Trump accused the Washington establishment of “looting” and “pillaging” the country while trying to undemocratically nullify the 2016 election.

“We’re in a struggle for the survival of democracy in America,” he said.

The rawness flowed out against a backdrop of the House impeachment inquiry that stems from a July phone call Trump made to President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, in which he asked Zelensky to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter. Although some within the government, including congressional Democrats, have decried the call as asking for foreign interference in a U.S. election, Trump has maintained that he did nothing wrong.

“The do-nothing Democrat extremists have gone so far to the left that they believe it should not be a crime to cross our border illegally and that it should be a crime to have a totally appropriate, casual, beautiful, accurate phone call with a foreign leader,” Trump said during the Thursday rally. “I don’t think so.”