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Donald Trump has just walked on stage at CPAC in National Harbour, Maryland.
Stay tuned as we deliver the latest updates of his speech.
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South Carolina’s former governor Nikki Haley remains defiant about beating Donald Trump in her home state, where voters are heading to the polls for Saturday’s Republican primary.
The Guardian’s Joan Greve reports from Charleston, South Carolina:
At her primary eve rally in Mount Pleasant, just outside of Charleston, Haley called on her supporters to turn out in large numbers on Saturday.
“In a general election, you’re given a choice. In a primary, you make your choice,” Haley said. “This is the time we make our choice.”
But at this point, Haley would have to pull off a shocking upset to win South Carolina. According to the FiveThirtyEight average of South Carolina polls, Trump leads Haley by roughly 30 points in the state, and the former president has already won the first three voting contests in Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada. At his own primary eve rally in Rock Hill, near the North Carolina border, Trump voiced robust confidence that he would deliver a decisive victory on Saturday and indicated he was already turning his attention to the general election fight against Joe Biden.
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Here are some images coming through the newswires from CPAC, where various conservative figures have made appearances over the weekend alongside their supporters:
Ahead of his speech on Saturday, Donald Trump went after the Fulton county district attorney, Fani Willis, who is facing scrutiny over her relationship with her deputy prosecutor Nathan Wade.
In a lengthy post on Truth Social, Trump, who is one of 19 defendants in the 2020 Georgia election racketeering case brought forth by Willis, wrote:
Based on the fact that District Attorney Fani Willis and her Lover were together long prior to the filing date of their Fake Lawsuit against me and many other innocent people, despite their sworn testimony to the contrary, this case must be determined as OVER and, of no further force or effect.”
He went on to accuse the case of being about “stealing close to $1 Million Dollars for Lover Wade”.
Court documents filed on Friday by Trump’s lawyers appeared to show that Wade made at least 35 visits to Willis’s neighbourhood before she hired him as a prosecutor.
During a court hearing earlier this month, Willis forcefully denied wrongdoing, saying: “You think I’m on trial. These people are on trial for trying to steal an election in 2020. I’m not on trial, no matter how hard you try to put me on trial.”
Trump's Friday night speech predicted victory in South Carolina primary
With Donald Trump set to speak at CPAC, the former president also vowed to win South Carolina’s Republican primary on Saturday.
In an email sent out on Friday evening, Trump pledged to his supporters: “Tomorrow we WIN SOUTH CAROLINA!”
He went on to attack Joe Biden and the “DEEP STATE [which] did everything they could do interfere in our election and STOP US”.
Trump also accused Biden of being “bankrolled by HATE AMERICA liberal billionaires” and vowed, as usual, to “MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN”.
He then asked voters to “chip in”. Donation recommendations on his campaign website ranged from $20.24 to $3,000.
Trump to speak at CPAC ahead of South Carolina primary
Good afternoon,
Donald Trump is set to take center stage at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Maryland at around 1pm.
The former president is expected to speak for an hour at the event which has already featured appearances from conservative figures including South Dakota governor Kristi Noem and former British prime minister Liz Truss.
Trump’s highly anticipated speech this year will follow a fiery address he delivered at last year’s event in which he warned of a third world war, told his supporters that he is their “retribution” and vowed to “obliterate the deep state.”
In a campaign email sent out on Friday, Trump offered supporters a brief glimpse at his 2024 CPAC speech. Among the lines include: “Trump was right about everything” and “The only crime I have ever committed is defending America from those who want to destroy it.”
As Trump is slated to address CPAC, voters in South Carolina – where Trump is leading the state’s former governor Nikki Haley by around 30 points – will head to the polls on Saturday in their Republican primary.
Stay tuned as we bring you the latest updates.
