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For former President Donald Trump, the 2024 election race is a contest between him, Vice President Kamala Harris, and President Joe Biden.
During a rally in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, on Saturday, Trump repeatedly blamed Harris and Democrats for Biden’s withdrawal from the race more than a month ago — undermining Harris’s legitimacy as a candidate and putting the spotlight on his former opponent.
Trump has claimed, without evidence, that next week’s Democratic National Convention in Chicago is “rigged” because Biden is not on the ticket. He has said Biden is worse at debate than Pennsylvania Democratic Sen. John Fetterman, who suffered a stroke. Trump has accused the media of being biased in favor of the president.
“What happened to Biden? I was running against Biden and now I'm running against somebody else. I said, 'Who am I running against, Harris?' I said, 'Who the hell is Harris?'” Trump said.
Trump's rally, which came just days before the convention, highlighted Trump's ongoing attempt to portray Harris as a “far-left lunatic” who failed to get elected president during the 2020 election cycle but is now on the ticket and riding a wave of enthusiasm from her party.
Since Harris entered the race, she has managed to close the poll gap with Trump in some surveys, According to a new poll by The New York Times Her victory in Saturday's primary put several key states back in the running, including Arizona, where she leads by about 5 points. Last week, Same survey Harris found herself leading Trump in Pennsylvania by four points.
The reshaped race has left the former president struggling at times to mount a consistent line of attack against Harris. He has alternately called her “stupid” and a “crazy socialist” and even said Saturday that he thinks he is better-looking than she is.
“Why would she go to the convention? Because it's a rigged convention, she obviously didn't get any votes,” Trump said.
But Trump also took particular aim at Harris’s economic plan, which she rolled out at a rally in North Carolina on Friday. Her proposal included providing up to $25,000 in down payment assistance to “qualified” first-time buyers, providing $6,000 per child to families for the child’s first year of life, and banning “monopoly” on grocery prices.
The plan, which was light on details, would help address the financial pressures facing families, Harris said. Although inflation has fallen from its peak in June 2022, Americans are still feeling the pinch after rising prices for essentials over the past three and a half years.
“She says she’s going to lower the cost of food and housing starting on day one,” Trump told the crowd at Mohegan Sun Arena in Casey Plaza. “But Kamala’s day one was three and a half years ago, so why didn’t she do it? So this is day 1305, we’re on day 1305, so why not do it now?”
Trump warned that Harris' plan might “look good politically,” but highlighted criticism of the plan, attacking it as “very dangerous” and “communist.”
Trump offered few details on how he plans to lower prices, but he praised the use of tariffs and said he planned to immediately sign an executive order “directing every Cabinet secretary and agency head to use every authority we have to lower prices, but we’re going to lower them in a capitalist way, not a communist way.”
Trump’s rally in Wilkes-Barre kicks off a week of counter-programming ahead of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. The campaign is expected to highlight different themes each day next week as it holds rallies in swing states. Both Trump and his running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance, will return to Pennsylvania on Monday for events focused on the economy.
With 19 electoral votes, Pennsylvania is seen as a prize for the Trump and Harris campaigns, both of whom have invested significant amounts of money in advertising and outreach in the state.
On Sunday, Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz will take a bus tour of western Pennsylvania with their wives, starting in Pittsburgh.
While advisers and allies have urged Trump to scale back personal attacks on Harris and instead focus on criticizing her policies, Trump showed at a rally Saturday that he has no plans to back down. “I have a right to be subjected to personal attacks,” Trump said at a news conference at his private golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, this week.
“People say don’t use bad language. They say please don’t call people stupid, but they are stupid. How else do you call them?” Trump said. “She’s a socialist lunatic. That’s another thing, please sir, please don’t call her crazy, but that’s what she is, she’s crazy.”
Trump criticized her laughter, claiming it was the reason Harris had not given any interviews since late June.
“Don’t you feel some obligation?” he asked her. “You’re running away. That’s her way of life… She should at least talk to the press.”
His mention of the “basement” refers to his repeated criticism of Biden, whom Trump has claimed was not on the campaign trail enough amid the 2020 pandemic.
In a statement, Harris-Walz campaign spokesman Joseph Costello said it was “another demonstration, the same old parade.”
“The more Americans hear Trump speak, the clearer the choice becomes in November: Vice President Harris unites voters with her positive vision of protecting our freedoms, building the middle class, and moving America forward — and Donald Trump is trying to take us back,” Costello said.
While in Wilkes-Barre, Trump also called out Republican candidates in the state, including Dave McCormick, who is running again for the U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania, this time against incumbent Sen. Bob Casey. Trump said he hopes his supporters will “give him a chance” and acknowledged that running against someone who has been in office for years “is not easy.”
Trump also brought up Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, who was a finalist for Harris's running mate before she chose Walz, and claimed without evidence that she did not choose him because he is Jewish.
“I don't think he's good, but they turned him down because he's Jewish. That's why they turned him down, and I'll tell you this, any Jewish person who votes for her or a Democrat needs to go out and get their head checked,” Trump said.
It was Trump's second visit to Pennsylvania since surviving an assassination attempt in Butler. Trump held a rally in Harrisburg and said he planned to return to Butler to hold an event to honor Corey Comperatore, a 50-year-old father who was killed at the rally on July 13.
Trump only referred to the assassination attempt in passing as a “horrible situation,” noting that he had recently spoken with Amazon founder and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos.
“He gave us great praise for the way we handled the terrible situation that happened recently, and I appreciate that,” Trump said.
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