On Thursday, former President Donald Trump held a fundraiser for defendants prosecuted for acts in the January 6, 2021, Capitol riots, at his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf resort. Trump pledged to contribute his personal funds to the causes of the defendants, telling the audience:
I’m gonna make a contribution also. I’m gonna make a contribution, too.
There have been few people that have been treated in the history of our country like the people that you love, like the people that have gone through so much. And in many cases, and we can never say all, we had some real bad ones there including BLM and Antifa.
But I will tell you, there.. in the history of our country -this has never- a thing like this has never happened. We have become a fascist country, we’ve become a Marxist country, we’ve become a communist country in so many different ways. But, we’re gonna take it back.
As the former President greeted the attendees, he addressed the J6 defendants’ advocates by calling them “so incredible and so brave,” saying:
I just want to thank you all for being here, you’ve all been so incredible and so brave. And, What you’re going through nobody can even imagine. They do it with me, they do it with all of us They’re sick people, they’re sick. There’s something wrong with them.
Trump spoke of stores attacked by “these vandals, by these animals out there,” saying that they took over the cities of Seattle and Minneapolis, calling it a “disgrace.” He said:
If we didn’t send in the National Guard you wouldn’t have a Minneapolis anymore, nothing happens to those people and it’s a disgrace. You have police officers, you have firemen, you have teachers, you have electricians, you have great people, and they’ve been made to pay a price that is very unfair — in many cases, not in all cases.
But they have other people, BLM, Antifa, and you don’t hear about them. And why aren’t they there? Because they were involved. Everybody knows they were involved. I saw videos, of one guy, the head of one of them, and he said a lot of bad things, but nothing happens to him, nothing happens to him. It’s a disgrace what’s going on.
Trump also took aim at the “Biden crime family,” congratulating first son Hunter on his sweetheart plea deal, in a tongue-in-cheek sentiment:
You look at the Biden family- the Biden crime Family, that’s what it is- and you see, you see Hunter -what happened to Hunter- and all of the different things he was so guilty of. We have to congratulate him because… because… what a disgrace! But, people see it and they get it, and they’re not taking it much longer, we’re gonna win an election in ’24.
Trump doubled down on his continued claims that the 2020 election was “rigged” and “stolen,” even amid a federal probe under Special Counsel Jack Smith into Trump’s role in the January 6 Capitol riots. Trump looked ahead, addressing the 2024 election:
I don’t need any help, I don’t want any help in campaigns. We have so many people that are gonna vote for us. I want to guard the vote.
Trump continued,
I don’t need the vote, I need to guarding the vote. Because what they did last time, we were winning Pennsylvania, we were winning like nobody ever saw. Ten o’clock in the evening, people were calling up, ‘Sir, I’d like to congratulate you.’
I got a call from a RINO named Karl Rove, he called up and said, he said, ‘Sir, I’d like to con’…’ -about ten o’clock in the evening- ‘Sir, I’d like to congratulate you on the victory.’
Karl Rove, now you know, I mean he did that because he thought we won, and he thought it would help him. It wouldn’t have helped. A RINO is a RINO, right?
Trump compared the 2020 election to that of a third-world country, saying:
When we unfortunately handed it over, had to hand it over. But, when we had to hand it over, with that horrible, horrible election. That horrible… the way that election… like a third-world country. We were like a third-world country that night and that period of time, because it’s no longer… we used to have Election Day, now we have election period.
Trump has previously said he would swiftly pardon many J6 defendants if reelected to the White House.
Watch the full video of his speech below: