Donald Trump, in Pa. speech, says he shouldn’t be charged in document case if Biden isn’t

HARRISBURG — In his first visit to Pennsylvania of 2024, former President Donald Trump seized on a special counsel’s decision not to charge President Joe Biden for mishandling classified documents while Trump continues to contend with a pending criminal case.

Before a crowd of thousands of supporters at a National Rifle Association gathering in Harrisburg, Trump contended he was the victim of unfair treatment.

“Biden is not going to be charged,” Trump said. “If he’s not going to be charged, that’s up to them. But then I should not be charged.”

He also took shots at Biden’s mental faculties after the special counsel’s report raised questions about the president’s memory. Trump blamed Democrats working around Biden for the legal cases against him, which have been filed across four separate states.

“This is nothing more than selective persecution of Biden’s political opponent, me. I don’t think it’s Biden, because I don’t think he knows he’s alive,” Trump said, suggesting that other administration officials hold the power rather than Biden.

In a 70-minute speech, Trump zigzagged between promises to support gun rights and unfocused, wider-ranging hyperbolic and often incendiary criticism of Democrats and Biden. He led the crowd in booing the “fake news” media and called Biden “the most incompetent and most corrupt president in the history of our country.” He also a predicted World War III and a “100% chance of a terrorist attack” if Biden is reelected.

It was the first of what’s expected to be many stops in the state for Trump who visited frequently in his last two presidential campaigns. His speech before a full arena of people took place at the Great American Outdoor Show, a massive expo hosted annually by the NRA at the Pennsylvania Farm Show Complex.

Trump repeated his debunked lie about the 2020 election, claiming that he won Pennsylvania twice. Trump narrowly won Pennsylvania in 2016 and then lost the state by a little more than 1 percentage point, or roughly 80,000 votes, to Biden in 2020.

“We did much better the second time than we did the first. It’s interesting, isn’t it?” he said.

He received a devoted welcome from the crowd which lined up hours before his speech, filling the large arena. In the expo itself, vendors proudly displayed Trump apparel, life-size cutouts, and campaign banners from booths hocking hunting trips, taxidermy guns, and gun accessories.

The speech followed a good week for Trump’s campaign. His only remaining Republican rival, Nikki Haley, finished in second place to “none of these candidates” in the largely ceremonial Nevada primary, which Trump skipped. And the U.S. Supreme Court justices appeared to be tilting in Trump’s favor during oral arguments over whether he should be eligible for the ballot in Colorado.

Biden had a far worse week. A special counsel released a report clearing Biden of wrongdoing over his handling of classified documents but adding scathing commentary on the president’s fitness, calling him elderly and forgetful. In a news conference Biden held to respond to the report, the president confused Egypt and Mexico when answering a question about the Israel-Hamas war.

The special counsel investigation into Biden paled in scope to the charges Trump faces on retention of sensitive government documents and obstruction. The two men also interacted very differently with the probes.

Biden’s lawyers immediately notified the National Archives after discovering classified documents in late 2022 and have since cooperated with the Justice Department. Trump repeatedly resisted requests from the National Archives and failed to fully respond to a subpoena, ultimately resulting in a search of his home and office by FBI agents.

After the special counsel report was released, White House officials disputed Robert Hur’s characterizations of Biden’s memory, and argued his comments veered outside of his scope. “When the inevitable conclusion is that the facts and the evidence don’t support any charges, you’re left to wonder why this report spends time making gratuitous and inappropriate criticisms of the president,” said Ian Sams, spokesman for the White House counsel’s office.

Ahead of Trump’s visit, Sen. John Fetterman (D., Pa.) also defended Biden’s ability to hold office.

“The president was very clear that he is absolutely in full control,” Fetterman said. “Trump is going on 78, and the president is 81. Is it a meaningful [difference]? There are older folks that are our choices, that’s what the nation wants.”

Biden has already visited Pennsylvania three times this year as most polls show the president and Trump running neck-and-neck against each other in the state with 10 months until the November election.

Trump has also turned his sights to the general election battle, in which he’s poised to be the GOP nominee. He’s also fighting unprecedented legal challenges for a former president in both criminal and civil court. Trump’s latest campaign finance filings show his campaign and affiliated committees spent nearly $50 million of contributions to pay lawyers and other expenses associated with the 91 felony counts he faces.

It was Trump’s eighth time addressing the NRA. He promised to roll back Biden’s efforts to regulate firearms.

“When I’m back in the Oval Office no one will lay a finger on your firearm,” he said.

In a moment Democrats looking to appeal to pro-gun control voters might seize, Trump also bragged about the lack of gun control reform instituted during his presidency, which coincided with several mass shootings.

During my four years, nothing happened. And there was great pressure on me, having to do with guns,” Trump said. “We did nothing, we didn’t yield.”

As with many policy issues, Biden and Trump have far different records on gun control.

Biden has pushed for stricter gun regulations as president, signing into law in 2022 one of the most sweeping changes to gun laws in three decades after the deadly shooting in Uvalde, Texas, in 2022.

Democrats sought to highlight Biden’s record on gun control ahead of Trump’s visit on Friday. Fetterman joined a call with Kimberly Mata-Rubio, the mother of Lexi Rubio, one of the victims of the school shooting in Uvalde.

“We are facing a choice between a leader who has spent his entire career fighting for lifesaving gun legislation, and a man who time and time again has sided with the gun lobby at the expense of our children’s safety,” said Mata-Rubio.

Trump, who is a member of the NRA, opposed most gun control efforts as president. The NRA applauded Trump for designating firearm retailers as critical infrastructure during COVID-19 and withdrawing from the United Nations’ Arms Trade Treaty. The NRA also credited Trump’s three Supreme Court appointments with helping enshrine gun rights in blue states.

The speech was billed as a presidential candidates forum but had all the trappings of a NRA-sponsored Trump rally, from a T-shirt and free firearm suppressor giveaway, to country music performers praising Trump before he took the stage. A spokesperson for the NRA said Haley had been invited to the forum but did not respond.

While Trump is broadly unpopular, his ratings have improved as his legal challenges have grown and he maintains enthusiastic support with his core base, about one-third of the Republican Party.

Barbara Holstein, a school bus driver, drove three hours from Sussex, N.J., to see him speak — her sixth time. “I wouldn’t have come for anyone else. I wanted to be around people who believe in Trump,” she said. “I just truly believe in the man.”

Dominic Chickilly, 32, came to see Trump with his 2-year-old daughter, Izabella.

“Even with all this b— that the current administration is putting him through, Americans still support him,” said Chickilly, who wore a T-shirt with Trump’s mug shot. “And no matter where you go in Pennsylvania, you can see that. You can see that today. We’re here and we want Trump.”

Staff writer Gillian McGoldrick contributed to this article.