Donald Trump claimed that President Joe Biden “persuaded” Russian President Vladimir Putin to “enter Ukraine” in a mini-campaign speech to a Mar-a-Lago audience over the weekend.
He falsely maintained that Biden was encouraging Putin’s aggression when he said it would be “no problem” if Putin took “some parts of Ukraine”.
Biden sought a peaceful solution to Russia’s belligerence and condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. It was Trump who called Putin’s invasion “genius” at the time.
Trump also revealed at the Mar-a-Lago event reportedly linked to the Conservative Political Action Conference that he should invite professors to the White House and explain to him how terrible nuclear war would be if it came up in the presidential debates.
“The force is so destructive that we don’t talk about it,” he said. Trump claimed the pundits urged him: “Sir, do your best not to talk about it… It’s so destructive, it’s so powerful. The world will be gone,” he added, indicating that Biden is increasing the risk of nuclear war because he is “out of mind.”
Speaking from a podium, the former president also insisted that a “Crazy” fatally shot Capitol rioter Ashli Babbitt during the violence of January 6 in 2021.
“There was no reason for it,” Trump said. “We will not let this go on like this. These are people, horrible, horrible people,” he added, apparently referring to the police protecting lawmakers that day. “What they did to protesters…”
Micki Witthoeft, the mother of Ashli Babbitt, was arrested after she blocked traffic during a protest on Capitol grounds on Friday, police said. She ignored orders to move and instead “turned around with her hands behind her back and asked to be arrested,” according to a statement from the Capitol police.
Ashli Babbitt, a Trump supporter, was shot by a police officer during the riot as she climbed through a smashed window in the Capitol amid a violent mob trying to reach lawmakers during the riot as part of an effort to prevent the presidential election to overthrow. (See video below).
The Justice Department investigated Babbitt’s shooting and, based on the evidence, has not brought any criminal charges against the Capitol police officer who shot her.
Trump once again insisted that the Capitol rioters were merely “protesting an unfair election,” even though there is no evidence the vote was unfair.
Nearly 1,000 rioters have been arrested and charged or already convicted of various crimes during the January 6 riot, including trespass, theft and destruction of government property, assault and sedition.
Frequent Mar-a-Lago visitor Kari Lakeappeared at the event with Trump. She baselessly calls herself the “duly elected governor” of Arizona, even though she lost the November gubernatorial election to Democrat Katie Hobbs.
A columnist for the Arizona Republic wrote on Saturday that while Lake may be the governor of the fantasy world of Neverland, Narnia, Middle Earth, Oz, or Wonderland, she’s definitely not the governor of Arizona.
Trump has more or less bowed down at Mar-a-Lago, even as he announced in mid-November that he would run for president again. He’s surrounded by flatterers at his resort, which a Trump confidant recently called a “Barbie Dream House” of sorts, where Trump can still pretend to be president.
