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| Photo Credit: AP. |
Former President Donald Trump Saturday dismissed President Joe Biden’s anti-MAGA speech as “hatred and anger” against his supporters. He said Biden’s prime time speech on Thursday was most “vicious, hateful and divisive”.
Mr. Trump who was speaking at a rally in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania where he endorsed Dr. Mehmet Oz for Senate and Doug Mastriano for governor called on his supporters to fire “radical left democrats” such as Nancy Pelosi and others in favor of his candidates.
Mr. Trump
who noted that the “country is going to hell” said the midterms would be a “referendum
on skyrocketing inflation, ramping crime, soaring murders, crushing gas prices”.
The
president lamented the “millions and millions of illegal aliens pouring across
our border” which the Biden administration has so far failed to address. The
governors of Texas and Arizona bused thousands of illegal migrants to cities
such as New York and Washington in protest at Biden’s immigration policy after
the president said in April he was going to lift a Trump era ban on immigration
at the southern border to halt the spread of corona virus.
The former
president blamed the country’s troubles on the “corruption and extremism of Joe
Biden and the radical left Democrat party.”
“As you know
this week Joe Biden came to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to give the most
vicious, hateful and divisive speech ever delivered by an American president,
vilifying 75 million citizens, plus another probably 75 to 150,” Trump said at
the rally.
“If we want
to be accurate about it, As threats to democracy and as enemies of the state,
you're all enemies of the state. He's an enemy of the state, you know that? The
enemy of the state is him and the group that control him, which is circling
around him, 'Do this. do that Joe, you're going to do this Joe," the
former president said.
Trump said
Philadelphia was a great choice for Biden’s speech because the city according
to him is “being devastated under Democrat rules. Devastated. He could tell
you, we love Pennsylvania. I went to school in Philadelphia, what's happening
to Philadelphia?”
How many have so far been killed in Philadelphia violence?
Trump
decried the increasing homicides and crime rates in the state which he blamed
on the “radical left democrats”.
“Fourteen
people were shot last weekend in Philadelphia, 14, and the fake news will—God,
that's a lot of fake news lately. A lot of fake news.”
“Well,
they'll go out and check the facts for people were killed last weekend. At one
point last month, seven people were shot in the span of just 71 minutes, in
Philadelphia this year. Philadelphia has already seen more than 1,400 people
shot including numerous beautiful little children.
“Last year,
the city set an all time murder record with 560 homicides, and it's on track to
shatter that record. Again in 2022 numbers that nobody's ever seen other than
some other Democrat-run cities. Armed robberies in Philadelphia are up 62
percent. Doug, you have to take care of this. You have to take care of it, and
we'll send you the goods, I'll send him the goods. You know what the goods are:
lots of police officers. That's what the goods are.”
“Retail
theft is up 59 percent from last year,” Mr. Trump said.
“There have
been more than 750 carjackings this year. Anybody have a nice car, because
you're not gonna have it long. More than triple the average for 2010 to 2019.
And it's heading way up heading up in other cities that are run by Democrats
also,” the former president added.
Trump
advised Biden and congressional Democrats to “focus on stopping the killing and
the bloodshed in Philadelphia and every other Democrat-run city in America
where record death and destruction is taking place every single day,” instead
of demonizing his supporters.
Are Trump's MAGA supporters undermining democracy?
Trump
dismiss claims by Biden that supporters of his Make America Great Again (MAGA)
project were undermining the country’s democracy but accused the Democrats of
undermining democracy by censoring free speech.
“He thinks
making America great again is a threat to our country. No, making America great
again is great for our country.
“There's
only one party that's waging war in American democracy by censoring free
speech, criminalizing dissent. You see that happening? Disarming law-abiding
citizens, issuing lawless mandates and unconstitutional orders, imprisoning
political protesters. That's what they're doing, rigging elections. weaponizing
the Justice Department and the FBI like never ever before. And raiding and
breaking into the homes of their political opponents. I wonder who that could
be.”
“Republicans
in the MAGA movement are not the ones trying to undermine our democracy. We are
the ones trying to save our democracy very simple. The danger to democracy
comes from the radical left, not from the right. Not from the right,” he said.
The Pennsylvania
speech was the first following a raid by FBI agents at the former president’s
home where boxes of classified documents were recovered. Mr. Trump said the
raid was politically motivated and that he had already declassified the
documents before he removed them from the White House.
During a
prime-time speech Thursday at the National Historical Park in downtown
Philadelphia, where the U.S. Constitution was crafted in 1787, Biden railed in
bitter terms against the Republican Party especially those who are in the
circle of Trump’s Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement in a speech
described by White House officials as “battle for the soul of the nation”.
Biden
accused what he called “MAGA forces” of seeking to move the United States
“backwards” to an era never seen before with fewer civil rights.
During his
speech, Mr. Biden accused so-called “MAGA Republicans” of refusing to recognize
free and fair elections, talking about violence in response to political
policies they don’t like and working to thwart “the will of the people.”
“I will not let the will of the American
people be overturned by wild conspiracy theories and baseless, evidence-free
claims of fraud. I will not stand by and watch elections in this country stolen
by people who simply refuse to accept that they lost,” Mr. Biden lashed at
supporters of Trump who refused to accept the results of the 2020 elections
after their principal lost the election, according to The Washington Times.