perfect.
“We were fighting these people, we had no choice otherwise we would not have been there, they would have gotten us out. They were staging a coup, they were trying to get us out of office.”
Mr Trump was first impeached by the House of Representatives in December 2019 for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, although he was acquitted in February 2020 in the US Senate.
His impeachment was brought over allegations that he solicited foreign interference in the 2020 US presidential election by withholding military aid and an invitation to the White House to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
It was claimed that Mr Trump did so to get Ukraine to announce a bogus investigation into Joe Biden and his son, Hunter.
Shortly before leaving office in 2021, Mr Trump was impeached for a second time for his role in the deadly Capitol insurrection, although he was again cleared by Senate Republicans.
He has not announced that he will run again in 2024, but has strongly hinted at such a possibility.
“Our country is going to hell and we’re going to make American great again, again, I sort of say,” he said during the interview.
“And I smile, but there’s nothing to smile about, because our country is going bad. We’re not going to have a country much longer, if it keeps going. I don’t think any president has done this damage.”
