Former President Donald Trump on Monday ripped into his adversaries, saying Democrats are relying on the “Soviet Union playbook” to undermine his 2024 presidential campaign with multiple investigations.
In a series of social media posts, Mr. Trump went after President Biden for showing weakness against China.
“The best and only way to solve the problem with China, and every other problem we have, is to get rid of Biden!!!” he wrote. “The way the U.S. is going, we will soon be in World War lll, with NO AMMUNITION!”
Mr. Biden gave a fresh commitment Monday that he will run for reelection, despite numerous polls showing that a majority of Democratic voters want someone else to run for the party’s nomination.
“I’m planning on running … but we’re not prepared to announce it yet,” Mr. Biden told Al Roker of NBC’s “Today” show at the annual White House Easter egg roll.
Mr. Trump, referring to the New York indictments for business fraud and three other criminal probes, wrote in all caps that Democrats are only waging the probes “for the purposes of election interference.”
“It will be harder for the Democrats to cheat like they did in 2020, so they are going right to the old Soviet Union playbook and using the DOJ, FBI and others in ’Justice’ to interfere in our one sacred elections,” Mr. Trump said. “We’ve got to swamp these cheaters, and we will win!”
A Manhattan grand jury indicted Mr. Trump on charges stemming from hush-money payments in 2016 to Stormy Daniels, an adult film star who alleges Mr. Trump had sex with her. He denies it.
A grand jury in Fulton County, Georgia, has been investigating efforts by Mr. Trump and his allies to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in the state. And special counsel Jack Smith is investigating Mr. Trump’s alleged mishandling of classified documents after he left office, and events surrounding efforts to overturn the 2020 election in Washington.
Mr. Trump also went after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a likely 2024 rival, saying Mr. DeSantis will ruin his political career if he challenges Mr. Trump for the GOP nomination.
The former president received more help from congressional allies Monday when House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan announced that his panel will hold a field hearing next week in New York City to address “Victims of Violent Crime in Manhattan.”
The hearing is expected to scrutinize Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, the prosecutor who brought the felony charges against Mr. Trump, and whether Mr. Bragg’s social justice reform measures are linked to increased violent crime in the city.
According to a GOP spokesman for the committee, House Republicans hope to schedule a series of similar hearings across the country in cities with progressive district attorneys, often elected with the help of well-funded campaign PACs that include large donations from billionaire leftist activist George Soros.
Other district attorneys that may face similar scrutiny include Los Angeles DA George Gascon, St. Louis DA Kim Gardner, Chicago DA Kim Foxx, Philadelphia DA Larry Krasner and Austin, Texas DA Jose Garza.
Republicans conducted similar field hearings this year on the border in a bid to spotlight illegal immigration issues and invited their Democratic counterparts on the committees to attend. However, Democratic lawmakers declined to attend these remote hearings, dismissing them as partisan grandstanding for the majority.
Mr. Bragg has become a leading focus of Mr. Jordan and the committee’s new Republican majority after he released a hush-money indictment of Mr. Trump, the first indictment of its kind against a former president in the history of the country.
Mr. Jordan, Ohio Republican, sent a letter last week to Matthew Colangelo, senior counsel to the New York County District Attorney’s Office, requesting testimony and documents on Mr. Bragg’s prosecutorial record.
Mr. Colangelo, a former Biden Department of Justice official and senior attorney at the New York Attorney General’s Office has previously taken part in multiple investigations into Mr. Trump and was reportedly hired to “jump-start” Mr. Bragg’s stalled investigation into Mr. Trump, GOP lawmakers on the committee said.
Mr. Bragg, who has ignored the Republicans’ subpoena to provide testimony and materials related to the case against Trump, has criticized what he said is congressional interference in a state court procedure. He defended the decision to indict Mr. Trump, telling reporters, “We cannot and will not normalize serious criminal conduct.”
• Dave Boyer can be reached at dboyer@washingtontimes.com.
• Kerry Picket can be reached at kpicket@washingtontimes.com.
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