随着唐纳德·特朗普继续利用他的四项史无前例的起诉他否认了每起案件中的不当行为，并直接向一个他认为相关的社区传达了自己的信息。
周三晚上，而不是参加迈阿密第三场2024年共和党辩论这位前总统在附近的佛罗里达州海厄利亚为支持者举行了一次集会，这是一个西班牙裔人口众多的城市，近年来变得越来越保守。
作为该州最大的县的一部分，该地区可能是特朗普在佛罗里达州继续获胜的关键，他在2016年以2.2%的优势击败了希拉里·克林顿，然后在2020年以约3.3%的优势击败了现任总统乔·拜登。
现在，随着特朗普第三次竞选总统，随着佛罗里达州共和党人努力将该州变成红色，他期待着海厄利亚扩大他在迈阿密-戴德县的支持，三年前他几乎翻转。
周三晚上，特朗普加剧了他所谓的“迫害”和抵抗共产主义的言论——援引了与会者及其家人的经历，特别是记得已故独裁者菲德尔·卡斯特罗(Fidel Castro)的共产主义统治的古巴裔美国人。
特朗普在没有证据的情况下声称，“就像古巴政权一样，拜登政权试图把他们的政治对手关进监狱，关闭自由言论，收受贿赂和回扣来中饱私囊，”他的支持者为此欢呼。
然后，特朗普告诉人群，选举他而不是拜登将是拯救国家免于像人群中许多人逃离的那样被管理的唯一途径。
特朗普说:“如果你不想让共产主义者像摧毁古巴、委内瑞拉、尼加拉瓜和其他许多国家一样摧毁美国，你需要发出一个信息，投票给不诚实的乔·拜登和他的所有朋友，真正管理我们国家的人，以及每一个民主党人，让他们滚出办公室。”
拜登竞选团队迅速抨击特朗普的言论，辩称他“不是古巴裔美国人的真正盟友”，并强调他过去对威权领导人的赞扬以及他试图撤销奥巴马时代的医疗保健立法。
拜登连任竞选活动的发言人马卡·卡萨多(Maca Casado)说:“他在总统任期内一直努力推翻患者保护与平价医疗法案，尽管古巴人占多数的海阿利亚的入学率在全国排名第二。”。“只有拜登总统对西班牙裔小企业的历史性投资，他对经济机会的呼吁才得以实现。”
但一些集会参与者告诉美国广播公司新闻，特朗普的信息引起了他们的共鸣，并说服了他们。
来自古巴的移民Al Lopez说:“当卡斯特罗接管政权的时候，我亲眼目睹了发生在我的家人和朋友身上的事情。很多人认为他就是答案，但他不是，所以他背叛了我们，就像拜登背叛了我们一样。整个民主党都在背叛我们。”
一位名为Aiantxa的女子含泪表示，她认为特朗普的刑事指控是出于政治原因，她出生在古巴，15年前移民到美国。
对特朗普提起四起刑事诉讼的检察官都为指控进行了辩护，在法庭文件中列出了大量证据和其他细节，说明对他的指控的性质。
他在四个案件中总共面临91项指控:两项州级起诉，分别在纽约市和佐治亚州富尔顿县;以及在佛罗里达和华盛顿特区的两起联邦起诉
特朗普不认罪，称自己没有做错任何事。
特别顾问杰克·史密斯正在领导司法部对特朗普的调查，他为自己的工作进行了辩护，包括在与1月6日有关的选举颠覆案中指控特朗普，以及推动推翻2020年总统选举结果。
“2021年1月6日对我们国家首都的袭击是对美国民主所在地的前所未有的攻击。正如(针对特朗普的)起诉书中所描述的那样，这是由谎言推动的，”史密斯在8月份表示。“被告的谎言旨在阻碍美国政府的一项基本职能:国家收集、统计和认证总统选举结果的过程。”
尽管如此，周三来自古巴的集会参与者埃丝特·埃尔南德斯(Esther Hernandez)表示，特朗普关于迫害的说法与她的个人经历相符。“没有自由，政治迫害——同样的事情正在这里发生，”她说。开始是这样，一点一点，直到你的权利不复存在。"
特朗普之前集会上的发言者用其他国家的政治术语来表达他的政纲。
“我们中的许多人为了自由离开了古巴和委内瑞拉，”拉丁裔以色列联盟主席马里奥·布拉姆尼克牧师说，他为当晚定下了基调。“我们从未想到共产主义会来到我们的海岸。我们需要特朗普总统，这样共产主义就永远不会来到美利坚合众国。”
“他理解我们，”海厄利亚市长埃斯特万·博沃谈到特朗普时说。“他向这个社区承诺，他将扭转奥巴马对古巴的背信弃义的政策，他做到了。”
但拜登竞选发言人卡萨多表示，特朗普不诚实——这表明佛罗里达州的拉美裔选民可能会在2024年的竞选中面临决斗。
“川普可以随心所欲地喊‘社会主义’，”卡萨多说，“但他是这场竞选中唯一一个赞扬普京、称金正恩‘才华横溢’，并让拉美独裁者合法化的候选人。”
Trump paints himself as a victim in pitch to Florida Hispanics wary of political persecution
Trump paints himself as a victim in pitch to Florida Hispanics wary of political persecution
As Donald Trump continues to campaign off of hisfour unprecedented indictments, denying wrongdoing in each of them, he’s taken his message directly to a community that he believes can relate.
