CNN
—
A day after Donald Trump’s posts on Truth Social were cited by prosecutors in a filing that requested strict rules on how the former president could use evidence, Trump ranted about his mounting legal issues while speaking to a large crowd in Windham, New Hampshire.
“I will talk about it. They’re not taking away my first amendment rights,” Trump told his supporters Tuesday after going after special counsel Jack Smith, calling him a “deranged lunatic.” Trump called the most recent case, the 2020 election interference probe, a “ridiculous case.”
“There was never a second of any day that I didn’t believe that it was a rigged election,” Trump said to allegations that he knew that he did not win the 2020 election. “It was a rigged election, and it was a stolen disgusting election. And this country should be ashamed. And they go after the people that want to prove that it was rigged and stolen.”
“They rigged the election in 2020 and we’re not going to allow them to rig the election in 2024,” he added.
Trump continued to paint the charges against him as election interference, claiming that President Joe Biden “ordered” his arrest because he was falling behind Trump in the polls. Trump claimed he wouldn’t be able to campaign because of the charges.
“I won’t be able to go to Iowa today. I won’t be able to go to New Hampshire today because I’m sitting in a courtroom on bullsh*t,” Trump said to a cheering crowd and later reiterated that he was “being indicted for [his supporters].”
Trump also attacked Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and defended his actions in Georgia around the 2020 election, noting that he was likely to get indicted there,
“They say there’s a young woman, a young racist in Atlanta, she’s a racist,” Trump said. “And this is a person that wants to indict me – she’s got a lot of problems. But she wants to indict me to try and run for some other office.”
Trump became increasingly sweaty during the lengthy speech in an unventilated and unairconditioned gymnasium, noting early that he had had the fan turned off because it was blowing his hair all over.
“I’m sweating like a dog up here,” he said at one point.
In a speech that started off focused on veterans, Trump announced the launch of a new coalition, “Veterans for Trump,” touted his accomplishments supporting veterans while in office, slammed Biden and the withdrawal from Afghanistan and promised to totally eradicate veterans’ homelessness in the United States if elected to office again.
Trump also repeatedly called the 2020 election a “rigged election.”
The former president also polled the audience on whether he should participate in the Republican primary debates, the first of which is scheduled for August 23 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The crowd booed and thumbs downed the proposition as Trump ticked through why he wouldn’t debate.
