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Source: PA Images
DONALD TRUMP RETURNED to scare tactics when he accused the left of trying to “destroy the American way of life” in a re-election speech to voters in Michigan and Wisconsin on Saturday.
The two Midwestern states were central to the president’s victory in 2016, but now they may be slipping out of hand.
In back-to-back demonstrations, Trump accused the left of wanting to “erase American history” and “purge American values.”
He claimed, unsubstantiated, that Democratic rival Joe Biden would put communities at risk.
Trump delivered his dark message as he faces headwinds not only in national polls, which show Biden in the lead, but also in key polls on the battlefield.
His comments come after his campaign, with much less cash than Biden’s, largely withdrew from television advertising in the Midwest, shifting much of its money to Sun Belt states like Florida, South Carolina. North, Arizona and Georgia, as well as Pennsylvania.
While trying to energize his base and prevent the voters on the fence from turning against him, Trump sought to paint Democrats as “anti-American radicals” and said that moderates had a “moral duty” to join the Republican Party.
“The Democratic Party that you once knew doesn’t exist,” he said.
A portion of the crowd at Trump’s rally in Wisconsin.
Source: Alex Brandon / AP
The same thing happened on issue after issue, as he stated in hyperbolic terms that Biden’s election would fuel “the greatest depression in our country’s history” and “turn Michigan into a refugee camp.”
In addressing the coronavirus crisis, Trump warned that Biden would “shut down the country, delay the vaccine and prolong the pandemic.” Public health experts say the nation would be in much better shape if the Trump administration had taken more aggressive action early on.
And while he repeatedly predicted victory, Trump seemed to grapple throughout the day with the prospect that he could indeed lose in November.
In Michigan, he joked that, in January, “I better be president.” In Wisconsin, he wondered how he would process a loss.
“Can you imagine if I lose? I will have lost to the worst candidate in the history of American politics, ”he said. “What should I do?”
Trump has continued to hold demonstrations despite the threat of the coronavirus, which landed him in hospital for several days earlier this month.
Wisconsin broke the record for new positive virus cases on Friday, the third time it has occurred in a week. The state also hit record levels of daily deaths and hospital admissions last week.
But there was little evidence of concern among the thousands of supporters Trump attracted in both states, where audience members stayed together in the cold, mostly without masks.
President Donald Trump dances to the YMCA song after his rally in Wisconsin.
Source: Alex Brandon / AP
Trump continued to call on Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer to reverse the restrictions that remain in place to try to stop the spread of the virus, prompting the crowd to shout “Lock her up.” The same chant broke out after he mentioned his 2016 Democratic rival Hillary Clinton and Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar.
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Whitmer, a Democrat, was the focus of a kidnapping plot by anti-government extremists who were angered by the blockade measures. Thirteen men have been charged in connection with the plan, which included plans to storm the state Capitol and hold some sort of trial for the governor.
“You have to get your governor to open your state and your schools to open. Schools have to be open, right? “said Trump, who also took credit for the role of federal law enforcement in thwarting the plot.
Whitmer’s chief digital officer, Tori Saylor, urged the president to stop.
“Every time the president does this at a rally, the violent rhetoric towards her immediately increases on social media,” she tweeted. “It has to stop. You just have to. “
Meanwhile, Biden had no public events planned for Saturday. But in a memo to supporters, campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon warned of complacency.
“The reality is that this race is much closer than some of the experts we are seeing on Twitter and television would suggest,” he wrote in the memo, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press.
“If we learned anything from 2016, it is that we cannot underestimate Donald Trump or his ability to fight his way back into the fray in the final days of a campaign, through whatever smear or dishonest tactic he has at his disposal.
Trump has an aggressive campaign schedule in the coming days, with rallies scheduled for Sunday in Nevada, Monday in Arizona and Tuesday in Pennsylvania.
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