Trump still scheduled to speak at NCGOP convention after announcing indictment
Former President Donald Trump, who announced Thursday that he had been indicted on federal charges related to his handling of classified documents, is still expected to address the NCGOP convention in Greensboro tomorrow, a party spokesperson confirmed Friday.
Trump was announced as one of the convention’s featured speakers last month, along with other top Republicans vying for the GOP presidential nomination in 2024 including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former Vice President Mike Pence.
The convention, which will see Trump, DeSantis and Pence each make their case to North Carolina Republicans for why they should be the party’s nominee next year, will likely be dominated by the news of Trump’s indictment, which will make the former president the first in history to face federal charges.
NCGOP spokesperson Jeff Moore confirmed Friday morning that there have been “no changes” to Trump’s planned speech before the convention currently scheduled for Saturday evening.
Before Trump takes to the stage, convention-goers will hear from DeSantis, the two-term Florida governor who launched his campaign last month, and Pence, who unsuccessfully ran with Trump for a second term in office in 2020 and who kicked off his bid for the GOP nomination on Wednesday.
DeSantis will address the convention Friday evening, while Pence will deliver his remarks Saturday afternoon.
NC Republicans react to Trump charges
News of Trump’s pending charges was revealed by the former president himself, on his social media platform Truth Social. His lawyer Jim Trusty subsequently confirmed to CNN that Trump had been indicted on seven counts that include a charge under the Espionage Act. Other charges include “obstruction of justice, destruction or falsification of records, conspiracy and false statements,” CNN reported.
Trusty also confirmed that Trump had been served a summons to appear in federal court in Miami on Tuesday.
In April, Trump pleaded not guilty to more than two dozen counts of falsifying business records after being charged by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, in a different investigation into hush money he allegedly paid to a porn star before the 2016 election.
Many Republicans were quick to criticize and attack federal prosecutors Thursday for taking the unprecedented step of charging a former president.
U.S. Sen. Ted Budd, who won North Carolina’s open Senate seat last year after securing a vital Trump endorsement in the GOP primary, said on Twitter that Trump like all defendants is “innocent until proven guilty.”
“We must ensure that justice is administered without political bias, and the American people are rightly skeptical that the Biden administration is able to do that,” Budd said.
U.S. Rep. Richard Hudson, meanwhile, who represents North Carolina’s 9th Congressional District and chairs the NRCC, the GOP’s congressional campaign arm, called Trump’s indictment an “outrage” and accused the Biden administration of “weaponizing the Department of Justice against its political enemies.”
“What an unprecedented abuse of power the likes of which this country has never seen,” Hudson said on Facebook. “The ‘crime’ for which President Trump is accused is one Joe Biden freely admits he has also committed.”
