Donald Trump‘s rapturous reception at a Cuban restaurant in Miami’s Little Havana district so irritated one CNN anchor he scolded producers for airing the footage.
Jake Tapper asked the CNN directors, live on air, to stop showing the scenes.
‘To the folks in the control room: I don’t need to see any more of that,’ said Tapper.
The veteran Washington reporter, who has been at CNN for a decade, said that Trump was trying to use his arrest as propaganda.
‘He’s trying to turn it into a spectacle, a campaign ad. That’s enough of that. We’ve seen it already.’
Trump mocked Tapper for his response.
‘Fake Tapper just demanded that his broadcast be closed down from Miami because there was far too much enthusiasm on the streets for ‘Trump’,’ the former president said.
‘The good news is, he was the only one to do so, perhaps a good explanation as to why CNN’s ratings are so low!’
Jake Tapper raises a hand to tell the control room to stop airing footage of Donald Trump at the Versailles restaurant in Miami’s Little Havana district
Former President Donald Trump’s quick trip to the Versailles Cuban restaurant included him being prayed over by religious leaders and the singing of ‘Happy Birthday,’ as the ex-president turns 77 on Wednesday
Trump is photographed outside Versailles restaurant in Miami on Tuesday. Inside he told reporters that things were going ‘great,’ adding ‘I think it’s a rigged deal here’ and previewing tonight’s speech in Bedminster, New Jersey
Trump’s stop at the well-known Little Havana restaurant had not been announced in advance, but inside were pastors and fervent Trump supporters waiting to pray for him and sing Happy Birthday. He turns 77 on Wednesday.
Tapper was irritated by the festive scene from the start.
‘And as we watch Donald Trump attempt to turn his arrest and indictment into some sort of campaign commercial, we need to remember that the reason we are watching this is because Donald Trump is accused of breaking some very serious national security laws and then obstructing and refusing to cooperate with the FBI,’ said Tapper.
After the Versailles restaurant encounter, Trump flew to New Jersey, where he spoke to supporters at his Bedminster golf course.
Tapper said CNN ‘is not airing the remarks live because he says plenty that is not true, and frankly dangerous.’
Jake Tapper said it was not appropriate to allow Trump to turn his indictment into a campaign event
Trump began his remarks by attacking Joe Biden, but he soon switched to talking about his old nemesis, Hillary Clinton, and former Vice President Dick Cheney.
‘I did everything right and they indicted me,’ he complained, surrounded by supporters in front of his clubhouse.
He condemned prosecutors for ‘threatening me with 400 years in prison for possessing my own presidential papers’ – brushing aside the indictment, which accuses him of willfully maintaining national security information at properties including the Bedminster, New Jersey club where he spoke.
That could be the total length of the sentence if Trump were to be convicted of each count against him, in what he termed ‘a political persecution like something out of a fascist or communist nation.’
‘I did everything right and they indicted me,’ fumed former President Donald Trump at his Bedminster golf club after pleading not guilty in federal court in Miami
He claimed Biden would go down in history as ‘the president who together with a band of his closest thugs, misfits and Marxists tried to destroy American democracy.’
That is a charge the House January 6 committee leveled at him about his election overturn effort. Federal prosecutors doing their own probe appear to be moving with haste.
He pointed to the use of the 1917 Espionage Act to go after him for alleged willful possession of national security information.
The indictment said he had nuclear information at Mar-a-Lago and claimed to have Pentagon attack plans at the Bedminster club where he was speaking.
Trump termed it ‘one of the most outrageous and vicious legal theories ever put forward in an American court of law.’
The former president suggested that other political figures had got away with much worse.
‘He lost the nuclear codes,’ Trump claimed of Bill Clinton, who he called a ‘nice guy.’
‘They should have used him a little bit more as an adviser in the 2016 election,’ Trump also joked, alluding to how he beat Clinton’s wife Hillary in the presidential election that year.
Trump also claimed that George W. Bush’s White House ‘lost 22 million emails.’
‘A document shredding truck was spotted on the way to Dick Cheney’s house. Can you imagine?’ the former president added.
