HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Former President Donald Trump told thousands of members of the National Rifle Association that “no one will lay a finger on your firearms" if he returns to the White House, and said that during his time as president he “didn’t yield” to the pressure to encroach upon Second Amendment rights.
“During my four years nothing happened. And there was great pressure on me having to do with guns. We did nothing. We didn’t yield,” he said as he addressed the NRA’s Great American Outdoor Show in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Friday evening.
Casting himself as “the best friend gun owners have ever had in the White House," Trump pledged to continue to protect gun owners' rights.
“Your Second Amendment will always be safe with me as your president," he said.
Fresh off another dominant win in the Nevada caucuses, Trump used the NRA forum to highlight his support of gun rights, a major priority for GOP voters. The issue is also a major motivator for Democrats.
Trump’s appearance Friday in the critical swing state came as the Republican nominating contest that he has been dominating turns toward South Carolina. The state’s Feb. 24 primary may prove the last chance for Nikki Haley, Trump’s last remaining rival, to blunt the former president’s march toward the nomination. He and Haley will hold dueling campaign events there this weekend.
Trump hopes that a commanding win in the first-in-the-South race will deliver a devastating blow to Haley, who has yet to win a GOP contest. Haley, who was elected South Carolina's governor twice, is betting that a home state advantage will lift her to a strong performance that could keep her in the race through Super Tuesday on March 5, when more than a dozen states will hold contests awarding a massive swath of the delegates needed to capture the GOP nomination.
Hours later, special counsel Robert Hur released a long-awaited and bitingly critical report that cleared Biden of wrongdoing but also included concerns at his age and cognitive health. Hur said Biden came off as a “well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory” in interviews for the investigation, a characterization Biden has aggressively pushed back against. The report concluded criminal charges against President Joe Biden were not warranted but said there was evidence Biden willfully retained and shared highly classified information when he was a private citizen, including documents about military and foreign policy in Afghanistan. The report raised concerns about the president's competency and age — a top concern for voters.
The findings will almost certainly blunt Biden’s ability to criticize Trump over his handling of classified documents. Trump was charged by a different special counsel, Jack Smith, for illegally holding classified records at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida after he left office and then obstructing government efforts to get them back. The FBI raided his premisis.
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark) said, “There’s no new bombshells about President Biden. The American people have seen for years that he is a man with a failing memory. What this report indicates, though, is that you have a blatant double standard. If Joe Biden is not going to face criminal charges, Donald Trump shouldn’t be facing criminal charges either.”
Despite differences between the cases, Trump, who insists he did nothing wrong, cast the decision to charge him and not Biden as “nothing more than selective prosecution of Biden’s political opponent: me."
Cotton accused Democrats of targeting President Trump to prevent him from being elected in November.
“The Democratic Party knows the only way to stop Donald Trump from being elected president this fall is to try to convict him and imprison him. That’s what you would expect to see in a place like Pakistan or Brazil, not in the United States of America,” he said.
Trump's speech to the NRA — his eighth, according to the group — comes as the former political juggernaut has played a diminished role this election cycle amid financial troubles, dwindling membership and infighting.
The group's longtime CEO, Wayne LaPierre, resigned last month ahead of a trial in New York over allegations that he treated himself to millions of dollars in private jet flights, yacht trips, African safaris and other extravagant perks at the powerful gun rights organization’s expense.
The New York attorney general sued LaPierre and three co-defendants in 2020, claiming widespread misspending and self-enrichment. The organization filed for bankruptcy and sought to incorporate in Texas instead of New York, but a judge rejected the move.