On Wednesday night, rather thanattend the third 2024 GOP debate in Miami, the former president held a rally for supporters in nearby Hialeah, Florida, a heavily-Hispanic city which has trended increasingly conservative in recent years.
As part of the state's largest county, the area could be key to Trump continuing to win in Florida after he beat Hillary Clinton there in 2016 by 2.2% and then beat now-President Joe Biden by about 3.3% in 2020.
Now, as Trump mounts his third presidential bid and as Florida Republicans have worked to turn the state solidly red, he is looking toward Hialeah to expand his support in Miami-Dade County, which he almost flipped three years ago.
On Wednesday night, Trump sharpened his rhetoric of alleged "persecution" and resistance to communism -- invoking the experiences of attendees and their families, particularly Cuban Americans who remember the communist rule of the late dictator Fidel Castro.
Former President Donald Trump delivers remarks in Houston, Texas, on Nov. 2, 2023.
Suzanne Cordeiro/Shutterstock
"Just like the Cuban regime, the Biden regime is trying to put their political opponents in jail, shutting down free speech, taking bribes and kickbacks to enrich themselves," Trump claimed without evidence, drawing cheers from his supporters.
Then, Trump told the crowd that electing him over Biden would be the only way to save the country from being run like those many in the crowd had escaped from.
"If you don't want to let the communists destroy America like they destroyed Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua and so many other countries, you need to send a message by voting crooked Joe Biden and all of his friends, the people that are actually really running our country, and every last Democrat, get them the hell out of office," Trump said.
The Biden campaign was swift in slamming Trump's comments, arguing he was "no real ally of Cuban Americans" and highlighting his past praise of authoritarian leaders and his attempts to undo Obama-era health care legislation.
"His presidency saw consistent efforts to overturn the Affordable Care Act, even though Cuban-heavy Hialeah has the second-highest enrollment in the country," Maca Casado, a spokesperson for Biden's reelection campaign, said. "And his calls for economic opportunity were only realized by President Biden's historic investments in Hispanic small businesses."
But some rally attendees told ABC News that Trump's messaging resonated with and persuaded them.
Al Lopez, an immigrant from Cuba, said, "I saw what happened firsthand to members of my family, friends in Cuba when Castro took over. A lot of people felt that he was the answer, but he wasn't -- so he betrayed us just like Biden is betraying us. The whole Democratic Party is betraying us."
Through tears, a woman named Aiantxa, who was born in Cuba and immigrated to the U.S. 15 years ago, said she believed Trump's criminal charges were brought for political reasons.
Prosecutors who brought the four criminal cases against Trump have all defended the accusations, laying out extensive evidence and other detail, in court filings, about the nature of the charges against him.
He collectively faces 91 charges across four cases: two state-level prosecutions, in New York City and Fulton County, Georgia; and two federal prosecutions, in Florida and Washington, D.C.
Trump has pleaded not guilty and said he did nothing wrong.
Special counsel Jack Smith, who is leading the Department of Justice's investigation of Trump, has defended his work, which included charging Trump in an election subversion case related to Jan. 6 and the push to overturn the 2020 presidential results.
"The attack on our nation's capital on Jan. 6, 2021, was an unprecedented assault on the seat of American democracy. As described in the indictment [against Trump], it was fueled by lies," Smith said in August. "Lies by the defendant targeted at obstructing a bedrock function of the U.S. government: the nation's process of collecting, counting and certifying the results of the presidential election."
Nonetheless, Esther Hernandez, an attendee at Wednesday's rally from Cuba, said Trump's claims of persecution aligned with her personal experiences. "No freedom, political prosecution -- the same thing that's happening here," she said. 'It started like that, little by little, until your rights were not anymore."
Speakers at the rally before Trump cast his platform in the political terms of other countries.
"Many of us left Cuba, Venezuela for freedom," said Pastor Mario Bramnick, president of the Latino Coalition for Israel, who set the tone of the night. "We never thought that communism would come to our shores. We need President Trump so that communism will never come to the United States of America."
"He understands us," Hialeah Mayor Esteban Bovo said of Trump. "He made a commitment to this community that he was going to reverse the treacherous policies of Obama with Cuba, and he did it."
But Casado, the Biden campaign spokesperson, said Trump was being dishonest -- illustrating the dueling pitches Hispanic voters in Florida will likely face in the 2024 race.
"Trump can shout 'socialism' all he wants," Casado said, "but he's the only candidate in this race that has praised Putin, called Kim Jong Un 'brilliant,' and legitimized Latin American dictators."
