Donald Trump, presumptive Republican presidential nominee, gave an impassioned speech in Raleigh on Tuesday, July 5. The speech focused on a recent report from the FBI, which determined that presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and her aides did not intend to break laws governing the handling of classified documents by using a private email server during her time as secretary of state.
“It’s an incredible thing,” Trump said, greeting a raucous crowd of more than 2,000 people in the Duke Energy Center for the Performing Arts. Many attendees waited in line for several hours in the 95-degree heat and later endured an intense rainstorm. “The system is rigged, but we’re still happy to be together, right?”
FBI Director James Comey announced on Tuesday, July 5 that Clinton and her aides, by using an unsecured private email server to communicate classified information, had done nothing worthy of indictment.
Clinton spoke in Charlotte a few hours before Trump alongside President Barack Obama. Trump said he watched her speech and called it “boring.”
Trump slammed Clinton repeatedly during his speech, linking her to some of the Obama administration’s most well-known controversies, such as Obamacare, the Iran nuclear deal, claims of U.S. foreign policy contributing to the rise of the Islamic State and for underestimating the threat the IS now poses. He even praised Saddam Hussein for his toughness against terrorism in Iraq, keeping the problem under control compared to today where, Trump said, Iraq is the “Harvard for terrorism.”
“She can’t protect her emails, and she can’t protect the country,” Trump said.
Trump scheduled his rally likely as an attempt to counter Clinton’s remarks at her rally in Charlotte and to give him an opportunity for competing media coverage. Both campaigns consider North Carolina to be a key swing state.
Clinton currently has a 4 percent lead over Trump nationally, according to The New York Times, and a four-tenths of a point lead in North Carolina.
The announcement that there would not be criminal charges filed against Clinton on Tuesday came three days after the FBI most recently interviewed Clinton. Investigators found no proof that Clinton or her aides “intended” to break laws on the handling of classified information. However, Comey said, “There is evidence that they were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information.”
The decision marked the end of a yearlong investigation and provides, at least legally, some relief for the Clinton campaign surrounding one of their biggest media controversies. However, Comey’s statements also revealed that Clinton sent or received 113 emails containing information that was considered classified at the time, directly contradicting many of Clinton’s statements about the case, according to The Associated Press.
Trump did not let this go unnoticed.
“Today is the best evidence that we’ve seen that our system is absolutely, totally rigged,” Trump said. “We now know she lied to the country when she said she did not send classified information on her server. She lied.”
Comey tried to head off conspiracy theorists in his remarks, saying he had not shared his ruling with anyone prior to the announcement. Rumors began to swirl last week after it was reported that former President Bill Clinton had met with Attorney General Loretta Lynch on her plane for more than 30 minutes. Lynch claimed they only discussed their grandchildren and nothing relating to the then-ongoing investigation.
These statements did not satisfy Trump, who openly speculated on whether there was a conspiracy between Clinton, Obama and Lynch, which influenced the FBI’s ruling or simply “incompetence” on the part of Clinton and her aides.
Trump said that now that the president is campaigning with Clinton, it is clear Obama knew the FBI would acquit her because “he wouldn’t be campaigning with Crooked Hillary” if she was going to be indicted.
Trump also cited a report from The New York Times that Democrats close to Clinton said she may keep Lynch as attorney general if she is elected president. Trump claims this would be proof of a conspiracy between the two to avoid an indictment, calling this evidence of a “bribe.”
“The attorney general [is] sitting there saying, ‘If I get Hillary off the hook, I’m going to have four more years or eight more years, but if she loses, I’m out of a job,’” Trump said. “It’s a bribe. It’s a disgrace.”
Clinton has made no public statement that she will keep Lynch as attorney general, according to The Washington Post.
Trump also made an attempt to reach out to supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders, who he hopes to rally in his favor come November.
Trump said that the FBI’s ruling was the final blow for Sanders and suggested he was only pretending to support Clinton while hoping for an indictment. Trump called the investigation the “FBI Primary” because it would essentially decide, more than any state primary, who would be the Democratic nominee for president.
“Bernie was waiting for the ‘FBI Primary’ and he lost,” Trump yelled over roars from the crowd.
The supporters who filled the auditorium were ready to make themselves part of Trump’s performance on the Broadway-esque stage. Many tried to finish his sentences, filling brief moments of silence with shouts of “weak!” or “hang that b—-!” at the end of a long thought on Clinton’s presidential qualifications. After a long criticism of Obama, one supporter shouted: “He’s a monkey!”
Another supporter, using a Trump poster as a megaphone, tried to start a chant of “tell the truth,” along with those seated around him, directed at the media.
Protestors tried to make themselves heard early on in Trump’s speech, but they were quickly drowned out by chants of “Trump” or “USA.” An announcement was given prior to the speech urging everyone in the audience to treat protesters with respect and to avoid any violence, but instead, to chant louder than they could.
Trump responded to those who may see this as an election between a bigot and a champion of equality by saying that he will be the best choice to defend women and the LGBT community. This is due to Clinton’s financial ties to Middle Eastern governments, who have notoriously treated women and LGBT people, among other groups, extremely harshly for moral crimes, according to Trump.
“I am better for the gay community,” Trump said. “I am better for women than [Clinton] will ever be on her best day.”
Sen. Bob Corker introduced Trump and gave a brief but emotional speech about meeting Trump’s family and people close to the Trump organization. Corker is considered to be a finalist in Trump’s search for a vice president, according to NBC News.
“So many times in these campaigns, people become caricatures of what the media makes them, and all too often, after a race is over, people realize they never really knew the person,” Corker said. But, he said, after meeting those close to Trump and spending time with him, “I figured out why you love him so much.”
After waiting for the crowd to sit back down, Corker said, “The reason you love him so much is because he loves you and he wants the best for you.”
Randy Jaouhari contributed to the reporting of this story.
A father and son stand up and chant together in support of Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. The rally was held on July 5 in Memorial Auditorium at the Duke Energy Center for the Performing Arts, attracting a crowd of more than 2,000.
