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Trump to Supporters: Biden a Bad Fit for Pennsylvania

Trump Hanover Visit

U.S. President Donald Trump didn’t hold back in his criticism of his Democratic opponent in the upcoming election during a rally attended by thousands of supporters at HoverTech International in Hanover Township, Northampton County, Monday.

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Trump Hanover Visit

President Donald Trump visited HoverTech International–a business in Hanover Township, Northampton County–for a campaign rally Monday. Attendees were required to wear masks at the outdoor event, where they heard Trump take credit for saving two million American lives during the coronavirus pandemic. The Republican presidential nominee also promised delivery of a million doses of a COVID-19 vaccine by the end of the year, despite the fact that vaccines for it are still in trial.

U.S. President Donald Trump didn’t hold back in his criticism of his Democratic opponent in the upcoming election during a rally attended by thousands of supporters at HoverTech International in Hanover Township, Northampton County, Monday.

Trump told the crowd that winning Pennsylvania’s electoral votes will be critical for him in 2020, as it was in 2016, when he carried the state by just 44,000 votes.

Northampton County is seen as a particularly crucial bellwether for Trump, as its voters have chosen the winner in all but three of the presidential elections held since 1920.

In 2016, Trump narrowly won Northampton County but lost Lehigh County to his Democratic opponent in the race, Hillary Clinton.

“In 2016 you elected an outsider for president who was going to put America first, and that’s what I’m doing,” he told a boisterously enthusiastic crowd outside the business, which is located off Airport Road.

Trump criticized Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden for what he labeled inaction.

“Joe, you’ve been there for 47 years, what did you do?” he asked rhetorically.

When Biden has taken action, he’s been on the wrong side of issues such as U.S. trade relations with China, Trump said. He accused Biden of supporting China’s entry into the World Trade Organization and free trade agreements such as NAFTA, to the detriment of American jobs.

“Does China want Sleepy Joe to win? They own him. They own Sleepy Joe,” Trump said, using a derogatory nickname for Biden.

He told the crowd Biden has “betrayed Pennsylvania” and further mocked him for what he has frequently alleged are Biden’s mental deficiencies.

“He was always one percent Joe. And now he’s at 50 percent. You know where he’s 50 percent?” he said.

“Look, he almost got through the debate,” Trump joked. “I wouldn’t say he was Winston Churchill, but it was OK.”

On other topics the president was characteristically frank, to the delight of his supporters, many of whom wore masks because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Trump, who was diagnosed with and recovered from COVID-19 earlier this month, did not wear a mask.

“We’re going to defend our borders,” he shouted. “You know the wall is almost complete right now, and we have the strongest borders we’ve ever had.”

In response to this announcement, hundreds in the crowd chanted, “Build that wall!”

“You don’t have to worry about your Second Amendment (rights),” Trump also told them.

More than once he called Pennsylvania a “late voting state,” because it is expected to be one of the last battlegrounds to be able to declare a winner, due to state election laws that do not permit votes to be counted until election day. “For some reason you’re always very late. I guess you’re like me. You like voting in a booth, pressing a little button, having somebody check to see that it really is you.”

With millions of Pennsylvanians expected to vote by mail, however, identifying the winner of the state’s 20 electoral votes could take a number of days, or even longer.

“Be very vigilant and watch. Be poll-watchers,” Trump instructed attendees at the rally.

He criticized a judicial ruling against his campaign that he said means “we can’t even watch as they count the ballots. But we’re going to appeal it and we’ll end up winning.”

Below are some of the views Trump expressed on a variety of hot-button issues related to the campaign:

COVID-19: “If somebody else were going to be president, you’d get a vaccine in about four years from now. … Normal life, that’s all we want. … And next year will be the greatest year in the economic history of our country.” Trump further claimed that his administration’s pandemic response lowered the disease’s fatality rate and saved two million American lives, for which he said they haven’t received the credit they deserve. “I really think we saved two million lives,” he told rally-goers. “The fake news will never say that.”

The mainstream media: He accused major news networks of running “suppression polls” which he said “make you depressed.” He also accused them of going easy on his opponent by asking him “soft” questions about subjects like what flavor of ice cream he was eating at the time. “They try to protect (Biden),” he said of the mainstream media.

