Former President Donald Trump hinted that he will run for a 2024 presidential candidacy, and promised to pardon his supporters who stormed the Capitol on January 6 last year, if he wins.<\/p>\n
Trump criticized Biden for setting U.S. troops on-call for a potential deployment to Europe to help defend Ukraine against an anticipated attack from Russia.<\/p>\n
“Before Joe Biden sends any troops to defend a border in Eastern Europe he should be sending troops to defend our border right here in Texas,” he said while addressing a raucous Save America rally in Texas Saturday night. It was his second campaign-style rally of 2022. <\/p>\n
Texas Governor Greg Abbott, Lt. Governor Dan Patrick and Attorney General Ken Paxton attended the rallY held at the Montgomery County Fairgrounds in Conroe, Texas.<\/p>\n
Trump said: “So many people have been asking me about it: (yes) if I run and win (2024 Presidential election), we will treat those people from January 6 fairly.”<\/p>\n
Trump said the rioters who were arrested for breaking into the Capitol are being treated “unfairly” by the Biden administration.<\/p>\n
“We will treat them fairly. And if it requires pardons, we will give them pardons. Because they are being treated so unfairly,” the billionaire-turned politician told the crowd, evoking thunderous applause from thousands of Republican supporters.<\/p>\n
As a joint session of Congress convened to certify the election victory of Joe Biden on January 6, 2021, dozens of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol and disrupted the proceedings. Five people, including one woman shot by police, died in the rampage, apparently instigated by Trump. <\/p>\n
More than 700 people were arrested over the Capitol riots, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia has charged them with federal crimes.<\/p>\n
A nine-member House select committee, which is dominated by Democrat lawmakers, is probing if Trump had knowledge about the riot in advance.<\/p>\n
A federal appeals court last month rejected the former President’s bid not to release his White House records to the House panel.<\/p>\n
Trump insists Biden fraudulently won the presidential election, and refuses to acknowledge losing it.<\/p>\n
Before the rally, Trump hosted a fundraising $100,000 per couple lunch in Houston, reportedly for a new political action committee, Make America Great Again. <\/p>\n