WASHINGTON: A defiant former president Donald Trump denounced the criminal charges against him in connection to hush money payments made to a porn star before the 2016 presidential election and said the US has now become a “failing nation” where the “radical left lunatics” want to interfere with the elections by using law enforcement.
Trump, the first former US President to be criminally charged, has pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records at his arraignment in a Manhattan court on charges relating to hush money payments made to Stormy Daniels.
The 76-year-old former Republican president ruled the country for four years till January 2021.
Addressing his supporters hours after he was arraigned, Trump said: “The only crime that I committed is to fearlessly defend our nation from those who seek to destroy it.”
“Incredibly, we are now a failing nation. We are a nation in decline. And now these radical left lunatics want to interfere with our elections by using law enforcement. We can’t let that happen,” Trump, who is eying the White House for a second time in 2024, told his supporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, soon after he flew back from New York.
“Our country is going to hell,” the 76-year-old Republican leader said in a roughly 25-minute speech.
He described the time since his exit from office as “the most embarrassing time in our country’s history”.
“With all of this being said, and with a very dark cloud over our beloved country, I have no doubt nevertheless, that we will make America great again,” he said in the address, marking the first time he has spoken publicly since being arraigned on Tuesday.