Wellformer President Donald Trump was ostensibly in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania to promote Republican candidates on the state’s ballot this November.
But stumbling blocks for other Republicans took a back seat as the former president defiantly defended himself at his first campaign rally since the FBI executed a search warrant at his Mar-a-Lago home and his staunchest supporters were on hand to show their solidarity with a person they see as the rightful winner of the 2020 election.
“The Biden administration has invaded the home of their main political opponent, who is completely destroying him and everyone else in the polls,” Mr Trump told a rapturous crowd at the Mohegan Sun Arena, which was met with thunderous boos. “They’re trying to shut me up, and more importantly, they’re trying to shut you up.”
Wilkes-Barre is based in Luzerne County, one of the white working-class neighborhoods that have historically voted Democratic, but Mr. Trump flipped in 2016 and in 2020. Mr. Trump’s speech appeared to take aim at to rally supporters of candidates he supported, such as Senate nominee Dr. Mehmet Oz and gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano.
But as they spoke later at the rally, it was clear supporters were there for the Trump show.
“I feel like the FBI, the CIA, the Secret Service, I don’t care who you say. Everybody’s in bed with the Democrats,” Patty SantaBarbara said after the rally. She and her friend Paola Chasketti were traveling to Pennsylvania from upstate New York. While he said he didn’t think individual agents were in bed with Democrats, the leaders were.
“There was no reason for me to go into this man’s house in his wife’s bedroom,” she said.
His words come days after the Justice Department released court documents that’s what he said that there is evidence that the government records they were probably moved to obstruct his investigation.
The filing also said the FBI had discovered twice as many documents as Mr Trump’s lawyers had turned around and that some documents were so sensitive that Justice Department personnel tasked with reviewing them had to wait for special security clearances.
FBI agents also found 90 folders that once contained highly sensitive documents among the 27 boxes removed from Mr. Trump’s Palm Beach mansion.
“They were talking about documents not being stored properly,” he said. “However, they come in and take documents, throw them on the floor, set up a photo shoot and pretend I did it, like I put them all over the floor.”
But Mr Trump defended his actions to the crowd.
“Our movement is fighting a corrupt group of unelected tyrants who believe they can wield absolute power over you with the help of a voluntary and highly corrupt media,” he said. “They think the deep state, not the citizens, should be the real masters of this country.”
“They were talking about documents not being stored properly,” he said. “However, they come in and take documents, throw them on the floor, set up a photo shoot and pretend I did it, like I put them all over the floor.”
But Mr Trump defended his actions to the crowd.
“Our movement is fighting a corrupt group of unelected tyrants who believe they can wield absolute power over you with the help of a voluntary and highly corrupt media,” he said. “They think the deep state, not the citizens, should be the real masters of this country.”
Michelle came to the rally from Dickson City, Pennsylvania and echoed the sentiment.
“I feel like it was weird because they don’t want Trump to win,” Michel said The Independent before the rally. “That’s why they went there when he was on vacation.”
Mr. Trump allowed Dr. Oz and Mr. Mastriano to speak, and he criticized Dr. Oz’s Democratic opponent, John Fetterman, who he said dresses “like a teenager making out in the basement of Parents”.
“Fetterman supports taxpayer-funded drug busts and the complete decriminalization of illegal drugs, including heroin, cocaine, crystal meth and the ultra-lethal fentanyl,” he said said. “And by the way, he takes them himself.”
Meanwhile, Mr. Mastriano, a longtime supporter of the president, was in Washington on Jan. 6 — though he said he had left the Capitol before the violence started– drew a much bigger round of applause. Conversely, someone in the audience shouted that Dr. Oz was a “RINO” — a Republican in name only — which Marlene Laska echoed after the rally.
“I don’t believe he’s going to do the right thing for America, America first,” she said The Independent. However, she said she plans to vote for him. “I have to vote for him because you know, it’s much better to at least get a RINO and not Fetterman.”
The crowd often chanted “Lock her up” or interrupted Mr. Trump mid-speech to anger Mr. Trump’s enemies. The crowd often reaches a fever pitch, and he receives multiple standing ovations during the rally.
The former president also spoke out against President Joe Biden’s speech this week that denounced right-wing extremism.
“There is only one party waging war on American democracy by censoring free speech. Criminalizing dissent,” he said. “Disarming law-abiding citizens, issuing illegal mandates and unconstitutional orders, imprisoning political protesters. This is what they do – they manipulate elections. arming the Justice Department and the FBI like never before and breaking into and breaking into the homes of their political opponents. I wonder who that could be.”
At the same time, he also noted how he was beating Mr. Biden in the polls.
“So I might just have to do it again,” he told the crowd.
—Andrew Feinberg contributed to this report.