Former President Donald Trump tore into his successor Saturday night near Joe Biden’s hometown of Scranton, Pa., in his first rally since the current president’s divisive “MAGA Republicans” speech last week.
“Republicans in the ‘MAGA’ movement are not the ones trying to undermine our democracy. We are the ones trying to save our democracy,” Trump said at his “Save America” rally in Wilkes-Barr, Pa. “The danger to democracy comes from the radical left, not from the right.”
As he began his speech, the former president quickly addressed what many believe was a highly politicized FBI raid on his Palm Beach, Fla., estate last month.
“The shameful raid and break-in of my home in Mar-a-Lago was a travesty of justice that made a mockery of America’s laws, traditions, and principles before the entire world,” he remarked, adding that the raid was made possible by a false pretext and signed off by a judge “handpicked” by the administration.
“It was not just my home that was raided last month — it was the hopes and dreams of every citizen who I have been fighting for since the moment I came down the golden escalator in 2015, wanting to represent the people, wanting to stop the massive corruption in this country,” he said, as noted by Newsmax.
“The radical Democrats are engaging in a desperate attempt to keep me from returning to the White House, where they know I will clean this mess up again,” Trump noted further. “They want to stop us from completing our mission to bring back American values.”
He also laced into Biden over his widely panned prime-time speech last week, calling it the “most vicious, hateful, and divisive speech ever delivered by a [U.S.] president,” and for “vilifying 75 million citizens, plus another probably 75 to 150 [million], if we want to be accurate about it, as threats to democracy and as enemies of the state.”
“You’re all enemies of the state. He’s an enemy of the state if you want to know the truth. The enemy of the state is him and the group that control[s] him, which is circling around him. ‘Do this, do that, Joe,’” Trump continued.
Trump also criticized the optics regarding Biden’s speech: A dimly-lit background at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, with two U.S. Marines flanking a red-tinged backdrop.
“How’d you like the red lighting behind him like the devil?” Trump asked the crowd.
“The Biden administration invaded the home of their chief political opponent, who is absolutely destroying him and everyone else in the polls — I hate to say it — even including the Republicans, but we love the Republicans,” Trump said. He added that the raid occurred after “getting permission from a highly political magistrate, who they handpicked late in the evening, just days before the break in and trampled upon my rights and civil liberties.”
TRUMP on Biden's speech: "The most vicious, hateful, and divisive speech ever delivered by a [U.S.] President… you're all enemies of the state. He's an enemy of the state, if you want to know the truth. The enemy of the state is him and the group that controls him." #TrumpRally pic.twitter.com/ImTkCtTBMS
— Newsmax (@newsmax) September 3, 2022
Trump also implored the crowd to show up at the polls during the November midterms and beyond.
“Above all, this election is a referendum on the corruption and extremism of Joe Biden and the radical Democrat Party,” Trump remarked. “If you want to stop this destruction of America, you must vote Republican. You gotta get out and vote.”
