Defiant in face of federal indictments, Trump decries 'election interference' in NC GOP convention speech
Former President Donald Trump pledged to continue his reelection campaign Saturday, saying in a North Carolina speech that he's being attacked by "the rotten political class that gets rich and powerful" at the expense of his political supporters, and pledging to "never stop fighting."
Trump also laughed off the dozens of federal charges against him — unsealed only a day earlier — saying, "In a sick way, I kind of enjoy it," since he believes the charges are helping his presidential campaign in polling and fundraising.
Trump is due in court Tuesday, in Miami, for his first appearance on the federal charges.
On Saturday, his 90-minute speech to a crowd of more than 1,000 conservative voters at the annual North Carolina Republican Party convention was one of his first public opportunities to address the charges. They focus on classified documents that, according to federal prosecutors, Trump took from the White House after losing the 2020 election — and then showed off to guests who weren’t cleared to see the military secrets they contained.
Earlier Saturday, Trump spoke in Georgia to a cheering crowd of supporters at that state’s GOP convention before heading to Greensboro.
“They’ve launched one witch hunt after another to try and stop our movement, to thwart the will of the American people," Trump said in Georgia — a line he also repeated in his North Carolina speech.
"It's called election interference," he also told voters in Greensboro, suggesting that the Biden Administration is targeting him with the political charges to try to derail Trump's 2024 campaign.
Trump has also been charged in New York, for alleged campaign finance violations related to hush money paid to a porn star. And he’s potentially facing more criminal charges, from Atlanta prosecutors. A grand jury there has been looking into his 2020 request for Georgia election officials to “find” enough votes, after the election, for him to win the state. He brushed that off on Saturday.
“What I said was perfect,” Trump said. “It was actually perfect."
But the speech wasn’t only about charges against him. Trump reiterated a promise made months ago in Wilmington to endorse North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson in his campaign for the GOP’s gubernatorial nomination. Former U.S. Rep. Mark Walker and State Treasurer Dale Folwell are also seeking the GOP nomination for governor.
Trump also claimed credit for the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, promised to revoke U.S. military aid to Ukraine on his first day in office, defended the Saudi Arabian-backed LIV golf tour, reiterated his complaints with the national media, ruminated on whether the U.S. should invade Venezuela, threatened a new trade war with China, repeated false claims about the 2020 election having been rigged and accused Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden of corruption.
“I stand before you today as the only candidate who has what it takes to smash this corrupt system and drain the swamp,” Trump said.
Election on the horizon
North Carolina has long been a key swing state in presidential elections but this year it's also shaping up to be important to the GOP presidential primary, too. With the state's large rural population — second in the country only to Texas — as well as big cities, insiders believe that what North Carolina voters want is a good proxy for the rest of the country.
This weekend's convention was the first time that the three leading contenders for the GOP nomination all spoke at the same event. It gave Trump the opportunity to remind Republicans why they've supported him in the past, and his challengers the opportunity to detail their plans for a different direction in Republican Party politics.
Polls show most Republican voters, in North Carolina and nationwide, want Trump to get another shot at the presidency this year.
U.S. Rep. Richard Hudson, R-NC, who leads the National Republican Congressional Committee, endorsed Trump for reelection Saturday night in a speech to the convention: "He knows how to connect with and turn out the segments of our voters who are critical to Republican victories," Hudson said.
And in Greensboro, where the convention has brought together many of the state’s top elected GOP officials and plugged-in GOP operatives, the mood is decidedly pro-Trump, despite the indictments.
Many attendees have indicated they’re either unbothered by the charges or that they feel more energized to support Trump than before, seeing him as the victim of a bogus, politically motivated prosecution.
Trump’s two chief rivals also sense that mood radiating. Former Vice President Mike Pence and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who spoke to the convention already this weekend, did criticize Trump in other ways when pitching their own presidential campaigns to voters. But both men told the audience, to cheers, that they saw Trump’s dozens of new felony charges as the result of political vendettas from the U.S. Department of Justice.
DeSantis promised to fire the FBI director — a Republican who Trump originally chose for that role — and Pence called for more transparency into exactly why and how the government made the decision to charge Trump.
“This has the capacity, further, to divide our country at a time the American people are struggling as never before,” Pence said Saturday.
The indictment came at a time when Trump is continuing to dominate the primary race. Other candidates have largely attacked the Justice Department — rather than Trump — for the investigation. But the indictment’s breadth of allegations and scope could make it harder for Republicans to rail against these charges compared with an earlier New York criminal case that many legal analysts had derided as weak.
The federal charging document alleges that Trump not only intentionally possessed classified documents but also boastfully showed them off to visitors and aides. The indictment is built on Trump’s own words and actions as recounted to prosecutors by lawyers, close aides and other witnesses, including his professing to respect and know procedures related to the handling of classified information.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
