Donald Trump returned to Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania on Saturday at Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza for a rally, just two days ahead of the Democratic National Convention when his rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, is expected to accept the presidential nomination for the Democrats.
Delivering his usual rhetoric and bigotry — from accusing Harris of being a communist to calling her a liar (“she gets up and just lies”) and claiming she’s “flooding our country with millions and millions of low wage migrants” whom he baselessly claims are mostly prisoners, mental institution patients, and terrorists — Trump also whined about having had to spend money to battle Biden, but now his strategy has been messed up with a new candidate.
“I spend $100 million,” he claimed on what he has forked out for his initial run against President Joe Biden. “Now, I have to run against somebody else. Is that fair? I think they should reimburse me for the 100 million. Who wants to collect?”
In the days following Biden leaving the race to Harris becoming the presumptive nominee, Trump struggled to combat his new foe, falling back to primarily attacking Biden. During Saturday’s rally, he still called Biden “crooked,” but he also went off teleprompter to claim that Biden “hates [Harris]. This was an overthrow of a president,” he claimed.
As for his attacks on Harris, he played a video, which included snippets from when she previously ran for president.
He criticized her laugh. “Have you heard her laugh? That is the laugh of a crazy person… It’s a laugh of a lunatic. Have you heard her?,” he said, then he claimed: “You know, they prohibited her. They prohibited her for laughing. I’ve been waiting for the laugh, because as soon as she laughs, the election’s over.”
Trump also took umbrage with Harris’ looks. He brought up her cover with Time Magazine, and pointed out that it was a drawing. He said he thought it was Sophia Loren in the depiction, and that someone else had told him Harris had the advantage of being a “very beautiful woman,” which drew boos and sneers from the audience. So he said he went back to look at the story, and wildly concluded: “I say that I am much better looking than her… I’m a better looking person than Kamala.”
Beyond his direct attacks on Harris, he also claimed that the “country is going to die” should he not be reelected.
It was his seventh visit to the battleground state this year, and his second in Pennsylvania since he was shot and wounded in Butler. A poll published yesterday by Emerson College/RealClearPennsylvania has him leading with Pennsylvania voters by a slim margin of one percentage point, whereas a week ago, a poll from The New York Times and Siena found that he was trailing Harris by four percentage points among Pennsylvania voters (red state polls are also worrying the GOP). Trump and Harris will also face-off in the state during their first debate on Sept. 10 in Philadelphia.
