Former senior Trump administration official and Epoch Times contributor Kash Patel told Breitbart News on Monday that during his exclusive interview with Donald Trump, he got the sense the 45th president is “gearing up” for a presidential run in 2024.
“I get the sense that he’s gearing up for it, yes, very much so,” Patel said during a phone interview. “And I think there’s a piece of that interview that you’ll see where he pretty close to addressing it.”
“I think you’ll see a clip in there which is pretty decisive as to where he is right now,” he added.
Patel’s interview with Trump airs Monday at 8 p.m. ET.
Patel, former Pentagon chief of staff under Trump, said he has had many discussions with Trump about national security — in the Oval Office or on Air Force One, but never as part of a media interview, and he wanted to share that discussion with the American public.
The two talked about border security, China, the Biden administration’s botched withdrawal from Afghanistan, and the latest in Special Counsel John Durham’s investigation.
Patel said Trump said the first thing that has to be done is to seal the U.S.’s southern border and to finish building the wall. He said that would stop the illicit narcotics flow that is aided by China and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Trump also talked about how, unlike the Biden administration, he would have kept Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, not only because the U.S. poured billions of dollars into it, but also because it was geographically close to where China is building its nuclear arsenal.
U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) (L) and National Security Council Senior Director of Counterterrorism Kashyap “Kash” Pramod Patel listen as U.S. President Donald Trump makes a statement in the Diplomatic Reception Room of the White House October 27, 2019, in Washington, DC. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Patel said they also discussed how America’s enemies are looking to take advantage of America’s weakened security posture under the Biden administration.
Patel said Trump is eager to see the outcome of Durham’s investigation into how the Russia collusion hoax against the Trump campaign and Trump administration began.
Patel said it could take months if not years for the outcome, but he wanted to see “indictments, not a report.”
“He’s heading in the right direction; it’s just taking time to build this style of a case. I mean, it’s literally a mob-style conspiracy that this is building, except you’re talking about the likes of [James] Comey, and [Andrew] McCabe, and [Hillary] Clinton and [Peter] Strzok and Perkins Coie, and the Hillary Clinton campaign and Fusion GPS and Glenn Simpson — I mean, look at the cast of characters that are in this criminal enterprise, it’s not easy to take those guys down,” he said.
“I’m hoping for indictments for what I believe to be criminal conduct of Andrew McCabe, the deputy director of the FBI, Lisa Page, Peter Strzok, Glenn Simpson at Fusion GPS [and] so many others … Durham and RussiaGate is not done,” he said.
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