Former North American President Donald Trump clung, on Saturday, to the image of a victim of a political witch hunt, asking for the support of Republicans in a rally without almost making reference to the assault on the Capitol, which was three years ago.
“If I hadn’t been running, or if I had been in fifth place in the polls, they wouldn’t have accused me. This is all a political issue”, said the Republican, who was President between 2017 and 2021, at an event in Iowa.
Defiant and aggressive, Trump made few references to the attack on the Capitol, which marks three years today, in his almost two hours of speech: “Nobody thought that January 6th was even a possibility”.
Trump faces criminal charges in federal court in the US capital for what happened, interrupting the peaceful transfer of power to Joe Biden and spreading false theories about electoral fraud.
Some of the theories he insisted on again yesterday: “The radical left Democrats manipulated the 2020 presidential elections and we will not allow them to manipulate the 2024 presidential elections”.
On January 6, 2021, Trump supporters invaded the Capitol with the aim of interrupting the parliamentary session in which Biden’s victory in the 2020 elections would be certified, forcing lawmakers to go into hiding and the Police to confront the invaders.
The assault on the Capitol took place after Trump, at a rally in front of the White House, urged the crowd to go to Congress and “fight with all their strength”.
Five people died, four police officers later committed suicide, 1,250 people were charged and 890 convictions have already been handed down.
The Capitol case is just one of four criminal cases facing the former President, who yesterday again insisted, without evidence, that Joe Biden is using justice “like never before” as a “weapon” against him.
“Every time the radical left Democrats, communists and fascists accuse me I consider it a great badge of honor”, added Trump, who indicated that currently “prosecutors are more powerful than politicians”.
The Republican, his party’s favorite in the polls to become the presidential candidate, was speaking at an event in Iowa, where the party’s primaries begin on January 15.
The Iowa primaries traditionally serve as a starting point to measure the support of each candidate on the path to the White House and, aware of its relevance, yesterday Trump also harshly criticized Republican rivals who, although distant in the polls, also aspire to face at the polls Joe Biden, the Democratic candidate.
The most cited were Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis. According to the average of polls prepared by the website FiveThirtyEight, Trump is 50 percentage points ahead of the governor of Florida (11.3% support) and the former US ambassador to the UN (11.3%).
“By achieving a massive victory in Iowa, we will send a thunderous message directly to the corrupt Joe Biden, the fake news media and all the evil and sinister people who are trying to destroy our nation,” Trump said.
The former President made these statements just hours after the Supreme Court accepted the case regarding his expulsion from the Republican Party primaries in Colorado.
The highest court in the United States will have to establish a national position on whether Trump can participate in the 2024 presidential elections or whether, on the contrary, the role he played in the attack on the Capitol in 2021 makes him ineligible.
The public hearing to study the case will be on February 8th, although it is not yet known when the Supreme Court will make its decision.
Trump also warned that there will be “big problems” if the Supreme Court does not rule in his favor regarding his eligibility for this year’s presidential elections.
“I just hope that we get fair treatment (…) because if we don’t, our country will be in big trouble”, he highlighted.