Donald Trump radiated indignation when he spoke at his Bedminster golf club Tuesday, capping a historic day in U.S. politics as the first chief executive ever charged with federal crimes — 37 counts. The former president delivered a bitter half-hour speech laced with lies and insults followed by a $100,000-per-person fundraiser. “The horrific violations of my rights by crooked Joe Biden’s weaponized Department of Injustice are unthinkable,” he told the crowd.
The indictment includes photos, tapes and notes — making for what even several Republicans called a “damning” case that Trump unlawfully kept and possibly shared classified government files, in violation of the Espionage Act. But Trump insisted he did nothing wrong. “The Espionage Act has been used to go after traitors and spies and has nothing to do with a former president legally keeping his own documents,” he said.
“What I saw last night was a former president throwing some stuff at the wall and seeing what would stick and what would not stick,” said defense lawyer John Azzarello. “Obviously, it’s the public court of opinion he’s trying to influence now.”
Trump’s diehard supporters believe he’s a victim, targeted by the Biden administration, and vowed their support is unshakeable. One woman who was asked whether Trump could do anything that might dissuade her from voting for him, said, “He could murder somebody, I’d still vote for him. I would still vote for that man.”
“Since the last election, he has been on a one-man crime spree,” said Micah Rasmussen, director of the Rebovich Institute for New Jersey Politics at Rider University. “What’s happening within the party is making him stronger as the potential nominee while it’s making him weaker as the general election candidate.”
Charles Stile, political columnist with The Record, said, “The level of polarization is going to be taken up to a whole new factor, a whole new level. And it’s frightening. We’re really going to be into uncharted waters.”
