On the 'Witch Hunt'
Speaking at a Republican state convention in Georgia on Saturday, Trump dubbed his indictment by the Department of Justice an attempt to damage his chances of returning to the White House as he campaigns for a second term.
“They’ve launched one witch hunt after another to try and stop our movement. They want to do anything they can to thwart the will of the American people. It's called election interference. That's what they're doing now. And we've never seen it on a scale like this. The other side is downright crooked," Trump said in an apparent nod to Democrats and the Biden administration.
On the 'Department of Injustice'
"The ridiculous and baseless indictment of me by the Biden administration’s weaponized Department of Injustice will go down as among the most horrific abuses of power in the history of our country,” Trump claimed.
He insisted that “This vicious persecution is a travesty of justice." According to him, “the only good thing is it [the indictment]’s driven my poll numbers way up.”
On 'Defiance' against Biden
The 45th president promised that he would never surrender to US President Joe Biden’s tactics, adding, “They tried to frame me for treason and now they’re trying to do it again.”
“Biden is trying to jail his leading political opponent […],” Trump said as he admitted that he “never thought such a thing could happen in America.”
“I’ve put everything on the line for you and I will never yield. I will never be detained,” the former US president underscored.
On 'Boxes' With Secret Docs
“I was impressed. It looked so orderly and nice,” Trump said, referring to the stacks of boxes found all over his estate during a search conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in his Mar-a-Lago residence earlier this year.
“Somehow somebody turned over one of the boxes. Did you see that? I wonder who did that, did the FBI do that? Because they also did something where they put documents all over the floors and they took pictures. And they tried to pretend like I did it,” the ex-POTUS claimed.
On 'Political Hit Job'
Trump referred to the US Justice Department as a "sick nest of people that need to be cleaned out immediately."
"They took one charge and made it 37. It’s a political hit job," he argued.
Trump faces a 37-count indictment for seven different federal crimes over his alleged mishandling of classified documents, which were found in “a ballroom, a bathroom and shower, an office space, his bedroom, and a storage room” at Mar-a-Lago.
On 'Corrupt' Federal Officials
Trump claimed that “Now the <...> left is once again using the same corrupt DoJ [Department of Jusice], and the same corrupt FBI, and the attorney general, and the local district attorneys to interfere […]”.
“They’re corrupt <...> They must be defeated. You have to defeat them. Because in the end, they’re not coming after me. They’re coming after you and I’m just standing in their way,” he warned.
On US Special Counsel
During the speech, Trump lashed out at US Special Counsel Jack Smith, the lead prosecutor in the Mar-a-Lago classified documents probe.
“You know I’m talking about Jack Smith. What do you think his name used to be? I don’t know … Sounds so innocent. He’s deranged,” the former US president said, labeling the special counsel “a big” and “bad Trump hater.”
On Pence and DeSantis
Trump also took a few swipes at his two GOP opponents in the presidential race, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and former US Vice President Mike Pence.
The ex-POTUS slammed them as “sick,” and “sinister people,” before saying, “No wonder the swamp is getting truly desperate.”
“Pence has gone down [in the polls], …sadly, because he’s a nice person, he’s trying to get nasty though so we may have to fight a different way. All of a sudden he got a little bit nasty, Mike,” Trump said.
On Possible WWIII
Separately, the ex-POTUS did not mince words when asserting that he is the only person who can ward off the threat of a Third World War.
“I will prevent World War III. ... Without me, it will happen,” Trump argued.
“And this won’t be a conventional war with Army tanks going back and forth, shooting each other. This will be a nuclear war. This will be obliteration — perhaps obliteration of the entire world. I will prevent it. Nobody else can say that,” he claimed.