Former President Donald Trump vowed to turn the legal tables on President Joe Biden on Friday night, pledging to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the “bribes from China and many other foreign countries that go into the coffers of the Biden crime family.”
Trump’s freewheeling speech to the Alabama Republican Party’s summer dinner was his first major campaign appearance since pleading not guilty to charges related to the 2020 election and the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. This is the third time he has been indicted this year, but he remains the heavy front-runner for the 2024 nomination.
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“Every one of these many fake charges filed against me by the corrupt Biden DOJ could have been filed 2.5 years ago, but they waited and waited until I became the dominant force in the polls, and then they filed them all, including local DAs and AGs, and other cases, right in the middle of my campaign where we’re leading so much,” Trump said.
“We need one more indictment to close that out,” he quipped. A fourth indictment may be coming in Fulton County, Georgia.
“They want to interfere in my campaign. They want to interfere in the election,” Trump said, calling it “a commonly used tactic in Third World countries.”
Trump leads the Republican field nationally by 35.5 points, with only Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) breaking into the double digits against him, according to the RealClearPolitics polling average. He trails Biden by less than a point in the same aggregate.
“The Biden crime family was taking in money from China, Ukraine, Russia, and so many more — and now, every time more Biden corruption is exposed, his henchmen indict me the very next day. It’s called a cover-up,” the former president said.
Speakers at the Alabama GOP event exhorted attendees to pray for Trump, who state Senate President Pro Tempore Greg Reed said was “under attack.” Rep. Barry Moore (R-AL) hailed Trump as “the greatest president of my lifetime,” adding, “No one man has been more persecuted for standing for this country than Donald Trump has been.”
“Ladies and gentlemen, this week has not been a good week for our constitutional republic,” Alabama GOP Chairman John Wahl said. “We have a Justice Department that wants to limit free speech and free process of thought because they have a difference of opinion on election results. They will prosecute a man just because he does not share their rhetoric.”
“And if they will do that to a former president,” Wahl continued, “they will do that to you.”
This echoes Trump’s own argument.
“They want to take away my freedom because I will never let them take away your freedom. It’s very simple,” he said Friday night. “They want to silence me because I will never let them silence you. In the end, they’re not after me, they’re after you, and I just happen to be standing in their way.”
The whole House Republican delegation from Alabama endorsed Trump for the 2024 nomination earlier on Friday.
“After eight years of Obama-Biden socialist policies, in his first term, President Trump’s America First agenda put our nation on a more secure and prosperous path, proving that the Trump policies are the right policies for the American people,” the lawmakers said in a statement. “In a second term, President Trump will secure our borders, rebuild our economy, strengthen our national defense, ensure equal justice under law for all Americans — not just political allies — protect our children, including the unborn innocent among us, and restore America’s respect in the world. We look forward to working with President Trump to Make America Great Again.” Trump hailed the congressmen as “warriors” during his speech.
Trump was introduced by Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), who has had his own battles with Biden. The senator is currently holding up hundreds of military promotions in protest of the Pentagon’s policy of reimbursing travel expenses related to abortion. Tuberville argues that this violates the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits federal funding of most abortions.
Tuberville has also fought against Biden’s decision to keep the Space Command Headquarters in Colorado rather than move it to Huntsville, Alabama, as the Trump administration planned. “Maybe that’s not going to be the end of that story,” Trump said in his remarks.
Biden has argued that Tuberville’s military holds and conservative critiques of Pentagon wokeness show Republicans are no longer the party of national defense.
Tuberville on Friday said Biden’s leadership was going to “make the country crash and burn” and “bring it to its knees.” He reiterated his support for the former president: “There is nobody that can get the job done faster, quicker, and more efficiently than Donald J. Trump.”
Speaking to a Republican audience, Trump implied he would not participate in the first GOP debate because he was too far ahead in the polls and hit “Ron DeSanctimonious” multiple times. He mocked DeSantis’s slide in the polls, calling him a “son of a bitch” and a disloyal person with no personality. He suggested country singer Lee Greenwood write a song about it.
Trump also took credit for the reversal of Roe v. Wade but urged abortion opponents to “negotiate” and cast Democrats as the real “extremists” and “radicals” on the issue.
The loudest cheers came when Trump rattled off conservative policy priorities.
Despite the indictments, Trump was at ease with the crowd, calling special counsel Jack Smith “sick and deranged” while praising My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell. “I don’t know how much money you can make with pillows,” Trump said. “If it was oil, I understand. I don’t understand the pillow stuff.”
“Mike is a great guy. Go buy his pillows or his slippers or his towels — whatever the hell you want, just buy it,” he said.
While citing his poll numbers, Trump promised not to play “prevent defense” against his opponents. Trump said he had been holding back against Biden out of respect for the presidency, but the gloves are off now that the indictments have come down.
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Trump railed against “Biden and the communists,” saying that indictments from “Marxists” and “radical left lunatics” are like a “badge of honor.”
“The deep state is destroying our nation, but the tables must turn,” he said.
