Donald Trump took to the stage along with his top rivals for the GOP presidential nomination on Friday night and addressed a gathering of Iowa Republicans where none of them mentioned the new federal charges that were filed against former US President Donald Trump earlier. Notably, most of the top contenders launched their strong verbal attack against the current President Joe Biden and the Democratic Party, reported news agency AP. Speakers during the event, they said that Biden and his party lost connection with mainstream America.
Some of the top contenders for the Republican nomination include the likes of Republican presidential candidate Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, former Vice President Mike Pence, Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., former president Donald Trump, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley among others.
Addressing the gathering, Republican presidential candidate Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said, as quoted by AP, “ The time for excuses is over. We must get the job done.” He said that will now get the job done.
DeSantis also promised to put an end to the “weaponisation” of the Justice Department. However, he offered no specific thoughts on the cases against Trump, who is facing several charges of trying to overturn the 2020 election.
Trump joined his rivals and GOP hopefuls while addressing around 1,200 members and activists at the Lincoln Day Dinner ahead of Iowa’s first-in-the-nation caucus less than six months away.
Addressing the event, Trump said, as quoted by AP, “If I weren’t running, I would have nobody coming after me.” Attacking other candidates, he said he understood that his rivals were falling very flat and described it to be “like death.”
According to the BBC, the former US President told the gathering that he was the only Republican candidate who can win next year's presidential election, indicating that this was the only reason for a raft of criminal and civil charges against him.
A lot of people present during the event were seen wearing “Make America Great Again” hats and shirts. Many of them were evident Trump supporters wearing “Trump Country” stickers.
Meanwhile, Trump’s strongest rival DeSantis announced to visit all of Iowa’s 99 counties. According to the AP, he has been trying hard to focus on Iowa in its efforts on trying to derail Trump.