Washington Correspondent
Trump is on the campaign trail again.
The former president held the first rally of 2022 in Arizona, promising that it would be the year when “
we will
win back the House and the Senate”,
before
“in 2024, to take over the White House”.
Read alsoA year after the assault on the Capitol, Donald Trump wants to believe in his return
In front of the crowd of his supporters gathered in the desert in Florence, Arizona, Trump denounced
“the incompetence of
Joe Biden
”
, but also spoke a lot about the year 2020, and the election which according to him, was stolen from him.
From a podium bearing the inscription "
Save America
", the former president immediately explained that he had "
evidence
" that the 2020 election had been "
rigged
".
“Fake news and mainstream media refuse to talk about it,”
Trump said,
“they say it's baseless and it's a big lie. The big lie is a bunch of bullshit, that's what it is. “If an election were held today, we would have beaten them soundly, like we did on November 3. We beat them. If we had an honest press, the election would have been very different,”
Trump said.
He also implied that the insurrection against the Capitol on January 6, 2021 was an undercover operation by the FBI
"or other agencies"
, and asserted that the
"real insurrection"
, had in fact taken place on the day of the ballot, Nov. 3, 2020. Trump also slammed the House Select Committee's investigation into the riot as yet another witch hunt, and Democrats' attempts to pass a federal election law by
“Election Fraud Bill”.
Settling scores
Arizona, which swung in favor of Joe Biden in November 2020, is also one of the states where the election was the most disputed. Challenges to the result went further there than elsewhere, even going so far as to recount the ballots again months later, in an audit requested by Republican senators in the state, but which ultimately confirmed the defeat of Trump.
Trump had regained the accent of his electoral campaigns. He attacked the media, with crowds booing TV crews, he slammed Biden, accusing him of turning America
“into a new Venezuela.”
Trump denounced
"open borders"
and the entry
of "millions of illegal immigrants"
, rampant inflation, rising fuel prices, shortages in stores, and high crime rates
"in cities democrats”.
The rally was also an opportunity for him to settle accounts with the Republicans who failed him, and to support his candidates in the upcoming midterm elections next November.
He supported Kari Lake, a former TV presenter who is running for governor, and he slammed current governor Doug Ducey for acknowledging Joe Biden's 2020 election victory. .
Read alsoAssault on the Capitol: the noose tightens on Donald Trump
The rally was the first in a campaign that is expected to have about two a month until the November ballot, with the next scheduled in Texas at the end of January.
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