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Former President Trump was in Pennsylvania on Saturday night as he helped to make the closing pitch in a key battleground state for next week’s midterm election.
Trump landed in Latrobe and Arnold Palmer Regional Airport on his newly repainted, shiny Boeing 757 where thousands of people had waited for hours in the mild weather to hear him speak.
Trump displayed recent poll numbers on the big screens at the rally and appeared to road test a new name for his one time political ally as he referred to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a potential 2024 GOP rival, as ‘Ron DeSanctimonious.’
DeSantis won the Sunshine State’s 2018 gubernatorial election after earning the then-president’s endorsement – but it appears there is no love lost between the pair.
In a rambling speech lasting for exactly two hours, Trump claimed the country is run by ‘communists’ and repeatedly said that his attempts to overturn the 2020 election were justified, before urging Republicans to deliver ‘a humiliating rebuke.’
‘If you want to stop the destruction of our country and save the ‘American Dream,’ then this Tuesday you must vote Republican in a giant red wave,’ he said.
Over and over, he falsely claimed he lost the 2020 election only because Democrats cheated, while raising the possibility of election fraud this coming week.
Former President Donald Trump speaks at a rally for Mehmet Oz, Republican Senate candidate from Pennsylvania, in Latrobe, Pennsylvania
Former US President Donald Trump (L) looks on as Republican Senatorial candidate Mehmet Oz speaks during a ‘Save America’ rally ahead of the midterm elections at Arnold Palmer Regional Airport in Latrobe, Pennsylvania
President Donald Trump arrived in a newly repainted Trump jet in Latrobe, Pennsylvania
Trump landed in Latrobe and Arnold Palmer Regional Airport on his newly repainted, shiny Boeing 757 where thousands of people had waited for hours in the mild weather to hear him speak
Trump clenched a fist as he descended the stairs from his Boeing 757 airplane
Former U.S. President Donald Trump attends a pre-election rally to support Republican candidates in Latrobe, Pennsylvania
Trump could be seen speaking with the giant lettering from his newly painted jet looming large in the background
Trump referred to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a potential 2024 GOP rival, as ‘Ron DeSanctimonious’
In part, because of such rhetoric, federal intelligence agencies have warned of the possibility of political violence from far-right extremists in the coming days.
‘Everybody, I promise you, in the very next – very, very, very short period of time, you’re going to be happy,’ Trump said of another White House bid. ‘But first we have to win an historic victory for Republicans on November 8.’
Trump seized on crowd’s frustration with inflation in western Pennsylvania.
Polls put Republicans well ahead in the fight for the House of Representatives and also show them gaining momentum in the Senate races as voters, riled up by culture wars around gay rights and abortion, seek to take out frustration over four-decades-high inflation and rising illegal immigration.
Democrats are deeply concerned about their narrow majorities in the House and Senate as voters sour on Biden’s leadership amid surging inflation, crime concerns and widespread pessimism about the direction of the country.
History suggests that Democrats, as the party in power, will suffer significant losses in the midterms.
The visit was an important one for Trump who has ambitions to return to the White House with suggestions he may announce his candidacy following the midterms.
As he has in a steady stream of rallies since leaving office, Trump is also working to maintain his own profile as he contemplates launching a third run for the presidency.
Simply by being in the state he will be able to firm up support in a region that delivered him big margins in 2016 and 2020.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump looks on as Pennsylvania Republican candidate for Governor Doug Mastriano spoke
Supporters for Republican Candidates waves signs as they awaited the arrival of former President Donald Trump
Trump’s plane, a Boeing 757 has undergone a refurbishment both inside and out after being in storage for years
That could set the stage for a Biden-Trump rematch, though some Democrats say heavy losses for Biden’s party on Tuesday could increase pressure on the president to step aside and let someone else carry the party’s mantle in 2024.
The Fetterman-Oz Senate race is one of three critical contests, along with Georgia and Nevada, that will determine whether Democrats hold onto their razor-thin majority in the Senate, and with it the power to confirm Biden’s nominees to posts ranging from his Cabinet to the Supreme Court.
Nonpartisan election forecasters and polls show Republicans are heavy favorites to win control of the House of Representatives, with the Senate a toss-up.
Control of even one of those chambers would give Republicans the power to block Biden’s legislative agenda and launch potentially damaging investigations.
Before Trump took to the stage among hundreds of supporters and countless flags, local candidates took turns rallying their followers with one watchword: inflation, inflation, inflation.
