Trump, Biden trade salvos in Georgia face-off

ROME, Georgia: A defiant and bitter Donald Trump returned on Saturday to the state where he faces criminal charges for undermining the 2020 U.S. presidential election, looking to win the battleground of Georgia as a stepping-stone to taking back the presidency.

Trump was stumping in Georgia on the same day as President Joe Biden, who campaigned in nearby Atlanta, signifying the critical role the state will play in November’s general election.

In his remarks, Trump repeatedly insisted falsely he was the victim of widespread election fraud and he blasted the Georgia district attorney, Fani Willis, who is prosecuting him for interfering with the 2020 election, accusing her of working with the Biden administration to target him.

“They’re trying to take us out, and it’s not going to work,” Trump told the crowd at an arena in Rome, Georgia.

Biden, meanwhile, took aim at Trump for entertaining Hungary’s right-wing nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban at his Florida club in recent days, accusing him of “sucking up to dictators and authoritarian thugs all around the world.”

“When he says he wants to be a dictator, I believe him,” Biden said.

There may not be a more hotly contested state than Georgia in the Nov. 5 general election, which swung to Biden in the 2020 election and was central to Trump’s fraud claims.

Read more: Biden takes on Trump over Russia, democracy in fiery State of the Union address

Trump is expected to clinch his party’s nomination on Tuesday when Georgia, along with Hawaii, Mississippi and Washington state hold nominating contests.

On Thursday, Biden delivered a State of the Union speech laden with criticisms of Trump, accusing him of threatening democracy, kowtowing to Russia and sinking bipartisan immigration reform.

The president, however, continues to grapple with a backlash among Democrats for his staunch support of Israel in its war against Hamas in Gaza, discontent that could manifest itself in the vote in Georgia on Tuesday.

At his campaign event on Saturday, a heckler was escorted out after calling the president “Genocide Joe.”

A coalition of multifaith and multiracial groups in Georgia have launched a campaign urging voters to leave their ballots blank instead of voting for Biden on Tuesday in the hope of sending a message to the White House to reconsider its support of Israel.