“This is not the place that I left”: Trump rips Washington in post-arraignment statement

After pleading not guilty on Thursday to charges relating to the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election, Donald Trump addressed reporters before departing for his private plane back to Bedminster.

“This is a very sad day for America,” Trump said. “And it was also very sad driving through Washington, D.C. and seeing the filth and the decay and all of the broken buildings and walls and the graffiti. This is not the place that I left, it’s a very sad thing to see it.”

“This is a persecution of a political opponent,” he furthered. “This was never supposed to happen in America,” going on to make a swipe at Biden by claiming to be beating him by “a lot.” In her own statement made regarding the arraignment, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga re-circulated the “Big Lie” claims that got Trump into all of this trouble in the first place, saying, “President Trump is being arrested, the Deep State is coming after him, all because he committed the ‘crime’ of winning the 2016 election. Joe Biden and his DOJ are conducting the most corrupt election interference campaign we’ve ever seen.”