Defiant Trump returns to Georgia with grievance-filled speech
Trump attacks Willis as "lunatic Marxist"
A defiant former President Donald Trump returned to Georgia on Saturday to address delegates at the Republican Party state convention. It was his first time speaking in a public setting since being indicted by federal prosecutors in the classified documents investigation.
His remarks were another opportunity to air many of his grievances, from the 2020 election, to his phone call with Georgia’s Secretary of State and attacking the prosecutors who are investigating him.
Trump maintained his innocence in the classified documents investigation, where he is facing charges ranging from mishandling classified material to taking part in a conspiracy to obstruct justice. If convicted on all counts, he faces the possibility of spending the rest of his life in prison.
But he mocked the indictment in Columbus Saturday, and he even attacked the “deranged” special counsel who is leading the investigation. He called the charges a “witch hunt” and a “scam” and accused federal prosecutors of trying to interfere with the 2024 election. He went on to warn the crowd of nearly 3,000 delegates that prosecutors are not coming after him, but “they are coming after you.”
He also had strong words for Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who is leading the investigation into his campaign’s attempts to overturn Georgia’s election results. He blasted Willis as a “lunatic Marxist” and maintained that his January 2021 phone call with Secretary of State Brad Raffenspereger, which is at the center of the investigation, was a “perfect” phone call.
Willis has signaled that she expects indictments to be unsealed in August.
Raffensperger, along with Gov. Brian Kemp, skipped this weekend’s convention. But the former President seemed to cast doubt on their 2022 victories, when they defeated Trump-backed challengers by wide margins in the Republican primary. He said former Sen. David Perdue lost to Kemp by numbers that “nobody ever thought possible.”
Perdue lost the primary by more than 50 points.
Kemp has not commented on this weekend’s convention. But a Kemp-aligned Super PAC welcomed Trump to Georgia with a new poll finding the former President in a neck-and-neck race with President Joe Biden. The governor has been overheard warning donors that continued focus on the 2020 election will “distract” his party in 2024.
Nevertheless, Trump remains the frontrunner for the Republican nomination. Here in Georgia, the most recent survey found him with a 20-point lead over his nearest rival, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. Nationwide, Trump is averaging a lead of more than 30 points over DeSantis.
But no surveys have been taken since the federal indictment was unsealed.
Trump was not the only GOP presidential candidate in Columbus this weekend. Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson also delivered remarks. He was the only candidate that called on Trump to drop out of the race.
Republican delegates gathered this weekend to elect new party leadership. Former State Sen. Josh McKoon won the race for state party chairman. He succeeds David Shafer, whose controversial tenure appears likely to end with criminal charges for his involvement in the Trump campaign’s fake elector scheme.