Donald Trump unloads on President Biden, Department of Justice at his club in Bedminster, N.J.
BEDMINSTER, N.J. -- Donald Trump spoke out at Trump National Golf Club on Tuesday night.
The former president took to the podium after making his way back to New Jersey from Miami, where he pled not guilty to all 37 counts at his federal indictment hearing earlier in the day.
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In a relatively subdued tone, Trump used his time to assert his innocence and rile up the crowd for his 2024 presidential campaign.
After touching down at Newark Liberty International Airport, the former president went straight to his golf club in Bedminster, passing a crowd of a few dozen supporters waving flags from the road.
Minutes after his motorcade drove into the club, Trump walked out to a standing ovation from a couple hundred invited guests at 8:45 p.m.
As expected, he called the federal charges against him fake and fabricated and accused President Joe Biden and the Department of Justice of abusing their power.
"They will fail. We will win," Trump said to applause.
Trump mocked the Espionage Act and repeated his arguments that the documents found in his possession were not classified because he took them as president, adding the boxes seized, as he claims, contained benign personal belongings.
"They were full of newspapers, press clippings, thousands of pictures, thousands and thousands of White House pictures. The White House photographer, some are with us today, they took so many pictures and we saved all of them and they were in those boxes, clothing, memorabilia and much much more," Trump said. "I hadn't had a chance to go through all the boxes. It's a long, tedious job, takes a long time, which I was prepared to do, but I have a very busy life."
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Trump invoked many of his usual talking points, taking aim at Biden and the Clintons. He seemed to stay mostly on script, with exception of the crowd singing him "Happy Birthday."
The 30-minute speech was part legal defense, part rallying cry.
"When I'm re-elected, I will obliterate the 'deep state,'" he said.
Trump's speech was followed by a private, closed-door fundraising event at the club. It was being billed as the first major fundraising event of his presidential campaign, and the Trump team hopes to raise $2 million.