During a pre-trial press conference in New York City, former President Donald J. Trump called the entire case against him and his codefendants "political warfare or lawfare."

Trump spoke before the media and said, "While Israel is being attacked, Ukraine is being attacked, while inflation is eating our country alive, I’m down here with my political opponents’ attack hats by the Biden administration. Their poll numbers are terrible. You saw what happened today, the New York Times and CBS came out with a poll that I’m leading all over the place but it’s a very unfair situation."

The former president's statement about the polls released by the New York Times and CBS marks a pivotal moment in American media history, as the two outlets have previously published derogatory articles against the conservative trailblazer.

"This is really election interference, that’s all it is. It’s ridiculous." Trump continued, "The numbers are much greater. . . They said Mar-A-Lago is worth $18 million, but Mar-A-Lago is probably worth 50-100 times more than that. It’s a terrible, terrible thing. These are political operatives that I’m going to be dealing with right now."

"You have a racist Attorney General who made some terrible statements. This is very sad for our country. We shouldn’t have this, this is for third world countries. It’s very unfair. But in the meantime, the people of the country understand it, they see it, and they don’t like It because it’s political warfare or law fare, there’s a lot of names for it. But usually it takes place in third world countries and banana republics. Nobody has ever seen it, to this extent, here."

Trump closed his comments with strong and optimistic statements: "But we will go on and hopefully do well in every regard with the election and we will Make America Great Again. That’s what we’re going to do, we’re going to Make America Great Again. But we have to take away from the thugs that we deal with… The horrible people that must actually hate our country do this. But we will fight very hard for our country. Thank you very much, everybody." 

As reported by CNN, "Donald Trump is testifying under oath in the New York civil fraud trial against him and is being pressed about the values of his properties —  and his role in their appraisals.

The lawsuit: The $250 million lawsuit brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James alleges that Trump and his co-defendants committed repeated fraud in inflating assets on financial statements to get better terms on commercial real estate loans and insurance policies. The judge already ruled the former president is liable for fraud and he's considering how much the Trumps will have to pay in damages.

Why it matters: The case is civil, not criminal, but threatens Trump's business in New York. James is seeking to bar Trump from doing business in the state and to dissolve his companies. Trump’s testimony Monday will also serve as a precursor to the four criminal trials he faces next year as he campaigns to regain the presidency."