Former President Donald Trump has criticized the FBI's handling of the investigation into the assassination attempt against him, but told a crowd in Mint Hill, North Carolina, “no threats will sway me.”
“You know, there have been two assassination attempts on me, as far as we know. I don't know if Iran was involved, but it's possible they were, but I don't know for sure,” Trump said.
“The first one happened in Butler, Pennsylvania, so we don't know for sure. It's a great place,” Trump said, noting he would return to Butler to “finish” his speech. Trump then turned to the FBI, saying the federal agency appears to be struggling to investigate the assassination attempt.
“The FBI has been unable to uncover three apps that may be based overseas, and in the second case, the perpetrator had six cell phones in his car and the FBI has similarly been unable to penetrate their security,” Trump said.
“They want to know, I want to know, the whole country wants to know and probably the whole world wants to know: Who is he calling? Who is he calling?” Trump asked.
“In the old days, the FBI and the Department of Justice would arrest people before anything happened. But now the FBI's top brass is just paying lip service to the president, focusing on his political opponents,” Trump said. “And that's exactly what they're doing.”
“They're only focusing on their political opponents. But they have to get Apple to open up these foreign apps, and they have to open up the second madman's six phones as well. And they have to open them up quickly, because we have a lot riding on it, whether it's me or any other ex-president. They break into apps all the time. They had no problem breaking into the J6 hostage app,” he pointed out.
Referring to the possibility that the suspected assassin's app was foreign, he added, “It could be something else, but we won't know until it's released.” “And why does the father of the Butler gunman have one of the best and most expensive lawyers in the entire state of Pennsylvania? How did he get to this expensive lawyer?” Trump asked, calling it “bizarre.”
Trump said that if he were president and faced with a threat like the ones that former presidents and candidates currently face – Democrat or Republican – he would “tell the threatening country, in this case Iran, that if they do anything to harm this man, we will blow Iran's greatest cities and the country itself into pieces.”
Trump warns Iran: “If you attack me, your country will be 'blowed to smithereens'”
C-SPAN
“We will blow it to smithereens. You can't do that. Then the threat will be gone. The threat will be gone. But right now we don't have the leadership, the people we need, the leadership we need. We have not one person but two. We don't even know who the president is right now. Who is our president now?” Trump asked, noting that America was once feared and respected.
“And our country will soon be feared and respected again. And that's why we must all work together to thwart these attempts and restore American strength, power and prestige. And we will restore them soon,” Trump said, making clear his intention to never give in.
“No threat can shake me. No enemy can intimidate me. I have never been more determined than I am today. And I will never give up the fight to Make America Great Again. And that's what we're doing,” he said to applause.
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