At his final scheduled rally before taking the stage for a presidential debate, former President Donald J. Trump on Saturday mocked President Biden over his preparations and suggested his opponent may be using medical supplements.
“Right now, corrupt Joe has gone to a log cabin to ‘learn,'” Trump said at a rally in Philadelphia, using his hands to make quotation marks. “He’s sleeping now because they want to make him good and strong. So he gets a chance just before the debate.”
Mr. Trump and his campaign challenged Mr. Biden to the debate for months, taunting him with an empty lectern and suggesting he was too afraid to take the stage. But since the candidates agreed to two debates in May, one on June 27 and another on September 10, Mr. Trump has sought at recent rallies to reset the low expectations he has set.
Mr. Trump has repeatedly attacked Mr. Biden’s mental abilities at rallies and speeches, claiming that the president cannot “put two sentences together.”
However, he did not use that line at Saturday’s rally before thousands of people at the Liacouras Center in North Philadelphia. Instead, he appeared to prepare his supporters for the possibility that Mr. Biden could prove a formidable opponent by accusing him of using a chemical booster.
“I’m sure he’ll be prepared.”
“I say he’s going to come out all jacked, right?” Mr. Trump said, referring to Mr. Biden. Moments later, Mr. Trump, who had previously required Mr. Biden to take a drug test before his debate, appeared to accuse Mr. Biden of using illegal drugs.
“I’m sure he’ll be prepared,” Trump said. Then he paused and referred to an incident in which a bag of cocaine was found in the guest lobby of the West Wing last year, adding with a grin: “Whatever happened to all that cocaine that was in the white a month ago “The Secret Service closed its investigation into this incident after security video provided no clues and no fingerprints were found on the bag.)
Although Mr. Trump built anticipation for the debate by insisting for months that he was ready to challenge Mr. Biden “anytime, anywhere, any place,” the former president on Saturday criticized the debate rules his campaign had agreed to, including the Network hosting the event and the lack of a live audience.
“It’s like death,” Mr. Trump said. “This could be the most boring thing – or it could be the most exciting thing. Who knows?”
While the Biden operation has blocked much of this week for structured debate preparations, Mr. Trump has generally preferred more casual conversations to more formal coaching.
The target audience is Philadelphians
At a pre-rally stop at a cheesesteak restaurant in South Philadelphia – a rite of passage for political candidates – Mr Trump suggested that Saturday’s event was the only preparation he needed and said his strategy for the debate is to “make America great again.” .”
During the rally, he asked the crowd for strategy advice, asking whether he should be “tough and nasty” or “be nice and calm and let him talk.” The audience booed overwhelmingly at the second option, causing Mr. Trump to laugh.
Saturday’s event was Mr. Trump’s first rally in Philadelphia, the most populous city in a battleground state that was key to his victory in 2016 and equally crucial to his defeat in 2020. The Liacouras Center on Temple University’s campus sits in the middle of an area where Mr. Trump had very little support in his two previous presidential campaigns.
Ahead of the rally, several dozen protesters wearing Laborers’ International Union of North America shirts demonstrated across the street from the arena, chanting “Lock him up,” a twist on an old Trump campaign slogan intended to reflect his recent conviction in Manhattan.
But as the Trump campaign seeks to create a contrast with Mr. Biden, it has planned events in deeply Democratic urban areas, including the Bronx and Detroit, to demonstrate its efforts to reach black and Hispanic voters across the country.
“Maybe I’ll just flip a coin.”
Emanuel Morales, who lives in Philadelphia and is from Puerto Rico, said he voted for Mr. Trump in 2016 and Mr. Biden in 2020, but that his vote for 2024 was up for debate. He came to the rally to hear from Mr. Trump in person, not through media coverage.
“I just want to listen to him,” said Morales, 54. “Maybe I’ll just flip a coin for my vote.”
Shabazz Boone, 67, of North Philadelphia, admitted that although he had supported Mr. Trump since 2016, everyone in his neighborhood knew him as the local Trump supporter in an area that always votes Democrats.
“Living in this city, it’s rare to see a Trump supporter in my neighborhood,” said Mr. Boone, who is Black. “I am the only one.”
Mr. Boone — who wore a pair of gold high-top sneakers that Mr. Trump unveiled during his last visit to Philadelphia at a sneaker convention in February — said Mr. Trump’s visit to his neighborhood was encouraging.
The crowd in the arena was predominantly white and did not reflect the demographics of the predominantly black and Latino neighborhood surrounding the arena.
An exchange on the topic of immigration
Throughout his speech, Mr. Trump largely stuck to the same themes that have animated his campaign. He said Mr. Biden had done little to curb inflation and derided his energy and environmental policies, which Mr. Trump said were driving up the cost of goods. Mr. Trump also said that Mr. Biden had done little at the border.
He again claimed, without providing evidence, that black and Hispanic Americans have been “hurt the most” by the influx of undocumented immigrants.
The point was somewhat undermined after he finished the thought when a black man in a hat stood up to cheer him on. “Have you taken your job yet, sir?” Mr. Trump called the man.
“No, they didn’t,” the man shouted back.
Mr. Trump often denigrates migrants in his speeches as a harsh, invading force. During Saturday’s rally, he again made the baseless claim that other countries are intentionally sending criminals across the border. And he suggested for the second time that day that migrants coming to the U.S. should have their own fighting league.
Philadelphia and its suburbs are heavily targeted by both Biden and Trump’s campaigns. Mr. Biden frequently campaigns in the city, and the metropolitan area was crucial to his victory in Pennsylvania in 2020 by about 80,000 votes.
But Black voters have been a key part of Mr. Biden’s coalition in the state, and as polls have shown their support for Democrats waning, Mr. Trump has been eager to win them over.
The Democrats are fighting back. On Saturday, the Democratic National Committee paid for both a billboard and a mobile billboard attacking Trump as a “disaster” for black Americans.
Source link
2024-06-23 03:39:25
www.nytimes.com
