Donald Trump Questioned About 'Death and Destruction' Post by Sean Hannity

Donald Trump has denied that he has been inciting his supporters to commit violence in New York and against Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg in his recent Truth Social posts.

The former president was questioned about his social media activity during an interview with Fox News' Sean Hannity broadcast Monday. Trump has been criticized by Democrats and legal experts after warning of "potential death & destruction" should he be arrested as part of Bragg's Stormy Daniels hush money investigation.

Trump also shared an article on Truth Social that featured a photo of the former president holding a baseball bat next to an image of Bragg. The post was later deleted.

The posts arrived after the former president made an uncorroborated claim that he would be arrested on Tuesday, March 21, as part of the hush money investigation, and called on his supporters to protest. Trump, who denies all the allegations, is at risk of becoming the first former U.S. president in history to be charged with a crime in connection to the $130,000 paid to Daniels to keep an alleged affair the pair had a secret ahead of the 2016 Election, which prosecutors claim amounted to a campaign violation.

During their interview, Hannity asked Trump why "open yourself up to criticism" by sharing inflammatory social media posts. In response, Trump denied that he was calling for "death and destruction" in his recent Truth Social post, just expressing fears it may happen.

"I didn't say death and destruction. I said I'm afraid that if they do this, which is a fake prosecution, where my worst enemies saying that he's totally innocent—people that have never been positive to me or defended me, that don't like me, they're the other side of the world—These are people that said, 'You can't do this prosecution. It will cause tremendous problems," Trump said.

"I didn't say 'do something bad.' I say I am afraid that people will do something because people are very angry about it."

With regards to the image of him with the baseball bat placed alongside a photo of Bragg, Trump said he was unaware that was the photo the news article was using for their story before he shared it on his Truth Social platform.

"What they did is we posted the story, but they had a picture up, they then put a picture up, or the picture was put up that nobody noticed or saw or that nobody thought it was bad," Trump said. "These were two separate pictures.

"I was promoting 'Made in America,' you make these baseball bats instead of sending them over to Japan and China...They took that picture from the White House and then they put a picture of Alvin Bragg up."

The day after Trump's "death and destruction" and baseball bat Truth Social posts, a letter containing white powder was sent to Bragg's office. The powder was later found to be non-hazardous.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries was one of those who has condemned Trump's online rhetoric.

"The twice-impeached former president's rhetoric is reckless, reprehensible and irresponsible," Jeffries, a New York Democratic congressman, told reporters in Washington D.C. "It's dangerous, and if he keeps it up, he's going to get someone killed."

Norman Eisen, who was the special counsel to the House Judiciary Committee during Trump's first impeachment trial, said the former president could face a number of charges over the Bragg baseball bat image.

"Threatening a prosecutor is a crime in NY. In fact MULTIPLE crimes," Eisen tweeted. "Harassment in the first degree…menacing in the second degree...stalking in the fourth or third degree...and that's just for starters."