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GREENSBORO, N.C. (AP) — Former President Donald Trump ramped up his rhetoric on immigration on Saturday and baselessly accused President Joe Biden of waging a “conspiracy to overthrow the United States,” during his rally. campaign heading to the Super Tuesday primaries.

Trump has a long history of attacking his rivals with the intention of undermining their forces. Biden has called Trump a threat to democracy, referencing the former president’s attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election. Those efforts culminated in the attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, when his supporters attempted stop the peaceful transition of powers.

Trump, who responded by calling Biden “the real threat to democracy” and alleged without evidence that Biden is responsible for the charges he faces, addressed the president’s border policies on Saturday, emphasizing that “every day Joe “Biden gives aid and refuge to America’s foreign enemies.”

“Biden’s conduct at our border is, by definition, a conspiracy to overthrow the United States,” he continued in Greensboro, North Carolina. “Biden and his cronies want to collapse the American system, neutralize the will of true American voters, and establish a new power base that gives them control for generations.”

Similar arguments have long been made by people who allege that Democrats promote illegal immigration to weaken the power of white voters — as part of a racist conspiracy, once confined to the far right, that claims class intent liberal leader of the United States to systematically diminish the influence of whites.

“Once again, Trump is launching into an attempt to distract the American people from the fact that he killed the fairest and toughest border security bill in decades because he believed it would have helped his campaign. “It’s sad,” Ammar Moussa, a spokesman for Biden’s campaign team, said in a statement.

Trump’s election rally took place three days before Super Tuesday, which will see elections in 16 states, including North Carolina and Virginia, where Trump held a rally Saturday night. The primaries represent the biggest election day of the year leading up to the November general election, which is shaping up to be the likely rematch between Trump and Biden after the 2020 elections.

Nikki Haley, Trump’s latest major rival, also held her election rally in North Carolina. Speaking to reporters after her event in Raleigh, about 80 miles (130 kilometers) away, the former U.N. ambassador reserved her plans for after Super Tuesday.

“We’re going to move forward and we’re going to keep pushing,” Haley said, arguing that most Americans want neither Biden nor Trump as the nation’s leader.

Much of Trump’s speech in North Carolina focused on the massive number of criminal charges he faces. Although the former president has managed to transform his legal troubles into a powerful rallying cry in the primary elections, it is unclear how his message of grievance will resonate with the more moderate voters, who will likely decide the election.

“I stand before you today not only as your former and, hopefully, future president, but as a proud political dissident and a public enemy of a rogue regime,” Trump said, criticizing what he called an “anti-Democratic machine.”

By focusing on the general election, Trump has presented an apocalyptic vision of the country with the Biden government, particularly on the immigration issue, which was the issue that animated his campaign in 2016 and which he has once again taken advantage of at a time when the United States United States experiences record influx of migrants at the border.

Trump and Biden visited the US-Mexico border on Thursday to highlight their contrasting approaches on the issue.

On Saturday, Trump invoked images of Biden turning “public schools into migrant camps” and “America into a dumping ground ravaged by crime and disease.” He also spoke at length about the murder of Laken Riley, a 22-year-old nursing student, whose alleged killer is a Venezuelan who entered the United States illegally and was allowed to stay to pursue her immigration application.

Studies have found that U.S.-born residents are more likely to have been arrested for violent crimes than people who are in the country without legal authorization, but Trump has seized on several high-profile incidents, including a recent video of a group of immigrants fighting with police in Times Square.

“Not one more innocent American life should be lost to immigration crime,” Trump said.

Beyond their importance for Super Tuesday, North Carolina and Virginia are states that the Trump campaign team is focusing on for the November election.

Trump won North Carolina twice, but his margin of victory narrowed. Biden’s campaign team already has staff in the state hoping to change the voting orientation there for the first time since 2008.

For its part, Virginia was once a swing state, but for years it has shown a tendency to vote Democratic and Trump lost there twice. However, a senior Trump campaign adviser told reporters Saturday that he believes “we can make Virginia competitive.”

In North Carolina, a festive atmosphere surrounded the Greensboro Coliseum Complex before Trump’s rally. His supporters formed a line that snaked through a network of metal barricades and stretched dozens of meters from the scene.

Vehicles with license plates from North Carolina, Virginia and Tennessee filled the parking lot, where Trump banners flew next to Confederate American flags on many vehicles.

In Richmond, supporters of the former president began lining up early Saturday for the afternoon event at a downtown convention center. By mid-afternoon, lines stretched down several streets.

Ken Ballos, a retired police officer from nearby Hanover County who said he voted for Trump in 2016 and 2020, said he was anxious about the possibility of a rematch between Trump and Biden.

“Trump will eat him alive,” Ballos said.

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Associated Press writers Gary Robertson in Raleigh, North Carolina; Sarah Rankin in Richmond, Virginia; and Michelle L. Price in New York contributed to this report.

2024-03-03 03:20:15
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