Muscogee County Republicans talk Trump’s Columbus visit

COLUMBUS, Ga. (WTVM) - Reaction continues after former president Donald Trump visited the Fountain City over the weekend for the Georgia State Republican convention.

Trump’s visit comes on the heels of a federal indictment charging him with 37 counts of mishandling classified documents in Florida.

The Muscogee County Republican Party’s Chairwoman, Carmen Rice, along with the third-vice chair Ricky Weeks describe his speech as ‘electric’ and ‘energizing.’

“I’m ready to hit the streets and get people elected... get republicans elected,” Weeks told News Leader 9′s Ashlee Williams.

Marjorie Taylor Greene opened the convention Friday as the first guest speaker, followed by Vivek Ramaswamy who spoke on his campaign ideas for his presidential run next year.

Headlining the convention: Former President Donald Trump. The 2024 presidential hopeful arrived in Columbus just before 1:30PM Saturday, urging political leaders to vote for him next November, despite being the first former U-S president to ever face federal criminal charges.

“We’ll expose the Rhinos, we’ll defeat Joe Biden and we will liberate America from these villains once and for all,” Trump said. “The silent majority is rising. Under our leadership, the forgotten man and women will never be forgotten again.”

Rice and Weeks said they respect Trump’s transparency, specifically when it comes to those criminal charges.

“It has gotten coined ‘the witch hunt’ so to speak,” Rice explained. “He was very open about the boxes on his front lawn. There was nothing sinister or sneaky... If he was, he wouldn’t have put the boxes on his front lawn and have them loaded on the truck.”

“It was brought up, the Burisma trial against Biden, with the bribe,” Weeks said. “Most people in the United States know, when they bring up something like this, look what they’re trying to hide. That’s what I believe was happening.”

The former president talked about everything from international relations, the last presidential election, still claiming voter fraud in Georgia, and the current state of the country.

Trump told Georgia republicans things were better when he was president.

“Three years ago, we were energy independent. We had no inflation. We had low taxes, low interests rates, the greatest economy in history. Now everything is the opposite,” he said. “The stakes of this election could not be more stark. Either we have a deep state or we have a democracy. One or the other. We’re right at the tipping point.”

Carmen and Ricky encourage you to get involved with a local political party if you want to see changes both here at home and nationwide.

Click HERE for information about Muscogee County’s republican party.

Click HERE for information about Muscogee County’s democratic party.

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