WASHINGTON, DC — Filmmaker and conservative author Dinesh D’Souza explained the “gangsterization of American politics,” using his own conviction under Obama and his pardon under Trump in a speech to Road to Majority conference attendees in Washington, DC, on Saturday.

“What we’ve seen really is a gangsterization of American politics and this has happened under [President Barack] Obama,” D’Souza told the Faith and Freedom Coalition conference crowd in light of the prosecution against him for excessive campaign contributions.

He recalled his call from President Donald Trump informing him that he would receive a pardon for the crime he was convicted of and punished for under the Obama administration. He went on to speak of Obama’s training under Saul Alinsky involving deceptive and “ruthless tactics to go after people.”

He recalled the time when authorities were threatening to charge him not simply for exceeding the campaign contribution limit that he admitted to, but also mail fraud, bank fraud, filing false documents, and making false statements in relation to the contributions.

D’Souza said the tactic that has been used to combat attacks from the left has been to take the high road. In politics, this has meant candidates who look like “boy scouts” on paper, with “impeccable resumes.” He used 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney as an example.

He said the left’s attacks that worked on Romney don’t work on Donald Trump. He described the defensive posture of Romney, “up against the wall, hiding under his desk” when his opponents went after him for being too rich. “The problem with accusing Trump of being too rich is is that he sits down and explains to you he’s even richer than you thought,” said D’Souza, eliciting a wave of laughter and applause from the crowd. He explained that this leftist tactic, when used on Trump: “It really doesn’t work.”

“What I like about Trump is that he fights on the political and the cultural front both,” said D’Souza. “My hope is that we will get back to a better America in which politics will not be used as a political weapon against political adversaries, but I think that the way that we get there is all of us need not only powerful Christian conviction, but a little bit of Christian toughness.”

“We need to be tough because our opponents are tough,” D’Souza told the crowd. He spoke of the now former Southern District of New York U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara who oversaw D’Souza’s prosecution. He said Bharara used prosecution of him as a show of loyalty to Obama and Obama’s Attorney General at the time, Eric Holder. “But somehow it didn’t work out that way,” said D’Souza.

“At the end of the day, he got fired and I got pardoned,” he said of Bharara.

D’Souza said he is focused on his new upcoming film Death of a Nation to be released in August, along with a book. “I’m going to try to live up to Trump’s mission for me, which is to go out there, be fearless, speak up and try to rally a lot of young people to our cause – also on the American campus.”

He then sat down for a question and answer session on stage with two representatives for the conference.

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