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Donald Trump has derided the substantial federal charges against him, downplaying the numerous legal threats he faces while attacking Joe Biden for allegedly having “weaponised” the department of justice for political gain.
Speaking on Saturday at the Road to Majority conference in Washington DC, hosted by the right-wing evangelical Faith and Freedom Coalition, Mr Trump said he considered each of the two indictments he has received so far to be a “great badge of courage”.
“Joe Biden has weaponised law enforcement to interfere in our elections,” Mr Trump told the conservative audience. “I’m being indicted for you.”
The speech came less than two weeks after Mr Trump, currently the frontrunner in the 2024 Republican presidential primary, pleaded not guilty to 37 federal charges related to his alleged mishandling of classified documents.
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According to prosecutors, the former president intentionally withheld highly sensitive government documents from federal officials and obstructed justice in his efforts to keep those materials concealed.
Mr Trump also faces charges in New York related to his alleged involvement in a hush-money scheme during the 2016 presidential election, and he could potentially be indicted in Georgia and Washington over his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
In his Saturday speech, Mr Trump attempted to argue that the Presidential Records Act of 1978 made his retention of classified documents legal, even though he has actually been charged under the Espionage Act.
“Whatever documents a president decides to take with him, he has the absolute right to take them,” Mr Trump falsely claimed.
He also tried to redirect attention away from the charges by noting Mr Biden was found to have kept classified documents in his private residence, which is now the subject of a special counsel investigation.
However, unlike Mr Trump, Mr Biden never received a subpoena for the classified materials in his possession because his team voluntarily gave them to federal officials.
Mr Trump simultaneously accused Hunter Biden, the president’s son, of corruption, parroting claims from leading House Republicans. News broke Tuesday that Hunter Biden would plead guilty to two misdemeanour tax offences, and he struck a deal with prosecutors to avoid a conviction on a separate felony gun charge.
Hunter Biden was not charged in connection to his overseas business dealings, which have become a source of great outrage among Mr Trump and his allies, but House Republicans have nevertheless pledged to continue investigating the president’s son.
“They lie, they cheat and they steal,” Mr Trump said of Democrats. “This is how low they’ve fallen in an attempt to win the 2024 election, and we’re not going to let that happen.” He then repeated his false claim that the 2020 presidential election had been rigged against him.
In his speech, Mr Trump also touched on some of the policy priorities for the evangelical voters who will play a crucial role in determining the Republican presidential nominee. He spoke on the same day that the US marked one year since Roe v Wade was overturned, and the former president took the opportunity to congratulate himself for nominating three of the supreme court justices who supported reversing that landmark decision.
“I got it done, and nobody thought it was even a possibility,” Mr Trump said. “I’m proud to be the most pro-life president in American history.”
The former president received a warm reception from the conservative audience, who greeted him with a standing ovation as he took the stage. The crowd repeatedly broke out into chants of “USA!” and “We vote Trump!”
Despite the serious legal threats he faces, Mr Trump continues to dominate in polls of likely Republican primary voters. A CNN survey taken last week, after the indictment in the classified documents case was unsealed, found that 47 per cent of Republican voters name him as their top choice to be the party’s 2024 nominee.
Mr Trump’s closest competitor, Florida governor Ron DeSantis, trailed him by 21 points.
In his own speech at the Road to Majority conference on Friday, Mr DeSantis declined to directly mention the indictment, but he similarly lamented that the federal government had become “weaponised” and promised to replace FBI director Christopher Wray, a Trump appointee.
But that sentiment was not shared by fellow presidential candidate Chris Christie, the former New Jersey governor who was once a Trump ally and has now become one of the former president’s most vocal critics within the Republican Party. Speaking at the conference Friday, Mr Christie attacked Trump’s character and accused him of having “let us down”.
“He’s unwilling to take responsibility for any of the mistakes that were made, any of the faults that he has, and any of the things that he’s done,” Mr Christie said, prompting some boos from the conference crowd.
Mr Trump mocked Mr Christie on Saturday, falsely saying he was “booed off the stage”, even though he was in fact allowed to finish his remarks despite the harsh reception. Mr Trump’s insult was met with loud applause.
At one point, Mr Trump quipped: “I’m probably the only person in history in this country who’s been indicted, and my numbers went up.”