MOSINEE, Wis. (AP) — Days before his first and likely only debate with Vice President Kamala Harris, former President Donald Trump posted a message to his social media sites warning of jail time for anyone “engaged in immoral conduct” in the election and saying it will be closely watched.
“If I win, those who cheated will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, including long prison sentences, to ensure this perversion of justice never happens again,” Trump wrote late Saturday, again raising doubts about the integrity of the election even though fraud is extremely rare.
“Please be aware that this liability extends to lawyers, political activists, donors, illegal voters and corrupt election officials. Those who engage in immoral conduct will be hunted down, arrested and prosecuted at a level never before seen, unfortunately, in our country,” he continued.
Trump’s message was his latest threat to use the presidency to retaliate if re-elected. There is no evidence of fraud that he continues to claim tainted the 2020 election. Indeed, dozens of courts, Republican state officials and his own administration have said he lost fairly.
Just a few days ago, Trump himself acknowledged in a podcast interview that he did, in fact, “lose the election by a small margin.”
Trump campaign aides and allies have urged him to keep the focus on Harris and to turn the election into a referendum on issues such as inflation and border security, but he has been wildly off track in recent days.
Trump’s explosive statement to reporters on Friday addressed past allegations of sexual misconduct, detailing some of the allegations while denying his accusers’ claims, came after he appeared in court to appeal a conviction in which he pleaded guilty to sexual abuse, putting the spotlight on his own legal woes in the closing days of the campaign.
WATCH: Trump opens up about past allegations after deciding to appeal sexual abuse case
Earlier in the day, Trump had been campaigning in Wisconsin’s most Republican areas, venting his familiar grievances about everything from his own indictment to Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
“The Harris-Biden Justice Department is trying to put me in jail for exposing their corruption. They want to put me in jail,” Trump argued at an outdoor rally at the Central Wisconsin airport, where he spoke behind a bulletproof glass barrier due to new security regulations put in place following the July assassination attempt.
There is no evidence that President Joe Biden or Harris had any influence on the decision by the Justice Department or state prosecutors to indict the former president.
While Trump has eschewed traditional debate preparations, opting instead to hold rallies and events, Harris has been secluded in a historic hotel in downtown Pittsburgh since Thursday, working with her entourage.
Harris has so far agreed to host just one debate, hosted by ABC.
At the rally, Trump outlined his plan to “drain the swamp,” a return to the message of his victorious 2016 election, when he ran as an outsider who challenged the status quo. After four years in the Oval Office, Trump vowed to “get rid of corrupt politicians” and “meaningfully cut waste out of government for the first time in 60 years” if he wins again.
As part of that effort, President Trump reiterated a plan he announced Thursday to create a new “Government Efficiency Commission,” led by Elon Musk, tasked with conducting a “full financial and performance audit of the entire federal government” to root out waste.
After again denigrating the congressional committees that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, storming of the Capitol by his supporters following his loss in the 2020 election, Trump told a crowd of several thousand that he would “swiftly review the cases of all political prisoners who have been unjustly harmed by the Harris Administration” and sign pardons on his first day in office.
President Trump has repeatedly defended people incarcerated for crimes including violent attacks on law enforcement.
And he said he would “completely reform” what he called “Kamala’s Ministry of Corruption and Injustice.”
“Instead of persecuting Republicans, they will focus on defeating bloodthirsty cartels, international gangsters and radical Islamic terrorists,” he said.
Harris campaign spokeswoman Sarafina Chitica responded to Harris’ comments in a statement, warning that if Trump is re-elected, he “will use his unchecked power to prosecute his opponents and pardon the insurrectionists who violently stormed the Capitol on January 6th.”
Bauer reported from Madison and Colvin from New York. Associated Press writer Josh Boak in Pittsburgh contributed to this report.