"Every one of these cases comes out of the White House, it comes out of Biden," said the former president Donald Trump just before this Thursday's hearing before the Supreme Court. The justices will decide whether Colorado can exclude Trump from the ballot or if a state can make such a decision.
The leading candidate for the GOP nomination described the accusation against him as "more election interference by the Democrats" but was optimistic, praising his lawyers and saying it had been a "very beautiful process." He insisted that all the court cases against him, both state and federal, are a farce and specifically targeted the prosecutor from the Georgia case, Fani Willis, for alleged electoral interference in 2020. He accused her of having met for hours with members of the Department of Justice. This "weaponization of politics," which is "totally illegal," he claimed “has to stop."
Trump spoke out about the case from his Mar-a-Lago home, which is "worth a little more than $18 million," Trump spoke out about the fatal shooting of Ashli Babbitt during the January 6 assault on the Capitol but said there were no weapons among the protesters. He also defended what he said both in the Rose Garden and on social media, describing them as "very beautiful, very heart warming statements." "Go home, the police are doing their jobs," he said back then.
LIVE: Supreme Court hears case on former President Trump's Colorado Ballot Eligibility https://t.co/eMNdotRyCL
— VOZ (@Voz_US) February 8, 2024
Trump left out the details of the hearing, opting instead for an electoral speech. After celebrating his success, both in the polls and in the GOP nomination elections held so far, he called out President Biden's management. He claimed that if he were in the Oval Office there wouldn’t be "any of the problems that we have today." This includes inflation, the wars in Ukraine and Israel, “rich" Iran and the growing Chinese audacity towards Taiwan. Trump insisted that the world is on the brink of a third world war and that the current president is "the worst president in the history of the country," who can't even "put two sentences together."
He also spoke out about the immigration crisis, one of the issues that most worries Americans. "They have to stop it, they have to close the border." He also alluded to one of the central issues surrounding the controversy over the negotiations around the border agreement. While Democrats claim that the president needs new powers granted by Congress, the other side of the aisle claims that the president already has the authority to act on the border. Trump reiterated his stance:
The president can do it just by saying I want the border closed. We had the safest border in the history of our country, now we have the most unsafe border in the history of the world.
The former president will travel to Nevada, where the Republican caucuses are being held. When asked about his main opponent, Nikki Haley, the former president assured that he did not know why she was still in the race. He accused her of hurting herself and the party, in addition to pointing out that she "did very poorly," even in Nevada: "She lost to no name."
"We expect to have a very big night," he said and also predicted good results in the elections in the Virgin Islands, which will also take place this Thursday. Regarding his next appearance in court, the former president defended the importance of presidential immunity, a legal shield that his lawyers will defend next week: "If you don't have immunity, you don't have a presidency."