Prices are ‘outrageous’ says Norm Volpe, who came with his biker group for Trump. The United States is currently grappling with inflation levels not seen since the 1980s, with Americans struggling to pay for everything from food to gas.
A rainbow flashed across the sky shortly before Dr. Oz spoke
Republican Candidate for Senate Dr. Mehmet Oz speaks at the ‘Save America’ rally at Arnold Palmer Regional Airport
Oz, meanwhile, has worked to craft a moderate image throughout the fall after earning Trump’s endorsement, took the stage long before Trump arrived.
A double rainbow flashed across the sky shortly before he spoke.
‘Here’s the deal. I’m not a politician, I’m a surgeon,’ Oz told thousands of Trump loyalists. ‘And what surgeons do is tackle big problems and we do it successfully, in my case fixing broken hearts, by working with everybody.’
One attendee, Shawn Ecker Grey, 44, voiced excitement about a possible Trump candidacy for 2024 ‘because we need our country back. We really do. And it’s not going to happen if someone doesn’t stand up like he is.’
‘He’s the only one that is worth the presidency,’ Leslie Boswell, 39, said.
‘I love Trump because he just supports everything that I believe in … He’s bringing back God in our country, he put down our prices, he did everything that he has said he was going to do,’ she told AFP.
Doug Mastriano, Republican Gubernatorial candidate for Pennsylvania, arrives to speak at Saturday’s rally
People stand ahead of a pre-election rally held by former President Donald Trump in support of Republican candidates i
‘I really hope he reruns,’ agreed a woman who only gave her name as Janine and who wore a t-shirt in the red, white and blue of the American flag.
She drove four hours to hear Trump speak. ‘He is what America stands for, what America was before,’ she says, without defining what she means by ‘before.’
‘In three days we’ll have a red wave, baby,’ the 52-year-old said.
Pennsylvania is seen as a must-win for control of the Senate, but it also weighs on the balance of power among the country’s 50 state governors, influential officials who weigh in on most aspects of voters’ lives, from education and health care to voting rights.
Democratic gubernatorial nominee Josh Shapiro has been spotlighting the fringe views of state senator Doug Mastriano, his far-right opponent who was involved in Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election.
A victory for Trump-backed Mastriano would give the prominent election denier oversight of the state’s voting system for the 2024 presidential race.
Trump has visited Pennsylvania twice this year, rallying for Oz and Mastriano most recently in early September.
The 76-year-old tycoon has already claimed baselessly that the state’s elections have been ‘rigged,’ echoing his false claims that his own 2020 defeat was the result of widespread fraud.
‘As Biden’s approval rating plummets, Pennsylvania crime spikes, and Pennsylvanians grapple with a 74 percent hike in heating oil, coupled with record inflation, just weeks away from winter,’ Trump’s office said in a statement.
‘The America First Movement offers the Keystone State an alternative vision for America: safe streets, cheap gas, low inflation, and a thriving American economy.’
Both parties have lavished attention on Pennsylvania both because of the strategic importance of the race and because of its voters’ history of swinging from one party to the other in the past four presidential elections.
Volunteers are also out across the state.
Fetterman, the state’s lieutenant governor, held a commanding lead in the race throughout the summer, which Oz has whittled away in the last two months.
Pennsylvania’s Senate race is turning out to be the most colorful – if not the most competitive. Early on, Democrats believed they could flip the seat of retiring GOP Sen. Pat Toomey.
But days before the Democratic primary, Lt. Gov. John Fetterman – the frontrunner against Rep. Conor Lamb – suffered a stroke. He still won every county. On the Republican side, former President Donald Trump selected Dr. Mehmet Oz – the TV personality – over David McCormick, seen by many conservatives as the more electable choice.
McCormick’s wife had even worked for Trump’s White House.
Sidelined from campaigning due to his stroke recovery, Fetterman used web savvy staffers to create viral momentum, hitting Oz for being a rich, out-of-touch, carpetbagger from New Jersey. Fetterman’s campaign utilized Jersey greats including Snooki, flew a banner over the Jersey shore welcoming Oz home and mocked the doctor for saying ‘crudite’ instead of veggie tray.
Meanwhile, Oz fanned the flames that Fetterman might not be able to do the job due to his health.
The race is seen as a toss-up due to the flurry of ads from GOP groups characterizing Fetterman as soft on crime.
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