OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Former President Donald Trump was in familiar form during a campaign event in Arizona on Saturday night as he stumped for his preferred candidates, including GOP gubernatorial leader Kari Lake.
During his speech, Trump took shots at the probe by the Jan. 6 Committee as well as other investigations into his past conduct, claiming that all of it would cease right away if he announced he wasn’t running for president again in 2024.
Declaring the committee’s probe a “hoax,” he said an announcement by him that he had chosen not to run would end the “persecution” against him, adding it would “immediately stop.”
“They’re coming after me because I’m standing up for you,” Trump said at the Prescott Valley Save America rally, where he campaigned for Lake as well as Blake Masters for the U.S. Senate and a new endorsement of Eli Crane, who is running for Arizona’s 2nd Congressional District.
Newsmax notes:
Trump said he watched the committee’s prime-time hearing Thursday when the testimony and evidence centered around his actions during the violence at the Capitol. He slammed the proceedings as a “hoax” and ridiculed former deputy press secretary Sarah Matthews for testifying about her reaction to the Jan. 6 incidents.
“I watched this hoax last night where a young lady said, ‘Oh, I’m so heartbroken,'” Trump said. “But three weeks after Jan. 6, she wrote us a letter saying, ‘Oh, I loved working for the president. He’s so great.'”
He also blasted former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, who testified previously, for her claim that the then-president attempted to force his Secret Service detail to drive him to the Capitol.
“Can you imagine this made-up story?” he said. “It is total fiction, and I say thank God for the great people in the Secret Service because they put out a statement that it wasn’t terrible.
“Then she had me throwing food, throwing food in the White House. I don’t throw food in the White House. I don’t throw food anywhere. I eat the food, which is a problem. I’d probably be better off if I threw it,” he quipped.
Trump went on to blast the Jan. 6 committee for refusing to call in Secret Service agents who could allegedly provide testimony refuting Hutchison’s allegations.
“It’s just a horrible thing that’s going on in our country,” he said. “It’s sick, and the fake news media is totally complicit. These are very dishonest people.”
Trump noted that if he suddenly announced he wouldn’t run, the media and Democrats “would go on to the next victim, but that’s not what I do,” adding he “can’t do that because I love this country, and I love you.”
The former president also told the crowd that he had a “very good and luxurious life before entering the wonderful world of politics.”
“I’m doing it for you, and it’s my honor to do it,” he said. “Because if I don’t do it, I truly believe our nation is doomed to become another Venezuela or become another Soviet Union or become another large-scale version of Cuba, where all is lost, and there is no hope.”
Trump has publicly flirted with the notion of running again in 2024 for the better part of a year, but he has yet to make a formal announcement.
That said, a report last week said that Trump is slated to declare his candidacy later this summer or in early fall — ahead of the November midterms.
Trump told New York Magazine, “Well, in my own mind, I’ve already made that decision, so nothing factors in anymore. In my own mind, I’ve already made that decision.”
The Washington Post reported:
The former president is now eyeing a September announcement, according to two Trump advisers, who like some others interviewed for this article spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private conversations. One confidant put the odds at “70-30 he announces before the midterms.” And others said he may still decide to announce sooner than September.
