Thousands of Donald Trump supporters gathered on Saturday, April 20, under the sun, at the airport in Wilmington, North Carolina, a state that will be fiercely contested by the former American president and his Democratic rival Joe Biden in the November 5 presidential election.
But, due to deteriorating weather conditions, the Republican candidate had to postpone his first major campaign event planned since the start of his criminal trial in New York.
“We want to make sure that everyone is safe first and foremost and so we have been asked to ask people to leave the premises and take shelter,” Donald Trump said in a phone call broadcast on the site . “It seems like there is thunder and lightning (…) I think we are going to have to postpone this for another time,” added the billionaire, promising to organize another, “bigger” gathering at the same place.
But the date of the Republican's next campaign meeting is unknown. His trial in New York could last more than a month, which significantly limits his scope to reach out to voters and raise funds. And other legal proceedings could add to his schedule later in the year.
" I did not do anything wrong ! »
For now, the man who hopes to make a triumphant return to the White House is on trial in a case of hidden payments to buy the silence of a former porn star, Stormy Daniels, a few days before the 2016 election that he had won narrowly against Democrat Hillary Clinton. The jury of twelve members and six alternates was constituted on Friday in this trial which will be able to get to the merits of the case on Monday.
Denouncing a “witch hunt,” Mr. Trump repeatedly protested that the trial did not give him free rein. “I should be in Pennsylvania and Florida right now, in many other states, in North Carolina, in Georgia, campaigning,” he said indignantly this week.
Donald Trump attacked Juan Merchan again on Saturday, the judge in his New York trial, historic because it is the first criminal trial of a former American president. The magistrate must be “dismissed”, he said. " I did not do anything wrong ! » he stormed on his platform, Truth Social. “If immunity is not granted to a president, every president leaving office will be immediately indicted by the opposing party,” he said.
Joe Biden's advance in the polls
Although no Democratic presidential candidate has won North Carolina since Barack Obama in 2008, Joe Biden wants to believe in his chances in the state. Because even though Donald Trump won in North Carolina twice − in 2016 and in 2020 −, the current president narrowly lost in this state to him during the last election.
The Democrat is trying to take advantage of the cases that beset his rival, stuck in court several days of the week, and is plowing the field. He was on Tuesday in his hometown of Scranton, in the state of Pennsylvania, contested and crucial for the November election.
While he has long refrained from commenting on Donald Trump's troubles, Mr. Biden shot an arrow at him this week, saying that the latter was "very busy at the moment." The White House assured that Joe Biden was not following the trial, adding: “He is focused on Americans.”
This trial coincides with Joe Biden's advance in the polls since his State of the Union speech in March, with the two candidates now neck and neck. But Donald Trump and his supporters also hope to take advantage of the media attention surrounding his criminal trial, counting on the fact that it offers him a ready-made platform for campaigning.
