Trump in SC: Former president vows retaliation against Biden, Democrats over indictments

Flanked by thousands of supporters under a sweltering summer sun, Donald Trump arrived Saturday in the small town of Pickens, South Carolina, to remind his competitors why he remains the top choice for the Republican ticket in the 2024 presidential race.

The former president chiseled his persona as an embattled hero, lying in wait to settle scores. To a crowd of tens of thousands impassioned supporters, Trump vowed to retaliate against the many indictments and charges circling his candidacy.

"When they indicted me for nothing, I said all bets are off," Trump said to a roaring crowd.

The former president said there would be special prosecutors called on to investigate President Joe Biden and his family's finances. He also wants a complete reversal of any regulation introduced by the Biden administration.

His most ardent supporters hardly blinked when he made claims that he would resolve the war between Russia and Ukraine in 24 hours and be the type of president who could prevent World War III.

Trump's return to the first-in-the-South primary state was a reminder of Trump's dominance in a crowded GOP field that also includes Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina and former Palmetto State governor Nikki Haley.

Trump's visit coincided with the city's Independence Day Spectacular.

His concert-style rallies have always highlighted a type of unwavering loyalty few candidates can boast about, and if he had to pick a spot to defend any challenges to his candidacy, Pickens made sense.

In 2020, nearly 75% of Pickens County voters selected Trump over current President Joe Biden, making Pickens one of Trump's top-performing counties in the state.

Nearby Upstate counties also went soundly for Trump in 2020: Oconee (73%), Anderson (70%), Greenville (58%), Spartanburg (63%), Cherokee (71%) and Union (63%).

Donald Trump in Pickens SC: Trump rally concludes after tens of thousands flood downtown

Trump: Democrats use 'vicious' Espionage Act

The first half of Trump's speech focused on the many indictments he's juggling. Though he repeatedly referred to Democrats as "sick people" who passed policies that abetted "indoctrination" in schools, inclusion of transgender athletes in sports, border invasion and an unending war in Ukraine, Trump's dominant message was related to his legal pains.

On June 13, Trump pled not guilty to 37 charges related to the alleged mishandling of classified documents, which included military information related to nuclear programs. Prior to that, a Manhattan jury found Trump liable for damages in a sexual assault case involving former journalist E. Jean Carroll.

In March, a Manhattan jury indicted Trump on charges of mismanaging campaign funds. Prosecutors argued Trump falsified business records to cover up hush money payments to an ex-mistress named Stormy Daniels. The use of campaign funds to buy silence was seen as an illegal campaign contribution.

Trump said Democrats had "weaponized" government agencies to unfairly target him. He claimed the "vicious" use of the Espionage Act, which prohibits the dissemination of secretive information related to national defense, emboldened "gun-toting FBI" agents to raid Mar-a-Lago.

"They want to take my freedom because I will never let them take your freedom," Trump said.

Additionally, he repeated the Presidential Records Act and said that the law gave him the right to view any document.

U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Georgia, who came to support him Saturday, defended Trump’s handling of classified materials and referred to his indictment as a political manhunt.

Meanwhile, Trump has often defended his position by comparing his situation with a 2012 lawsuit involving former President Bill Clinton.

In 2012, Judicial Watch, a conservative activist group, sued the National Archives and Records Administration, after news broke that Clinton kept audio recordings of interviews with historian Taylor Branch in his sock drawer. The conservative group said the recordings were "presidential records" that needed to be seized by the federal agency. But back then, U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson dismissed the case and said those recordings were "personal records."

Legal experts have said Clinton's case is not relevant to Trump's case since the tapes were considered personal records, not classified presidential records like those Trump allegedly had at his Mar-a-Lago estate.

An Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research report released in June found the indictment dented his popularity — but not by a lot. The polling showed the percentage of Republicans who had a favorable view of Trump dropped from 68% in April to 60% in June.

But he still remains the front-runner. According to a new National Public Affairs poll, Trump increased his lead in the 2024 South Carolina Republican presidential primary, leading with 41 percent, followed by DeSantis at 18, former U.N. Ambassador Haley at 12, and Scott at 10. No other candidate registered above single digits.

Trump's SC leadership team among guest speakers

Gov. Henry McMaster, part of Trump's SC leadership team, said Saturday that he fought the Biden administration's push for vaccine mandates and school closures. He supported Trump because of their shared vision of leadership.

Meanwhile, McMaster's second in command, Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette paid homage to Trump’s businessman persona. Back in 2015, when she was a business owner, Evette said she looked at the political field and saw that it needed a change. “We need a businessman at the helm,” she recalled telling her husband.

But one supporter's endorsement did not go as planned.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, who grew up in Central in Pickens County, was met with never-ending booing when he took the stage. At one point, Graham told the crowd to “calm down for a second,” jokingly and said he was going to help Trump win the 2024 general election.

He even pointed out that he was part of the Senate Judiciary Committee that helped bolster the Supreme Court’s conservative sheen, which resulted in the overturning of Roe v. Wade, the end of Biden's student debt forgiveness plan and a broadened vision of religious liberty.

Despite that, the crowd remained unmoved and the booing continued for the six minutes of Graham's remarks.

Trump would later defend Graham half-heartedly.

"We're going to love him. He's half and half. When we need those liberal votes, we need him. We know the good ones. We know the bad ones too," Trump said.

Trump takes shots at Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis

In his Saturday speech, Trump took shots at DeSantis and said the Florida Gov. did not support Trump's move to financially penalize countries like China by imposing higher tariffs and his 2017 tax reform law.

Trump also claimed DeSantis wanted to cut Medicare and social security and chided DeSantis' platform of fighting the "woke virus agenda." Trump said he hated the word "woke," because "nobody even has a real accurate description."

A recent Reuters/Ipsos poll showed 43% of self-identified Republicans preferred Trump as their preferred candidate and 22% said they favored Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

A new USA TODAY/Suffolk University poll showed a potential rematch of the 2020 contest had 34% backing President Joe Biden and 32% backing Trump. Nearly a quarter said they would support an unspecified independent contender.

In a choice between Biden and DeSantis, Biden leads DeSantis by 33%-26%.

Devyani Chhetri covers SC politics for the Greenville News and the USA Today Network.

This article originally appeared on Greenville News: Trump in SC: Former president vows retaliation against Biden, Democrats