NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE—Former President Donald Trump compared the criminal indictments he faces to the Biden administration’s targeting of Christians as he spoke at the National Religious Broadcasters Convention Thursday night.
“For all Americans, but especially for Christians, nothing is more important than to defeat this wicked system and to return to equal and impartial justice under the constitutional rule of law,” the former president said.
“They’re weaponizing law enforcement to target parents, conservatives, and Catholics,” Trump noted, citing the (since-rescinded) Department of Justice memo targeting concerned parents of public school children in 2021 and the memo from the FBI’s Richmond, Virginia, office urging investigations into “radical-traditional Catholic hate groups,” citing the Southern Poverty Law Center.
“Catholics, they’re being persecuted. Catholics,” he repeated. “But evangelicals, they’re all on the list.”
He pledged that if he wins the 2024 presidential election, “Never again will the federal government be used to target you, religious believers.” He promised to open an inquiry into “every political prisoner who has been unjustly prosecuted” under the Biden administration.
“The same DOJ that dropped charges against Antifa, where they killed people, where they destroyed cities … the same Biden DOJ has rounded up six pro-life activists right here in Tennessee, arresting them for a peaceful protest outside a clinic, where they prayed, sang hymns, and were removed with great force,” Trump said.
He noted that these protesters got “convicted on outrageous charges.”
The former president was referring to pro-life activists Chet Gallagher, Coleman Boyd, Heather Idoni, Cal Zastrow, Dennis Green, and Paul Vaughn, who were convicted and face up to 11 years in prison due to their peaceful protest in the hallway outside a Mount Juliet abortion facility in March 2021. Last month, a Nashville grand jury found them guilty of violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act and conspiracy against rights.
“These are persecuted Christians. They are being persecuted by Joe Biden and his people,” the former president said.
Trump promised to defend Christian symbols and to launch a task force to combat “anti-Christian bias.”
“No one will be touching the cross of Christ under the Trump administration, I swear to you,” he said. “I will never allow the Big Media or left-wing pressure groups to silence you.”
“Remember, every communist regime throughout history has tried to stomp out the churches just as every fascist regime has tried to co-opt them,” he said, claiming that the Left today is using both strategies.
Trump also repeated his claim that his opponents target him because they’re trying to get at the American people.
“They’re not after me; they’re after you, and I just happen to be standing in the way,” he said.
“They try to shame Christians; they try to shame us,” Trump said. “I’m a very proud Christian, actually.”
“I’m being indicted for you,” he added.
Then the former president joked about facing more criminal charges than great criminals of the past.
“I’ve been indicted more than Al Capone, the great gangster,” he said. “I’ve been indicted more than some of the greatest criminals in history.”
He joked that every time “my plane flies over a blue state,” he receives a summons to go to court.
Yet “with me, I get indicted and my [poll] numbers go up … because the people know it’s a scam,” he said.
Trump warned that Christians “can’t afford to sit on the sidelines in this fight. The corrupt persecution by this regime will not stop with me.”
“Ultimately, the radical Left is coming after all of us because our allegiance is not to them,” he said. “Our allegiance is to our creator, they don’t want to hear that. … We do not answer to bureaucrats in Washington, we answer to God in heaven.”
“How any Christian or person of faith could vote for a Democrat is crazy,” Trump added.
He said the greatest threat to America comes from within, and he said America cannot prevail without God’s help.
“To achieve victory in this fight, just like the victories of the past, we still need the hand of our Lord and the grace of almighty God,” the former president said.
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