Former President Donald Trump told supporters at his rally in Hialeah, Florida, Wednesday night — in direct competition with the third Republican presidential debate — that he wears each indictment like “a great badge of honor.”
The 45th president — who has been indicted four times since April, with two of them coming from President Joe Biden’s Justice Department — told a crowd of thousands that he is being indicted for them.
“Every time I’m indicted, I consider it a great badge of honor because I’m being indicted for you,” Trump said to cheers from the crowd. “I’m being indicted for you, and never forget our enemies want to take away my freedom because I will never ever, ever let them take away your freedom. I won’t let it happen.”
“They want to silence me because I will never let them silence you. I will never let them do it. And in the end, they’re not after me, they’re after you. I just happen to be standing in their way,” Trump added.
The 45th president faces two indictments from the DOJ Special Counsel Jack Smith — one alleging he took classified documents with him to Mar-a-Lago at the end of his presidency and the other stemming from his campaign’s 2020 election challenge and the January 6, 2021, riots at the U.S. Capitol.
He also faces two cases at the state level. The first was pursued by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office and alleges 34 counts of business fraud, and the other came from Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’s office, alleging racketeering in connection to the 2020 election challenge.
He has been charged with 91 counts between the four cases and faces a maximum sentence of 717.5 years in prison if convicted on all counts, as Breitbart News senior editor Joel Pollak has noted. For reference, this is almost three times the amount of time the United States has existed.
“Even that stupid trial going on in New York — which has been totally discredited, everybody’s been discredited — that all comes out of the White House,” Trump said. “That’s to discourage people from voting. That’s to hurt us.”
“The only difference is we have a big voice. We’re a very big voice,” he added. “This the greatest movement in the history of politics, and we have a great voice, and we’re not going to let them get away with it.”