Trump blasts DA Willis, Biden & Democrats during Atlanta fundraiser visit

ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) - Only days before the nation’s first-ever criminal trial of an ex-American president, Donald Trump held a major, private fundraiser at Atlanta’s St. Regis Hotel.

Trump called the case against him in Atlanta by Fulton County DA Fani Willis “corrupt” and said the prosecutor herself was a “criminal.” In comments to reporters shortly after he arrived around 11:30 a.m. at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Trump also said President Joe Biden is “a Manchurian candidate,” and the election day of Nov. 5, 2024, will be known as “Christian visibility day.”

After leaving the airport, Trump’s motorcade stopped at Chick-fil-A in Vine City so the former President could hand out milkshakes and pose for photos. The restaurant is not far from the notorious Fulton County Jail, where he was booked almost a year ago and had his mugshot taken.

Trump said Biden has been “horrible” for the Black community. He answered a question about his fundraising efforts in Georgia and said it’s up to the states to decide if doctors should be punished for providing abortions.

Wednesday’s fundraiser was hosted by two former Georgia U.S. senators, David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, both of whom were unseated by Democrats. Also hosting the event were The Home Depot co-founder and founder of the Georgia Aquarium, Bernie Marcus.

Perdue was a one-term GOP senator from Georgia who was defeated by Jon Ossoff, while Loeffler — appointed by Gov. Brian Kemp to fill out the unexpired term of the late Johnny Isakson — lost in her own election bid to Rev. Raphael Warnock.

Perdue then launched a GOP reelection challenge against Kemp, a race in which he was handily defeated. Loeffler has since founded a conservative voter outreach organization, Greater Georgia.

On April 15, Trump is set to go on trial in New York in a case brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. Trump faces 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in the first degree, all of which are tied to the former president’s role in a hush-money payment to a porn star, Stormy Daniels.

Trump is also under indictment in Atlanta. He and 13 remaining co-defendants are accused of engaging in an organized crime-like scheme to overturn Georgia’s 2020 election results, an election that saw Biden become the first Democrat since 1992 to carry any deep Southern state in a presidential contest.

When the fundraiser was first announced, political strategist Brian Robinson said the list of who was not attending the event is just as interesting as who’s attending.

“Anybody who is in the current Georgia establishment isn’t on there,” Robinson said. “No one who is in elected office leadership is mentioned as an honorary guest, and that shows you some of the rift that still remains from the 2022 election cycle where President Trump came in and endorsed against Gov. Brian Kemp and other incumbent Republicans.”

Kemp, along with Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, have both been heavily criticized by Trump and his supporters for not supporting Trump’s claims of election interference in 2020.

“Georgia’s important not just politically because this is a swing state that will have a big say in the Electoral College, but also because we’re increasingly a big ATM state, a place where both candidates will be coming in and digging for dollars,” said Robinson.

A Wall Street Journal poll recently released shows Trump and Biden virtually tied in Georgia. Trump leads Biden by one point, within the poll’s plus/minus four-point margin of error.

Besides Georgia, the poll also surveyed voters in five other 2024 battleground states: Pennsylvania, Arizona, Michigan, Nevada and North Carolina. All showed Trump leading Biden with margins ranging from two to eight percentage points.

The poll surveyed 4,200 registered voters — 600 in each battleground state — from March 17-24, 2024.

On Monday, attorneys for the 14 co-defendants filed an appeal in Fulton County Superior Court regarding Judge Scott McAfee’s ruling that rejected the argument Trump’s comments alleging election interference were protected under the First Amendment.

Trump’s legal team is also appealing McAfee’s ruling that allowed Willis to remain on the case. The appeal, which was filed in the Georgia Court of Appeals, was signed by all of the attorneys representing the remaining co-defendants.

Last month, McAfee rejected defense efforts to remove Willis and her office over her romantic relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade, but he did give the defendants permission to seek a review of his decision from the appeals court.

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