however, while he was focused on the legal battles, the voters here in georgia did not seem to care. they were happy he was here. they were happy. every insult to biden, hillary clinton, they were cheering for. they gave him a standing ovation. at one point people were shouting four more years. we ve been asking the question about how republicans, particularly trump voters, might view this indictment and if this is any indication in georgia, this gop convention, they are still viewing trump favorably. i want to show one other small piece of video of trump going to the waffle house after he gave the speech. i want to show who s in the video with him. walt nada, that is his body man, his aide who was charged alongside him in the conspiracy charges. there had been questions as to what was going to happen after nada was charged. it appears at least for now he is sticking by trump s side.
he didn t spend much time on an active defense in light of the indictment. he let that slide and went on an attack which didn t really focus on the charges against him. yeah. i mean, going after the special counsel personally when one would imagine trump s defense team shaking their collective heads. you talk about the grievance, he is going to the same well fueling the sense of grievance. i want to play this clip here. i stand before you today as the only candidate who has what it takes to smash this corrupt system and to truly drain the swamp, and i m the only one that they don t want to do it. so the framing of this indictment is always something that the democrats and president biden are trying to take away from trump and take away from trump supporters, which we know is one of the most powerful ways
indictment s going to have much of an impact because all of the other candidates are playing a waiting game. they re treading water waiting to see what happens with donald trump. if donald trump rises, stays where he is, they re in trouble. they can t beat him. they re hoping hump at this dump at this has a great fall. that s the battle. who might fill the space if donald trump drops? yeah. that seems to be a very defensive strategy, but we ve seen that again yesterday with trump s main rivals for the gop nomination, they continue to do that delicate dance trying to siphon trump s support without alienating his base. i want to play this clip here. the american people deserve to know the reasons for this unprecedented action, and we also need to hear the former president s defense. then each of us can make our own judgment on whether this is the
kristin holmes was at trump s rally with more. reporter: former president donald trump appeared to be consumed by his issues talking to the georgia gop convention. he responded to that indictment, that federal indictment for the first time in public calling it a joke, saying it was horrible for the country, blaming biden and the department of justice. take a listen. the ridiculous and baseless indictment of me by the biden administration s weaponized department of injustice will go down as among the most horrific abuses of power in the history of our country. jack smith. what do you think his name used to be? anybody? jack smith? sounds so innocent. he s deranged. this is a political hit job. reporter: that was just a snippet of what he had to say. he did seem consumed spending more than 40 minutes of his speech talking about his legal battles. again, supposed to be a political speech.
trump s indictment all but drowned out the owe political headlines, including his former vice president mike pence jumping into the race. pence said the republican event in north carolina s, his response was to accuse the u.s. attorney general of shirking his responsibility to the united states. today i m calling on the attorney general to stand before the american people and explain why this was necessary in his words. attorney general merrick garland, stop hiding behind the special counsel and stand before the american people and explain why this indictment went forward. one of trump s top rivals for the florida governor had a lot to say as he campaigned saturday in oklahoma. he didn t say anything directly about trump s latest indictments. he echoed the republican line bound to end the, quote, increasing weaponization of these federal agencies against people they don t like.