Former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign event in Schnecksville, Pennsylvania, Saturday, April 13, 2024.
Joe Lamberti/AP
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Joe Lamberti/AP
Former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign event in Schnecksville, Pennsylvania, Saturday, April 13, 2024.
Joe Lamberti/AP
SCHNECKSVILLE, Pa. — Former President Donald Trump on Saturday highlighted New York prosecutors and the hush money criminal case they brought against him at his final rally before Monday’s start of what he called it a “communist show trial.”
“I will be forced to remain completely gagged. I have no right to speak. They want to take away my constitutional right to speak,” said Trump, who has been banned from publicly discussing witnesses and potential jurors. but not from the judge or prosecutors. .
“I’m proud to do this for you,” Trump told a crowd in northeastern Pennsylvania. “Have a good time watching.”
Trump spoke as Israel fought off a drone attack in retaliation from Iran that threatened to descend into a regional war in the Middle East. After a brief mention of the attack, which he said would not have happened if he had been president, Trump launched into a lengthy tirade against his own legal troubles.
He attacked Judge Juan M. Merchan, whom he called “corrupt,” and District Attorney Alvin Bragg, declaring himself a victim of Democrats determined to block his return to the White House.
Trump faces four separate criminal charges while running to avenge his loss to President Joe Biden, creating a whirlwind of unprecedented legal and political chaos.
Jury selection begins Monday in New York for his trial where he is accused of having sought, during his 2016 campaign, to bury stories of extramarital affairs by arranging discreet money payments.
This will be the first criminal trial ever brought against a former US president. And it will limit Trump’s availability on the campaign trail, even though he is expected to speak often to the media after court and has been fundraising and campaigning for months on the criminal charges he faces.
Trump spoke at the Schnecksville Fire Station in Lehigh County, where a long line formed three hours before Trump’s scheduled appearance. It was Trump’s third visit this year to the swing state, which could decide the winner of this year’s presidential race. He also plans to attend a fundraiser in neighboring Bucks County before the event.
Pennsylvania is a crucial battleground in the rematch between Trump and Biden, with both candidates expected to visit the state frequently through November. Trump flipped the state to the Republican column in 2016, but lost it four years later to Biden, who was born in Scranton, in the northeast of the country, and who has long spoken of his roots in the city . Biden plans to give a major speech Tuesday in Scranton on tax fairness.
Bob Dippel, 69, retired after working as a financial manager for several small businesses. He said he didn’t think the upcoming trial “would matter too much” to independent voters because “people are starting to see the mockery” of the justice system.
Biden argued that Trump’s lies about losing the 2020 election were dangerous for the country. He said Trump posed a fundamental threat to democracy and U.S. alliances abroad — rhetoric that Trump said applied to Biden.
“We are going to win the greatest tidal wave in history, because we are the ones fighting to save our democracy and Joe Biden is an insane tyrant,” Trump said.
The Iranian attack on Israel, apparently in retaliation for a strike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus that killed 12 people, could once again put foreign policy and the Middle East at the center of the presidential campaign.
This was the first time Iran launched a direct military attack against Israel, where officials pledged to strike Iran directly in response to any attack from Iranian soil.
Before Saturday, Trump recently said Israel must “end” its offensive in Gaza, warning that the country is “absolutely losing the PR war” as deaths mount and images of mass destruction proliferate. Israeli forces are targeting Hamas after militants staged an attack on October 7 in which they killed around 1,200 people and took 250 hostages.
“Let’s get this over with, let’s get back to peace and let’s stop killing people. And that’s a very simple statement,” Trump said in an interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt earlier this month. “They have to get this done. End this, and end it quickly because we have to – you have to get back to normal and peace.”
Trump recently said that all Democratic-leaning voters who support Israel should support him instead, as Biden criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s actions in his war against Hamas. The Republican said Wednesday that “any Jewish person who votes for a Democrat or for Biden should have their head examined.”
During his presidency, he moved the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and facilitated the normalization of relations between Israel and several Arab states through a series of agreements known as the Abraham Accords. He withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal negotiated by his predecessor, Barack Obama, a decision welcomed by Israel.
The deal lifted sanctions on Iran, which agreed in exchange to limit its nuclear program and allow inspections. Trump said he was being too generous to Iran, while supporters of a deal said it was the best option to prevent a nuclear-armed Iran.
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