Trump touts record, dismisses indictment as witch-hunt at GA GOP Convention

Jun. 11—COLUMBUS, GA.- Former President Donald Trump arrived at the GA GOP Convention in Columbus on Saturday afternoon, making his first campaign speech since being indicted on 37-counts of mishandling government documents.

The 2024 presidential frontrunner proved not to be deterred from his mission of seeking an endorsement from the Georgia Republican Party, seeming jovial as he exited "Trump Force One" at the Columbus Airport, while dancing along and taking pictures with fans.

Trump was well-welcomed at the convention, as he entered to Lee Greenwood's "I'm Proud to be an American," where delighted Republican delegates cheered him on, chanting "USA!"

Trump began by thanking the record-breaking crowd of more than 2,000 delegates who turned out for his campaign speech and Immediate Past Chairman of the Georgia Republican Party, David Shafer, for his leadership the last several years.

Trump explained that together he and the Republican Party can stand up to the extremists, Marxists, radicals, RHINOS and crooked Department of Justice who have plagued the country the past three years.

"Every time I fly over a blue state, I get a subpoena," he joked.

However, he then turned solemn, saying he has put everything on the line and has not yielded to "the corrupt political establishment" and never will.

"I will never stop fighting," he said. "I didn't need any of this. I had a great life, but we are going to make America great again."

In order to "make America great again" Trump insisted Republicans must vote out the current corrupt government, which had opened the borders and "squandered our blood and treasure" on endless wars.

Trump reflected on his campaign run in 2020, claiming people said his personality would cause wars.

"It turns out it's my personality that made people not want to fight us," Trump said laughing.

Trump contrasted his time in office to the current situation today, pointing out that Afghanistan is currently the largest exporter of military goods, selling everything the United States gave them, while the United States focuses on gender and imported goods.

"Our country is no longer respected," he said. "Three years ago, our country was respected more than ever before. Today, we don't even have any ammunition; Ukraine has all our ammunition. When I was president, we were stuffed to the guild with ammunition."

Trump insisted that his impeccable performance as Commander-in-Chief, along with his strong economic policy made him the perfect President and the only logical explanation behind not winning a second-term was election interference.

"He (Biden) spied on my campaign and we caught them," Trump alleged. "These people don't stop."

Trump pointed back to polls that said he was up by 17 points in the 2020 election, before eventually losing to Biden.

"We didn't lose," Trump told the Republican base. "We won by a lot. We would come here for rallies and fill up the place with 40-50,000 people, but they (Democrats) couldn't even fill up a base and then at the end I hear he just clipped you."

Trump claimed politicians told him it was impossible to win Alabama with record-setting numbers and South Carolina, but lose in Georgia.

"Right now, you (Georgia) has a lunatic, Marxist district attorney coming after me over a perfect phone call," Trump said.

The former president is referring to the call he made in 2020, asserting the results of the Presidential election were rigged.

"I had every right to complain that the election in Georgia was, in my opinion, rigged," Trump said. "The day you're not allowed to complain about an election is the day you are Communist China."

Trump was met with a huge round of applause from delegates, who concurred with his statements.

Trump did eventually acknowledge his indictment, calling it the "most horrific abuse of power in the history of our country."

"This vicious persecution you're watching is Joe Biden trying to jail his leading political opponent, who is beating him by a lot in the polls, just like they do in Communist China," Trump said to the crowd. "The only good thing about this indictment is it has driven my poll numbers way up and the fundraising is through the roof."

Trump said the documents were well within his power to hold onto, due to the Presidential Records Act.

He reminisced on his move back to Mar-a-Lago, when he sat the boxes on the White House sidewalk, where reportedly "everyone was taking pictures."

"This isn't someone smuggling boxes out," Trump said. "This is someone placing boxes on the sidewalk and waiting for a truck to come and pick them up. If this is a spy operation, we did a very bad job."

Trump asserted that he, like many Presidents before him, was in the midst of negotiating with the National Archives when Mar-a-Lago was raided by "gun-toting FBI agents."

"Meanwhile, Biden has droves of records from when he was Vice-President," Trump told the crowd. "He even has documents from his time as a Senator, and Senators are not allowed to bring home classified documents."

Trump said the amount of documents he had was peanuts compared to Biden's 1,850 boxes, and they were guarded by the secret service at the Southern White House.

However, Trump claimed he is willing to be gone after by the Department of Justice for the sake of the country.

"We need to drain the swamp and no one else is going to do it, so I have to do it," he said.

Trump's willingness to drain the swamp and fight the indictments he is facing seem to be working, as he leads Joe Biden in the polls 44 percent to 38 percent, as reported in a survey by the Washington Post and ABC News.

But, no win is guaranteed.

With that, Trump asked for the GOP's vote.

"With your vote, we will take back our country from these Fascist thugs and absolutely make America great again," he cheered.

Trump was met with a standing ovation, as he then headed to North Carolina to deliver a speech.