[ad_1]
WASHINGTON, April 5 (PTI) — A defiant former president, Donald Trump, has condemned criminal charges against him related to hush money payments to porn stars ahead of the 2016 presidential election and said the US has now become a “failed nation”. “, “Radical left lunatics” want to interfere in the election through law enforcement.
Trump, the first former U.S. president to be criminally charged, pleaded not guilty at his arraignment in Manhattan court to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records for hush money payments to Stormy Daniels.
Read also | “America is going to hell,” Donald Trump said as he mocked Joe Biden’s administration.
The 76-year-old former Republican president will rule the country for four years until January 2021.
Speaking to his supporters hours after he was arraigned, Trump said: “The only crime I committed was to fearlessly defend our country from those who would try to destroy it.”
Read also | Panama Earthquake: 6.3-magnitude quake shakes Boca Chica; no damage reported.
“It’s unbelievable that we’re a failed country right now. We’re a declining country. Now these lunatics on the radical left want to interfere with our elections through law enforcement. We can’t let that happen,” Trump said. Shortly after flying home from New York, he told supporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida that he would be in the White House for a second time in 2024.
“Our country is going to hell,” the 76-year-old Republican leader said in a roughly 25-minute speech.
He described the period since leaving office as “the most embarrassing moment in the history of our country”.
“Having said that, there are dark clouds hanging over our beloved country, but I have no doubt that we will make America great again,” he said in his first public speech since taking office when he was arraigned on Tuesday.
Trump also attacked Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, whose office convinced a New York grand jury to bring the first-ever criminal charges against a former U.S. president.
“But now we’re here. Take the time [in New York] Today, as you may have read, a failed local district attorney charged a former US president for the first time in history on the basis that every pundit and legal analyst said, ‘There’s no case; there’s no case. They keep saying, ‘No case! ’” Trump said of his arrest.
“He knew there was no case. That’s why last week he delayed it for a month, then immediately retracted it and put together this ridiculous indictment; it came out today. Everyone said, ‘This isn’t a real indictment. What’s here None.’ My lawyers came to me and they said, ‘There’s nothing here; they didn’t even say what you did,'” he continued.
Trump went on to call for Bragg to be indicted, claiming he leaked grand jury documents to the public.
He criticized the indictment against him, saying he was “conducting a sham investigation” that “turned out to be a hoax.”
“Let me be as clear as possible: I am innocent. The only crime I committed was to protect America from those who would try to destroy it. What we are witnessing is election interference at the highest level,” he said.
“Let me assure you – I’ve never been more determined. They won’t beat me. They won’t break me. They won’t stop me from fighting to save this country. The more they try to frame me, slander Me, destroy me, the more determined I am to do my job,” Trump said.
He didn’t even spare state Supreme Court Judge Juan M Merchan, who oversaw his case.
The ex-president claimed he was a “Trump-hating judge,” had a “Trump-hating wife,” and “his daughter worked for Kamala’s (Harris) house, and now from Biden- Harris campaign got money” family.
Trump said America is in a mess right now.
“Our economy is collapsing. Inflation is out of control. Russia has joined China. Can you believe it? Saudi Arabia has joined Iran,” he said.
“China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea form a threatening and destructive alliance that would never have happened if I were your president. Russia will not attack Ukraine. All these lives will be saved Save. All those beautiful cities will stand,” he said.
“Our currency is collapsing and will soon cease to be the world standard and, frankly, will be our biggest failure in 200 years. There will be no such failure that will deprive us of great power. Bad five presidents combined, they’re not going to do as much damage to our country as Joe Biden and the Biden administration did,” Trump said.
The former president said countries were openly threatening to use nuclear weapons, something that was never mentioned or discussed by other countries during the Trump administration.
“Under a Biden administration, this could well lead to a third all-out nuclear war. Believe it or not, we’re not far from it,” Trump said.
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)
share now