At a rally in Arizona on Friday (July 22), former President Donald Trump had some choice words for the Jan. 6 Select Committee’s public hearings and, once again, eluded to it being nothing more than a political witch hunt. Trump shared his belief the “persecution” would stop if he announced he wasn’t running for President.
Trump started his assault on the credibility of the panel by saying the only reason the hearings are happening is that he is “standing up” for America.
“They’re coming after me because I’m standing up for you,” the former President said during his address at the rally in which he endorsed his candidates in Arizona, which include Kari Lake for Governor, Blake Masters for U.S. Senate, and Eli Crane for the 2nd District Congressional seat.
Admitting to watching the panel’s prime-time hearing on Thursday (July 21), slammed the proceedings as nothing more than a “hoax,” before ridiculing Trump-era White House Press Secretary Sarah Matthews for her reaction to the Jan. 6 riots.
“I watched this hoax last night where a young lady said, ‘Oh, I’m so heartbroken,'” Trump began his assessment of Matthews.
Eluding to her contradicting her recollection by pointing out that “three weeks after Jan. 6, she wrote us a letter saying, ‘Oh, I loved working for the President. He’s so great.'”
Trump also called out Cassidy Hutchinson — a White House aide who alleged Trump Attempted to force his security detail to take him to the Capitol and became belligerent when they refused — for telling a “made-up story.”
But praised the Secret Service for publishing “a statement that it wasn’t terrible.”
“It is total fiction,” Trump decried, adding, “and I say ‘thank God’ for the great people in the Secret Service because they put out a statement that it wasn’t terrible.”
Trump also pointed out to the audience that he lived a “very good and luxurious life before entering the wonderful world of politics.”
But that he entered politics for the people, to prevent the U.S. from becoming “another Venezuela or become another Soviet Union or become another large-scale version of Cuba, where all is lost, and there is no hope,” calling his time in politics an “honor.”