He spoke at length about the Bill Clinton ‘socks’ case, which fact-checkers have already said isn’t a valid comparison to what Trump is accused of doing.
Once again, Trump spoke at length about Special Counsel Jack Smith, who in addition to heading the classified documents probe is running a probe based out of Washington on Trump’s election overturn efforts and January 6.
He termed him a ‘raging lunatic’ and said ‘he looks like a thug.’
Smith could be seen staring at Trump inside the courtroom during the historic proceeding.
Trump said Smith compared unfavorably with Special Counsel Robert Hur, who is investigating documents found at Biden’s home and office. He called Hur a ‘very nice person.’
‘Mine’s not such a nice person. Mine’s a deranged lunatic,’ Trump said.
The former president claimed he had an ‘absolute right’ to declassify documents, even as the federal indictment included a taped transcript of him discussing having ‘highly classified’ information at the club.
‘As president, I could have declassified, but now I can’t,’ he said in the recording.
Trump attacked prosecutors during his first speech since his arraignment
A crowd sang ‘Happy Birthday’ in advance of Trump’s 77th birthday
‘Today we witnessed the most evil and heinous abuse of power in the history of our country,’ Trump told a crowd
Kimberly Guilfoyle, fiancee of Donald Trump Jr., left, is seen on Tuesday in Bedminster. Melania Trump was not spotted in the crowd
‘We will obliterate the Deep State,’ Trump vowed, after polling showed his support jumped and held after criminal indictments in New York dealing with the Stormy Daniels ‘hush’ payments and in federal court in Florida over national security documents
There was a split-screen moment as Trump railed against prosecutors and President Joe Biden spoke on the South Lawn of the White House for a Juneteenth celebration.
At one point Fox News showed images of both men.
Trump called the charges against him ‘fabricated,’ as his legal team prepares to bulk up to battle the charges in federal court before a judge Trump appointed.
Although Biden’s Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Smith, Trump accused Biden of having ‘political opponents arrested’ right ‘in the middle of a presidential election, in which he is losing very badly.’
When Trump paused to take a swig out of a bottle of water a member of the crowd shouted ‘Happy Birthday!’ at him.
He turns 77 Wednesday.
‘Nice birthday isn’t it?’ the ex-president commented.
Trump grinned as a crowd of supporters thensang ‘Happy Birthday’ to him.
‘Nice birthday. Wonderful birthday,’ he said.
‘I was with Eric and Lara and the kids – “Happy Birthday grandpa!” – I said oh great, I just got charged with, they want 400 years approximately, if you add them all up. A fake 400 years. So thank you darling, that’s so nice. It’s a wonderful birthday,’ the former president continued. ‘We’re going to make it into the greatest birthday of all.’
Trump addressed a key photographic image from the indictment – material from a box allegedly containing ‘five eyes’ classified information all over the floor of a room of his club.
He spoke of the room ‘where someone not me – I wonder who it might have been – dumped one of the very neatly arranged boxes all over the floor.
Trump called the images ‘staged.’
He said boxes contained ‘clothing, memorabilia and much much more.’
‘I hadn’t had a chance to go through all the boxes. It’s a long, tedious job. It’s a long time, which I was prepared to do but I have a very busy life. I’ve had a very busy life,’ he said.
Trump spoke of the room ‘where someone not me – I wonder who it might have been – dumped one of the very neatly arranged boxes all over the floor. The indictment contained extraordinary new photos and detailed how Trump valet Walt Nauta walked into a storage room and allegedly found intelligence files on allies including the United Kingdom and Australia spilled on the floor
Eric Trump was spotted in the audience at the Bedminster event and Kimberly Guilfoyle, the fiancee of Donald Trump Jr., was captured in photos.
Melania Trump wasn’t at the scene.
‘I don’t know. I haven’t been briefed on that,’ Trump spokesman Steven Cheung told DailyMail.com when asked about Melania’s whereabouts at the conclusion of the event.
Other recognizable Trumpworld figures in the audience included Ric Grenell, Boris Epshteyn, Sebastian Gorka, Senator Tommy Tuberville, Mike Lindell and Bernie Kerik.
