Trump claims he is ‘proud political dissident’ in ominous CPAC speech: Live

Donald Trump is facing 91 felony counts after prosecutors brought several indictments against him in the last year.

Mr Trump faces charges in Georgia and Washington, DC related to overturning the 2020 election. Meanwhile, in Florida, he’s facing charges related to keeping classified documents, and in New York prosecutors say he falsified business records surrounding hush money payments during his first presidential campaign.

That’s not to mention the civil cases he’s faced, such as the E Jean Carroll defamation trials.

Meanwhile, the former president maintains his absolute innocence.

“The only crime I’ve committed is defending America,” he during his CPAC keynote speech on Saturday.

Gustaf Kilander has the story:

“I stand before you today not only as your past and hopefully future president, but as a proud political dissident,” Donald Trump said in his keynote speech on Saturday. “I am a dissident.”

“The sudden death of Alexei Navalny has made me more and more aware of what is happening in our Country,” the former president posted on Truth Social earlier this week. “It is a slow, steady progression, with CROOKED, Radical Left Politicians, Prosecutors, and Judges leading us down a path to destruction.”

An hour later than scheduled, Mr Trump has started his CPAC keynote speech.

Donald Trump claimed Black voters like him because of his many indictments and mug shot during a speech at the Black Conservative Foundation gala on Friday evening.

“I got indicted for nothing. They were doing it because it’s election interference. And then I got indicted a second time, a third time and a fourth time,” Mr Trump said. “And a lot of people said that that’s why the Black people like me, because they have been hurt so badly and discriminated against. And they actually viewed me as I’m being discriminated against. It’s been pretty amazing.”

The former president is currently facing 91 charges across several cases against him. Mr Trump gave the speech in South Carolina just hours before polls opened for the state’s presidential primary.

“The mug shot, we’ve all seen the mug shot, and you know who embraced it more than anybody else? The Black population,” he said later in the speech. “It’s incredible. You see Black people walking around with my mug shot, you know?”

Mr Trump was scheduled to speak at CPAC 2024 at 1 pm local time — now, at 1:30 pm, the former president has yet to take the stage.

Watch The Independent’s live feed of his keynote speech here:

Watch as Mr Trump is scheduled to take the stage at the conference any minute, delivering the keynote address as votes roll in from the South Carolina primary: