Former President Trump on Saturday called President Biden “an enemy of the state” in response to a prime-time speech in which Biden called Republicans influenced by Trump a “threat” to democracy.
“This week, Joe Biden came to Philadelphia, Pa., to give the most vicious, hateful and divisive speech ever delivered by an American president, vilifying 75 million citizens … as threats to democracy and as enemies of the state. He’s an enemy of the state,” Trump said.
Trump made the remarks at his first rally since the Aug. 8 FBI search of his Mar-a-Lago property. He came to Pennsylvania to rally for GOP Senate candidate Mehmet Oz and gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano.
“Two months from now, the people of Pennsylvania are going to fire the radical left Democrats, and you are going to elect Doug Mastriano as your next governor, and you are going to send my friend Oz — he is a great guy — to the U.S. Senate,” the former president said. “You’re going to elect an amazing slate of true ‘America First’ Republicans to Congress.”
But Trump also made Biden the focus of his rally, during which he also criticized the FBI and the Department of Justice, which are investigating the former president and his handling of hundreds of classified documents, some of which were designated top secret in possible violations of the Espionage Act as well as other federal laws.
“The FBI and the Justice Department have become vicious monsters, controlled by radical left scoundrels, lawyers and the media, who tell them what to do,” Trump said.
Biden spoke Thursday night from Philadelphia, where he tied Trump and other so-called MAGA Republicans to the spread of conspiracy theories and the doubt cast on the presidential election.
“Not every Republican, not even a majority of Republicans, are MAGA Republicans. Not every Republican embraces their extreme ideology,” Biden said. “But there’s no question that the Republican Party today is dominated, driven and intimidated by Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans. And that is a threat to this country.”
Trump also called the FBI search at his Mar-a-Lago home an example of “the very real threats of American freedom.”
“There could be no more vivid example of the very real threats of American freedom than just a few weeks ago you saw when we witnessed one of the most shocking abuses of power by any administration in American history,” Trump said. “The shameful raid and breaking of my home Mar-a-Lago was a travesty of justice.”