Donald Trump has announced a crusade to make the United States free again from President Joe Biden, who is destroying democracy, writes The Washington Post. Biden’s campaign staff accused the former US leader of trying to distract Americans from criminal charges and seeking to repeal the Affordable Care Act.
Former US President Donald Trump has said his entry into the presidential race is a “crusade” against incumbent US leader Joe Biden, who is destroying the country’s democracy, The Washington Post reports.
“Biden and his left-leaning allies like to portray themselves as defenders of democracy. But Joe Biden is not a defender of American democracy. Joe Biden is a destroyer of American democracy… This campaign is a righteous crusade to rid our republic of Biden and the criminals in the Biden administration,” Trump said, speaking to supporters in Iowa on Saturday.
He said the Biden administration is trying to control Americans by suppressing free speech, censoring its critics and “criminalising dissent”. In particular, he recalled the investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election and the first impeachment investigation, which was launched in connection with the statement of an anonymous whistleblower who claimed that Trump had pressured Ukraine to induce Ukrainian authorities to investigate the involvement of Biden’s son Hunter in corruption schemes. The former president called these investigations an attempt to “overthrow a legitimately elected president.”
Trump also reiterated that he considers all allegations against him, including criminal charges in the case of trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election, to be politically motivated.
“They are waging an all-out war on American democracy. And they’re getting more and more extremist and repressive. If you put me back in the White House, their rule will end and America will be a free nation again,” added the politician, who is seeking to become the Republican Party’s candidate for the November 2024 presidential election.
Biden’s campaign staff called the speech an attempt to deflect attention from Trump’s promises to use state power to retaliate against investigations of Democratic Party officials, as well as attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act signed into law by President Barack Obama in 2010. According to campaign spokesman Ammar Moussa, Trump intends to use the government as “his personal weapon to put his political enemies behind bars.” “The American people see right through him, and it’s not going to work,” the publication quotes him as saying.
According to The Washington Post, Trump has repeatedly used criticism of political opponents to deflect attention away from his own statements or actions. His Saturday speech was an attempt to turn the tide amid warnings from Democrats and even some Republicans that his return to power would jeopardise civil liberties, the paper said.