Donald Trump continued his push on Saturday to win the Republican presidential nomination with a pair of caucus rallies in Iowa, beginning at the DMACC Conference Center in Newton and then culminating in Clinton. His speeches come on the third anniversary of Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol and a little more than a week before the Republican Iowa caucus commences on Jan. 15.
As for commemorating the solemn anniversary of Jan. 6, Trump lauded the insurrectionists, while labeling some immigrants as “terrorists” and prisoners and gang members. “And terrorists are coming in also. What they’re doing to our country is not — it’s it’s, when you talk about insurrection, what they’re doing? That’s the real deal. That the real deal — not patriotically and peacefully, peacefully and patriotically” he said, contrasting those who rioted as “peaceful” and “patriotic” against immigrants, who the four-time indicted former president continually paints as criminals.
Left: Trump just now calling January 6 insurrectionists peaceful and patriotic
Right: January 6 insurrectionists violently beating law enforcement and attacking American democracy pic.twitter.com/G2AvLE9oX0
— Biden-Harris HQ (@BidenHQ) January 6, 2024
In his appearance in Newton, a particularly bronzed-up Trump made his usual claims that Biden is the worst president in the history of the United States, and took potshots at his Republican challengers Nikki Haley, Ron DeSantis, and Chris Christie. His Biden attacks included making fun of Biden being unable to articulate or navigate stairs. Meanwhile, Trump also fondly waxed about the Civil War, which he called “fascinating.”
“I’m so attracted to seeing it,” Trump said. “So many mistakes were made. See, there was something I think could have been negotiated to be honest with you. … I was reading something and I said, ‘This is something that could have been negotiated … that was a that was a tough one for our country… If you negotiated it, you probably wouldn’t even know who Abraham Lincoln was … but that would have been OK.”
Trump on The Civil War: I’m so attracted to seeing it. There was something that could’ve been negotiated… Abraham Lincoln, if he negotiated it, we wouldn’t know who Lincoln was. He wouldn’t have been the Abraham Lincoln. But that would’ve been ok. pic.twitter.com/RbmnXCvypI
— Acyn (@Acyn) January 6, 2024
Elsewhere, he blasted E. Jean Carroll — though he didn’t refer to her by name — whom he was found liable in May of sexually abusing and of defamation. During his speech on Saturday as he has previously, he claimed the incident did not happen while glossing over his four indictments and civil trials against him, almost as a badge of honor (which he compared again to Al Capone and reminded the audience once again, “I’m being indicted for you.”)
“In my case, they went after me, and they would have done it more except it’s backfired. It’s backfired,” he claimed. “And if I didn’t run, or if I was in fifth place or something, I would have had no indictments. This is all political stuff, including the women’s stuff. The Bergdorf Goodman. ‘I meet a woman outside of Bergdorf Goodman. I took her upstairs to a changing booth’ — It was all made up,” he claimed. Carroll, who accused Trump of sexual assault and rape in a dressing room at Bergdorf Goodman 30 years ago, has a second civil case against Trump that is expected to go to trial this month.
A day prior, President Joe Biden delivered his first major election year campaign speech, where he lambasted his potential 2024 rival. In his speech, Biden addressed Trump’s refusal to accept the peaceful transfer of power in 2020. “Trump exhausted every legal avenue available to him to overturn the election,” he said. “Every one. But the legal path just took Trump back to the truth: that I had won the election and he was a loser. Well, knowing how his mind works now, he had one act left. One desperate act available to him: the violence of Jan. 6.”
Biden also blamed the deaths from the attack on the Capitol on “Donald Trump’s lies,” adding: “As America was attacked from within, Donald Trump watched on TV in the private small dining room off the oval office. The entire nation watched in horror, the whole world watched in disbelief, and Trump did nothing … It was among the worst derelictions of duty by a president in American history. An attempt to overturn a free and fair election by force and violence.”
That same day Biden delivered his speech, Trump was in Sioux Center, Iowa, where he told residents they should “get over” an incident on Thursday where a gunman killed a sixth grade student and wounded five others at Perry High School northwest of Des Moines.
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