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SIOUX CENTER, Iowa (AP) — Former President Donald Trump urged his supporters Friday evening not to be complacent in the face of a commanding polling lead as he kicked off the sprint to the Iowa caucuses with his first events of the election year.
“Ten days from now, the people of this state are going to cast the most important vote of your entire lives,” Trump told several hundred supporters gathered in Sioux Center. He implored them to turn out on caucus night, warning, “Bad things happen when you sit back."
Trump was holding a pair of commit-to-caucus events, one in the far northwest corner of the state on the border with South Dakota and one in north-central Mason City. He'll spend Saturday in Newton in central Iowa before heading to Clinton in the state's far east.
The visit came the day before the third anniversary of Jan. 6, 2021, when a violent mob of Trump's supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol as part of a desperate bid to keep him in power after his 2020 election loss. Trump in his first speech did not acknowledge the date, but railed against the treatment of those who been jailed for participating in the riot, labeling them “hostages" and saying it will “go down as one of the saddest things in the history of our country.”
More than 1,230 people have been charged with federal crimes for their conduct, including felonies like assaulting police officers and seditious conspiracy.
Trump also asked at one point whether there was anyone in the friendly room who wasn't planning to vote for him, but then quickly told them not to raise their hands.
“They’re going to say he incited an insurrection,” he said to laughs.
Earlier Friday, President Joe Biden delivered a speech warning that Trump’s efforts to retake the White House in 2024 pose a grave threat to the country and democracy.
Biden said Jan. 6 marked a moment where “we nearly lost America — lost it all.”
“Joe Biden’s record is an unbroken streak of weakness, incompetence, corruption, and failure," Trump told the crowd. "That’s why Crooked Joe is staging his pathetic fearmongering campaign event in Pennsylvania today,”
Trump, who faces 91 criminal charges stemming from his efforts to overturn his loss to Biden and three other felony cases, spent much of his speech lashing out at Biden, who he argues poses the real threat to democracy. He has accused Democrats of using the justice system to damage their chief political rival, though there is no evidence that Biden has influenced the investigations led by the Justice Department — which has also indicted his son, Hunter Biden, twice.
While Trump remains ahead in Iowa polls, he continued to lash out at his top rivals, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley. DeSantis has staked his campaign on Iowa while Haley has seen growing support in recent months following a series of well-reviewed debate performances.
Trump tried to cast both as members of the Republican establishment, alleging that they would “sell you out."
“Sadly, the establishment losers and sellouts lagging far behind us in the Republican primary cannot be trusted on taxes, on trade, or anything else,” he charged. “They’ll betray you just like they betrayed me."
While Trump last visited Iowa before Christmas, his allies have been fanning out across the state, holding their own events on his behalf. Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, who are both considered potential vice presidential picks, have been working to get out the vote in recent days, as has his son Eric Trump.
Trump's team has repeatedly argued that any margin of victory larger than 12 percentage points would be a historic win in an open caucus. Trump lost the state in 2016 to Texas Sen. Ted Cruz but ultimately won the nomination and the presidency.
In addition to his criminal charges, Trump is also facing efforts to remove him from the ballot over his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss. The Supreme Court said Friday it would take up the question of whether states can bar him from the ballot.
Marj Wichers, who lives in Sioux Center and said her backseat was full of Trump gear she bought for her grandchildren outside the venue, criticized efforts to disqualify him.
“He’s got to get back in there," said Wichers, after standing in line for four hours to attend the first event. “If they don’t want to put him on the ballot, I’ll write his name down.”
Wichers, 58, said she works the night shift so she might not be able to caucus on Jan. 15.
“I think he’s going to get in anyway, so I’m not too worried about it," she said.