SIOUX CENTER, Iowa—As former President Donald J. Trump kicked off a final round of campaigning in Iowa ahead of its Jan. 15 caucus, he demonstrated his stamina, speaking for over 100 minutes.
Towards the end of his Sioux Center speech, he commented on the story of the day: the Supreme Court’s decision to take up Colorado’s high court’s decision to remove him from its primary ballot on 14th Amendment grounds.
With the nation’s highest court now slated to decide a case that could be one of the most fateful in American history, the man at the center of it weighed in on judges’ political partisanship.
A Democratic one “appointed by, let’s say, Obama... they’re in there, they say, ‘We’re appointed, that’s the end,’” President Trump said. “A Republican judge appointed by, let’s say, Trump will go out of their way to hurt you so that they can show that they have been fair.”
“I guess it’s a different wiring system or something. But all I want is fair,” President Trump added.
“The other side plays the ref,” he went on, likening Democrats to the late college basketball coach Bobby Knight, best known for his stint coaching Indiana University’s men’s team.
“Bobby would scream at the refs,” President Trump recalled.
The former president suggested that Supreme Court justices might be under considerable pressure to rule against him, raising the possibility of demonstrations outside their homes.
Such protests took place ahead of the Supreme Court’s 2022 ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade. An initial draft majority opinion leaked earlier in the year.
“I just hope we get fair treatment,” he reiterated before predicting the media’s coverage of his comments would be “much different” from his intended message.
The speech came ahead of remarks by the former president in Mason City, Iowa, on the other side of the Hawkeye State.
