Making his first public appearance since the House committee investigating the January 6 uprising began its hearings, former U.S. President Donald Trump attacked the committee on Friday as he continued to mock his plans for to a third presidential candidacy.
Speaking to religious conservatives at a resort near Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry House, Trump criticized the committee’s efforts as a “theatrical production of partisan political fiction” and insisted he had done nothing wrong.
“What you are seeing is a complete and utter lie. It is a complete and utter fraud,” he told the Faith and Freedom Coalition’s “Path to Majority” conference.
Supporters of the former president of the United States say that he is “impatient” and that he misses the days when he was king. (AP)
He dismissed the creepy video footage and burning testimony presented by the committee, including first-hand accounts of senior caregivers and family members, for being selectively edited. And he downplayed the insurgency as “a simple protest that went out of hand.”
Trump’s appearance at an event that has long been known as a testing ground for presidential candidates comes when he has been actively weighing in when he could formally launch another campaign in the White House.
A video of former President Donald Trump speaking during a rally as the select committee of the House investigating the January 6, 2021 Capitol attack holds a hearing at the Washington Capitol on Thursday, June 16, 2022. of Watergate and January 6 are half a century apart, at very different times, and they talked about different things. But in both episodes, a president tried to end democracy. Friday is the 50th anniversary of Watergate’s ruin, which finally cones (AP)
The debate, according to those familiar with the discussions, focuses on whether a formal announcement should be made in late summer or autumn or, according to tradition, wait until after the November midterm elections. .
While allies insist he has not yet made a final decision on his plans, Trump has been spreading his intentions for months and continued to mock them on Friday.
Violent protesters loyal to President Donald Trump stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021 in Washington. (AP)
“One of the most pressing tasks facing the next Republican president is wondering who he will be,” Trump said at one point, eliciting a standing ovation and chants of “USA!”
“Would anyone like me to run for president?” he asked the crowd, pouring out more applause.
Ralph Reed, president of the Faith and Freedom Coalition, said that at the moment, plan. ”
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Trump has spent the last year and a half holding rallies, delivering speeches and using his endorsements to take revenge and give more shape to the party in his image. But some fans say the former president, who has left his Florida Mar-a-Lago club in Bedminster, New Jersey, for the summer, is also impatient.
While he has enjoyed his role as party king, with candidates asking for his support and accumulating big tabs on fundraisers in his ballrooms, Trump also misses the days when he was truly king, especially when he sees Democratic President Joe Biden fight. with low approval rates and rising inflation.
“I think a lot of Trump’s future plans are based directly on Biden, and I think the more Biden continues to stumble on the world stage and on the national stage, the more people forget about the inconveniences, the dark side of the Trump presidency. “Bryan said. Lanza, a Republican strategist and former Trump campaign official.
An announcement in the near future could complicate the efforts of other ambitious Republicans to mount their own campaigns. Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who was an ambassador to the United Nations under Trump, for example, has said she would not run against him.
Former President Donald Trump Speaks at Road to Majority Conference Friday, June 17, 2022 in Nashville, Tennessee (AP Photo / Mark Humphrey) (AP)
And there is also concern that a short-term announcement could hurt Republicans entering the final stretch of a midterm campaign in Congress that seems increasingly pro-party. A Trump candidacy could unite Democratic voters who would otherwise be discouraged, regaining the energy the party raised in the 2018 and 2020 campaigns.
Republicans want the November election to be framed as a referendum on the first two years of Biden’s presidency. They don’t want anything, including Trump, to take them out of this path.
Regardless of his decision, the aura of inevitability that Trump tried to create from the moment he left the White House has been pierced. A long list of other Republicans has been laying the groundwork for their own potential campaigns, and some have made it clear that a Trump candidacy would have little influence on their own decisions.
It includes former Trump Vice President Mike Pence, who has been hailed by the Jan. 6 committee as someone who put the national interest ahead of his own political considerations.
Trump spoke with religious conservatives at a resort near Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry House (AP Photo / Mark Humphrey) (AP)
Looking at a White House offer, Pence maintains an energetic political agenda focused on drawing attention to Democratic vulnerabilities. But his challenges came to the fore on Friday, as Trump continued to criticize him for failing to comply with his plan to overturn the 2020 election results.
While denying ever calling Pence a flash, Trump criticized his former vice president on Friday and said, “Mike didn’t have the courage to act.”
This drew applause from a crowd that Pence, himself an evangelical Christian, has spoken to numerous times before.
Reed, who described himself as “a dear friend” of Pence, declined to comment on the fracture, but said Pence had been invited to attend the conference. “If Mike Pence wanted to come and wanted to offer a reply to these people, he could have done so,” he said.
Beyond Pence, other potential candidates such as Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie have also indicated that their decisions are not up to Trump. And others are making moves, such as former Trump Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Florida Sen. Rick Scott and South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, who were all present at the conference, and Gov. Florida Ron DeSantis, who is seen by many loyal Trumps. supporters as the future of their movement.
While it’s becoming increasingly clear that Trump wouldn’t be marching toward the GOP nomination without questions, a large field of candidates could still work to his advantage. The dynamic begins to resemble the 2016 campaign, when Trump faced a large and difficult-to-manage group of candidates who split the anti-Trump vote.
“We’re going to be in pretty unfamiliar waters,” Reed said. “So I tend to think that it’s not going to be the same kind of primary as, say, ’16. “It’s not 2020. He’ll be in the primary. And he won’t be the incumbent president. And depending on who he chooses to run for, it will be different for him.
In fact, despite public outcry, many in attendance at the conference expressed skepticism about a third Trump career.
“I don’t know. The jury is still out with me,” said Jonathan Goodwin, a minister who works as an organizer of Faith and Freedom in South Carolina.
“I like it, but I think he was shot too many times in the foot”
Goodwin said he “definitely” had his own concerns about the 2020 election, but did not support how Trump had handled the situation. “I think he should have bowed gracefully,” he said, “whether he was manipulated or not.”
Illinois Conservative Pam Roehl, who arrived at the conference Friday with a red Trump baseball cap and a “Trump 2020” necklace, said she still supports the former president, but is increasingly minority among friends who have gone ahead, discarding their bumper stickers. and hugging DeSantis.
“They’re like, ‘Get the program. Why aren’t you supporting DeSantis? ‘”He said.