On Saturday night, former U.S. President Donald Trump addressed the people in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, ahead of the upcoming candidate’s election. He was in the state to promote two Republican candidates. Dr. Mehmet Oz is running for the US Senate, and state Senator Doug Mastriano is in the race to become Pennsylvania’s next governor.
Donald Trump called President Joe Biden an “enemy of the state” at his first rally since the FBI searched his Florida resort for sensitive files.
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On Thursday, 30 August 2022, Joe Biden made a blistering attack in a prime-time speech, saying “Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans represent extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic.”
At the Trump rally, the two Pennsylvania candidates spoke only briefly, with the 76-year-old former president speaking for nearly two hours.
Here are five key takeaways from the Trump speech.
Trump calls FBI raid a travesty of justice
Donald Trump spoke extensively about the recent searches conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) at his home in Florida, Mar-a-Lago. He alleged that the Biden dispensation is weaponizing the FBI and using it to vilify him. The government has accused Trump of taking with him classified White House documents after he was relieved of his presidential duties in January last year and storing them at Mar-a-Lago. The FBI searches were made in that connection and agents seized among other things, documents marked “secret” and “top secret.
Trump said the searches were a “travesty of justice” and “one of the most shocking abuses of power in American history”.
Trump attacks the Department of Justice
The US Department of Justice was also at the receiving end of Donald Trump’s scathing attack. He played to the galleries saying, “We are being assaulted… by the FBI and DOJ”.
“It was not just my home that was raided… it was the hopes and dreams of every citizen who I’ve been fighting for since the moment I came down the golden escalator in 2015, wanting to represent the people,” Donald Trump said.
Pushing The MAGA Agenda
Earlier this week, President Joe Biden criticized the MAGA movement in a primetime speech from Philadelphia. Donald Trump used the Biden attack to was quick to catch up on that and defended the MAGA Republicans, who are all his supporters.
Referring to Joe Biden’s comments, Trump said, “I don’t think he knows what it means to make America great again. […] He thinks making America great again is a threat to our country. No, making America great again is great for our country.”
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In his speech, Mr. Biden had called the MAGA Republican a threat to democracy. Trump not only defended them but assured them that he will make America great again.
The Spotlight on Russia
One of the focal points of the upcoming senate elections in the US is the war between Russia and Ukraine. Mr. Trump criticized the Biden administration for failing to stop Russia’s aggression on Ukraine. He even accused Biden of going soft with Russia.
“Just so you know, I was tougher on Russia than any president by far. I’m the one that stopped Nord Stream 2, the pipeline. I’m the one that did the big sanctions. I guarantee you one thing, Putin was not going into Ukraine. I guarantee you that. I guarantee you. Nobody was tougher than me,” he said.
The Hunter Biden Laptop Controversy Back On The Agenda
In his characteristic style, Donald Trump also took up the Hunter Biden laptop controversy. He alleged that the FBI, who was in charge of the investigation, went to Facebook authorities and gave them a “false narrative” that the issue about the laptop was a case of Russian disinformation.
“The FBI Made it clear they did not want the truth about the criminality and influence peddling of the Biden family coming out before the election because that would hurt the chances of Joe Biden, who virtually never left his basement, winning the election”, he said.
