Former President Donald Trump began his post-arraignment remarks at Mar-a-Lago Tuesday night with a strong claim that the “only crime” he committed was defending the nation.
“God bless you all. I never thought something like this could happen in the United States,” he said, adding that the only crime he has committed is trying to “defend our nation from those who seek to destroy it.”
The former president’s speech took place a few hours after he was charged with 34 felony criminal counts related to payments made to porn star Stormy Daniels to prevent her from speaking out about her alleged affair a month before the 2016 presidential election. Earlier Tuesday in New York City, judge of the Supreme Court of the state Juan Merchan, who is in charge of the case, advised the former president that refrain from inciting “violence or civil unrest” following the appearance.
Trump’s speech at his Mar-a-Lago country club in Palm Beach, Florida, began in a familiar fashion as he stuck to old talking points, rambling on unsubstantiated claims he has repeated in recent years, including that the election 2020 presidential election was “robbed” and that the FBI’s raid on Mar-a-Lago to recover classified documents was illegal.
He briefly touched on his usual critics of Democrats, including President Joe Biden, but focused mainly on the prosecutors, investigators and judges involved in his legal entanglements, including New York Attorney General Letitia James, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and special counsel Jack Smith.
At one point in the speech, Trump claimed that the United States was headed for an “all-out nuclear World War III” under the Biden administration, claiming without evidence that “we’re not very far from that.”
The speech lasted 25 minutes, shorter than his usual speeches. Multiple news networks, including CNN, NBC News and the live feed of the Washington Post, cut off Trump’s speech before it ended.
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