Donald Trump made his first public appearance this Saturday following the recent that the Justice Department filed against him over classified documents found in his home.

The former president attended a Republican convention in Georgia and spoke on how “ridiculous” and “baseless” the charges against him are. “They took one charge, and they made it 36 different times. And we have a thug who is in charge. This is a political hit job, Republicans are treated far differently at the Justice Department than Democrats,” he stated.

The former president affirmed that this “vicious persecution” will be recorded as “one of the most horrific abuses of power in the history of the country.” However, he stated that not everything is negative and that his numbers are increasing in the polls thanks to the indictment. “The only good thing about it is it’s driven my poll numbers way up. Can you believe it? We’re really winning big. We’re beating the hell out of the Republicans, and we’re beating the hell out of Joe Biden. That’s why they’re doing it,” he said.

“We are a nation in decline”

During the speech, Trump also spoke of how the political decisions of the radical left have affected the country. “We are a nation in decline, and now these radical left lunatics want to interfere with our elections by using law enforcement,” he stated.

The former president said that not even adding up the five worst presidents in U.S. history would reach the level of destruction that Joe Biden has caused. “It’s totally corrupt and we can’t let it happen. We will drive out the globalists, we will cast out the communists, and we will throw off the sick political class that hates our country,” he said.