Defiant Donald Trump attacks ‘nasty’ Pence and ‘deranged’ special consul Jack Smith
Former president Donald Trump is speaking at two Republican state conventions today in Georgia and North Carolina, just one day after he was indicted for keeping highly-classified information at his Florida home, Mar-a-Lago.
The 49-page, 38-count indictment was unsealed on Friday after Mr Trump released a series of social media posts revealing that he has been indicted by a grand jury under the supervision of Special Counsel Jack Smith.
The indictment details the charges against Mr Trump and Walt Nauta, a former US Navy noncommissioned officer who left government service to work for Mr Trump after his term ended in January 2021.
The former president has fumed online about the charges and lashed out at Mr Smith calling him a “deranged lunatic”. The special counsel for his part gave a brief explanation of the sweeping indictment and reiterated that in America, the law applies to everyone.
Mr Trump repeated his attacks on Mr Smith onstage in Georgia before flying up to his second event. On the flight, he told Politico he would not quit the 2024 primary race even if convicted.
Key Points
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Trump is running through what he would do if elected again in 2024.
The biggest applause and cheers from the crowd go towards his promises surrounding critical race theory and transgenderism, and then again when he says he will not give any money to schools that have vaccine mandates, and for a final time when he says he will keep men out of women’s sports and will ban “child sexual mutilation”.
Oliver O’Connell11 June 2023 01:49
Trump goes on an extended tear about CNN and former CEO Chris Licht who was just fired from the network after a botched effort to drag the network to the right.
Oliver O’Connell11 June 2023 01:35
While still raspy, Trump has picked up steam as he makes his way through his talking points adding different digressions and adlibs than the earlier speech in Georgia.
Some are mind-boggling versions of events and others are questionable, such as this one about “sadists” at the Veterans Administration who “would beat up old wonderful soldiers. Beat the hell out of them. They got their jollies out of it. They’re sick. And we weren’t allowed to fire them.”
Oliver O’Connell11 June 2023 01:31
Trump goes after DeSantis with his various nicknames and the idea that the Florida governor changed his name mid-campaign.
Oliver O’Connell11 June 2023 01:21
Trump jokes about the indictment but then reiterates that he doesn’t really like to be indicted.
“When I was studying, when I was a very, very successful businessman. When I did The Apprentice, and I did lots of books that were big, big, big, big sellers…I never had the word indictment.”
Oliver O’Connell11 June 2023 01:14
This was a horrific turn of phrase for mentioning debunked electoral fraud conspiracies.
(APTOPIX )
Oliver O’Connell11 June 2023 01:06
Trump says: “At the end of the day, either the communists destroy America, or we destroy the communists.”
Oliver O’Connell11 June 2023 01:04
Trump claims he was ready to take over Venezuela and its oil when he left office.
Oliver O’Connell11 June 2023 00:59
Trump compares the Espionage Act to “the creation of missiles in your basement!”
Oliver O’Connell11 June 2023 00:56
In a major riff against the press — in which he reminds the audience he is suing the Pulitzer organisation — Trump attacks Woodward and Bernstein of Watergate fame, calling them “major sleazebags”.
Oliver O’Connell11 June 2023 00:51