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Former US President Donald Trump addressed thousands of supporters this Saturday (10) with a series of criticisms of opponents and prosecutors in the case in which he was indicted two days earlier. It’s the first time the Republican has made a public appearance since.
Trump said he viewed the current phase of the trial as the “final stand” against what he called corrupt US forces. He also ran again as a candidate for the White House in next year’s election today Trump is the favorite to win the Republican Party primaries.
“Either the communists win and destroy the US, or we destroy the communists,” he said, appearing to mean the Democrats. He made similar comments about the “deep state,” a term he often uses to describe US intelligence agencies or other parts of government he sees as adversaries.
He also railed against “globalists,” “warmongers” in government, and “the sick political class that hates our country.” The speech was delivered in the city of Columbus, Georgia, in a former mortar, weapons and cannon factory.
Trump even compared the government of American President Joe Biden to the Soviet regime of Joseph Stalin. According to the Republican, the Democrat staged the criminal charges against him to undermine his presidential campaign. “Biden is trying to lock up his main political opponent an opponent who vastly outnumbers him in the polls just like they did in Stalinist Russia or communist China,” he said. “The ridiculous and baseless allegations against me by the Biden administration’s Armed Injustice Division will rank among the most horrific abuses of power in our country’s history.”
According to FiveThirtyEight poll aggregator, Biden now has 43% of voting intentions versus Trump’s 41%.
The Republican is under investigation by the Justice Department, an agency linked to the White House, but there is no evidence that the current US president influenced the allegation. The department says all of its decisions are made without regard to partisan politics, and Biden has said he will not become involved in the Trump investigation.
On Thursday, the former president was indicted for allegedly keeping confidential government documents after leaving the White House. He is the target of 37 allegations, and among the documents in question were some containing sensitive country security secrets, according to the Justice Department.
Prosecutors allege the former president withheld materials including documents about the US nuclear program and the country’s vulnerability to possible attacks. The 49page indictment also details two instances in which Trump allegedly leaked confidential information to people who are not authorized to receive that information, and attempts to impede state investigators in recovering the materials.
This is the first time a former US President has been charged with a federal crime. Trump is scheduled to appear in federal court in Miami on Tuesday afternoon (13) when the indictment is formalized.
With Portal and the New York Times