Trump criticizes Biden for southern border, Afghanistan during Middle Georgia rally
In his first visit to Middle Georgia since the 2020 campaign season, former President Donald Trump hit on familiar themes while criticizing President Joe Biden’s administration for how it has handled the southern U.S. border and the military withdrawal from Afghanistan.
The most frequent complaint from Trump remains his loss to Biden, claiming before thousands of supporters at the Georgia National Fairgrounds in Perry that Biden’s victory was a result of pervasive fraud. These claims have repeatedly been proven false in Georgia and other states.
“Each and every one of us here tonight must do everything we can to save America,” Trump said. “We will never forget 2020… The most corrupt election in the history of our country… to be followed by a most glorious victory in 2024.”
The crowd, decked out in Trump memorabilia, shouted several chants throughout the evening, including “[expletive] Joe Biden,” “U.S.A.” and “Impeach Biden’‘ as Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene walked around with a sign that read “Impeach Biden.”
As people started to pour into the fairgrounds Saturday afternoon, a plane started circling with a sign that read “Tax the rich: Build back better,” in capital letters.
Before Trump
Before the former president walked onto the stage, several well-known supporters and politicians spoke, including Herschel Walker, Rep. Jody Hice, Rep. Austin Scott, State Sen. Burt Jones and Greene.
Walker is running for U.S. Senate, Hice for secretary of state and Jones for lieutenant governor. Greene and Scott were both elected last year.
“Trump won Georgia, and that’s why I’m calling for an audit in Georgia. It’s time to do it. No more excuses,” said Greene, who has been criticized for her far-right conspiracy theories and most recently got into a shouting match over abortion rights with another Congresswoman outside the Capitol.
Scott, who represents the 8th District, applauded the former president for visiting Georgia after Hurricane Michael.
“People miss President Trump, even the people who made the mistake of not voting for him,” Scott said.
The crowd cheered loudly when Hice said he was running for Georgia Secretary of State to get rid of the current Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. Raffensperger drew Trump’s ire by certifying the state’s 2020 election totals.
“It is time to give Brad the boot and send him home,” Hice said. “Brad Raffensperger has massively compromised the right of the people at the ballot box.
The crowd chanted “audit” as Hice continued his speech by denouncing the 2020 election and calling Georgia to get rid of the Dominion voting machines, which cost Georgia taxpayers more than $10 million.
Election ‘fraud’
Although Trump started the evening talking about immigration, he spent several minutes listing off numbers regarding the election results in Georgia and Arizona.
He alleged that results in those elections were wrong due to absentee ballots being cast by dead people, people voting in multiple counties, and duplicate ballots.
“If I won or lost, all I want is a fair election. I have no doubt that we won and we won fairly,” Trump said.
Trump said Arizona’s 2020 election should have a total decertification and that Georgia’s election was much worse.
Georgia’s 2020 election results were counted three times, including a hand audit of every ballot ordered by Raffensperger. The secretary of state’s office, along with the GBI, investigated more than a hundred potential instances of fraud. Several lawsuits challenging Georgia’s results were dismissed by federal judges.
U.S.-Mexico border
Trump touted his immigration policy and blamed Democrats for the condition of the southern border.
“Somebody’s really screwing up our country,” Trump said.
Trump said he deported thousands of “criminal aliens” while he was president and created the most secure border in the history of the United States. He blamed the Biden administration for “crippling” ICE and allowing countries to “dump their prisoners” in America.
Biden’s administration has been criticized by both Republicans and Democrats for its treatment of Haitian immigrants at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Retreat from Afghanistan
Trump discussed the U.S. military’s retreat from Afghanistan that left the Taliban in control of the country. Rally organizers left 13 open seats in the front row in honor 13 service members who were killed in an attack on the Kabul airport, Trump said.
He criticized the Biden administration’s approach to the exit, saying Biden removed military personnel from Afghanistan before evacuating civilians. Trump said he would have taken the opposite approach.
“Afghanistan was the single most embarrassing event in our country, in my opinion,” Trump said.
The event ended with a fireworks show.