Nov. 3 (UPI) — Former President Donald Trump said Sunday during a Pennsylvania campaign rally that he “shouldn’t have left” the White House after being defeated by Joe Biden in 2020, described Democrats as “demonic,” and complained about new poll in Iowa that shows him trailing in that state to Kamala Harris, a state Trump has won twice before.
Trump is ending his campaign much the same way he started it, hurling insults Sunday at people who don’t agree with him, making sweeping claims about immigration, the economy, even the size of his campaign rallies that have no basis in truth, and impugning the character, racial makeup and record of his contender. He continued in the same vein during a Sunday campaign rally in Lititz, Pennsylvania.
He spent a chunk of time in the Sunday speech complaining, without any basis in fact, about election interference in this year’s election, potentially setting the stage for a repeat of 2020 when he lost to Biden and claimed the election had been “stolen,” setting off a claim of election fraud among his supporters across the country.
Trump veered from his prepared remarks in Pennsylvania Sunday, in a county he won by 15 points in 2020.
“Isn’t this better than my speech?” Trump said. “Because honestly, somebody’s got to talk about it.”
Trump’s remarks, while historically combative and derogatory, have become increasingly caustic and vengeful in recent weeks, as the race has tightened between him and Vice President Kamala Harris. Trump, who has been the target of at least two assassination attempts, one in Pennsylvania, even went so far as to say that he “wouldn’t mind” if a gunman aiming at him also shot through the “the fake news.”
“I have this piece of glass here,” Trump said during the rally. “But all we have really over here is the fake news, right? And to get me, somebody would have to shoot through the fake news, and I don’t mind that so much. I don’t mind.”
A campaign spokesperson later said that Trump was merely musing about how the press was protecting him.
“President Trump was stating that the Media was in danger, in that they were protecting him and, therefore, were in great danger themselves, and should have had a glass protective shield, also. There can be no other interpretation of what was said. He was actually looking out for their welfare, far more than his own!” Steven Cheung said in a statement, CNN reported
Trump’s off-the-cuff remarks Sunday were the latest in a series of increasingly dark and threatening statements and actions in recent weeks, making disparaging remarks about Harris.
Trump has doubled down on his pledge to use the military to combat the civilian “enemy within,” and wondered aloud how Rep. Liz Cheney, one his loudest conservative Republican critics, would fare with guns “trained on her face” in a warzone.
While on the campaign trail in Michigan, Harris was asked about her last-minute message to Arab American voters in Michigan – many of whom have been dismayed by the Biden administration’s approach to the war in Gaza.
“I have been very clear the level of death of innocent Palestinians is unconscionable,” the vice president said Sunday. “We need to end the war, and we need to get the hostages out. And as president of the United States, I will do everything in my power to achieve that end.”
Harris worshiped at a Black church in Detroit Sunday, outlining the choice between her vision and Trump’s by urging her listeners to reject the politics of chaos, fear and division.
“In just two days, we have the power to decide the fate of our nation for generations to come,” Harris said, invoking a passage from scripture in which the prophet Jeremiah wrote of God’s plans for his followers – “plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.”
The most recent polls say the race is too close to call in the several swing states that could decide it, but recent numbers show Harris has been gaining ground with young, female voters in recent weeks, which have made the overall contest closer.
