Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump accused Democratic rival President Joe Biden of running a “Gestapo administration” in a private address to donors in which he also attacked prosecutors involved in his criminal indictments.
The comments came after Trump reprised his complaint that the multiple indictments against him were politically motivated. He had just concluded 11 days of a New York hush money trial in which he is charged with falsifying business records to cover up a $130,000 payment made to a porn star.
“These people are running a Gestapo administration,” Trump said, according to an audio recording heard by the New York Times and the Washington Post. “And it’s the only thing they have. And it’s the only way they’re going to win, in their opinion, and it’s actually killing them. But it doesn’t bother me.”
In a statement, White House spokesman Andrew Bates sought to contrast Biden’s conduct in office with Trump’s latest remark, accusing the former president of echoing fascist rhetoric, “lunching with neo-Nazis and fanning debunked conspiracy theories that have cost brave police officers their lives.”
“President Biden is bringing the American people together around our shared democratic values and the rule of law – an approach that has delivered the biggest violent crime reduction in 50 years,” said Bates.
Trump, who held office from 2017 to 2021, faces an array of legal troubles in criminal and civil cases while he seeks to regain the presidency in the Nov. 5 election. He denies wrongdoing in all the cases.