The economy: “In my second term I will cut middle class taxes more. … And Sleepy Joe has pledged the biggest tax hike in history.” He predicted that if Biden is elected president the U.S. will be plunged into a “depression” worse than any in American history, except perhaps the Great Depression that began in 1929.

Biden’s running mate, U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris: “She will not be the first woman president. You can’t let that happen.”

Suburban female voters: “I think I’m doing great with suburban women. I am saving the suburbs,” he declared. Trump predicted that a Biden win would bring crime to the suburbs and said women there “don’t want a five-story project next to them. They don’t want ANTIFA and anarchists running through their streets, OK? I have a feeling they’re going to be voting for Trump.”

CBS’s ’60 Minutes,’ on which he was recently walked out on an interview with Lesley Stahl: “(It’s) a complete joke of a show.” When a man in the audience immediately shouted out, “they hate you!” Trump responded by agreeing, “yes they do.”

Savannah Guthrie, an NBC News journalist who also recently interviewed Trump in what he and supporters say was a combative style: “(She) was just terrible. … She was crazed.” Trump said Guthrie should “just relax” when conducting interviews. “Don’t let the hatred show.”

Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi: Trump called her “crazy Nancy” and claimed Republicans “have a good chance of taking back the House, because she’s crazy.”

Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, whose past business dealings have come under some scrutiny recently: “So the son never made 10 cents,” Trump said. “All of a sudden Biden becomes vice president, he’s making millions of dollars a year.” He accused Hunter Biden of having “no energy experience” and said in spite of that, he landed a lucrative job with a “very bad reputation-type energy company from Ukraine.”

The U.S. Supreme Court: “Biden’s going to pack the Supreme Court with radical justices who will shred the Second Amendment.” Trump also predicted that if additional judges are appointed, they will not support a pro-life agenda. He praised Amy Coney Barrett, his pro-life nominee to replace the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. As expected, on Monday evening Barrett was confirmed by a divided U.S. Senate whose members primarily voted along partly lines, 52-48, to appoint her to fill the vacancy. “He’s got to tell us who he might put on (the court),” Trump said of Biden, “because you can’t vote for him unless you know.”

A vaccine for COVID-19: Trump promised to deliver one million does of a vaccine before the end of the year and said “seniors will be first in line for the vaccine, because they are the most vulnerable.” He said Democrats, if elected, will purposely delay the release of a vaccine.

Trump’s speech frequently related to COVID-19, although with the number of new cases in Pennsylvania now roughly equal to what it was in the spring, the rally itself has sparked fears for its potential to act as a so-called “superspreader” event.

“We won’t rest until we eradicate this disease once and for all. We will vanquish the virus,” he promised. “And we will emerge stronger and more unified than ever.”

Trump said the virus should be taken “seriously,” and encouraged anyone who doesn’t feel comfortable gathering in large groups to stay home if that suits them.

Ultimately, though, it was Biden to whom Trump returned to attack again and again.

“He’s the only candidate in history whose platform is ‘I will raise your taxes,'” he said. “I am running against the worst candidate in the history of presidential politics.”

“Can you even imagine losing to a guy like this?” he asked the rally audience. Trump then commented that he would prefer it if Biden were “a good or even a great candidate,” in case the outcome of the election is not what he and the Republicans hope it will be.

“He could not remember my name yesterday,” Trump said, returning to the subject of Biden’s alleged feeble-mindedness. “This is what you’re putting in office.”

In response to Monday’s rally, Biden released a statement that was sharply critical of Trump’s record as president, both economically and as a result of the pandemic.

“Pennsylvanians have lost jobs and lost lives under President Trump’s failed leadership,” Biden said. “While working families in Pennsylvania continue to struggle, President Trump has given tax breaks to big corporations that ship jobs overseas and started a reckless tariff war with China that has cost Pennsylvania jobs.”

“As I told union members and families in Pennsylvania this weekend, as president, I’m going to shut down the virus and safely open up the economy,” he added. “Then I’ll stand alongside working communities in Pennsylvania as we build back better by creating millions of good-paying jobs.”

“This is going to be the most important election in our country’s history, so get out and vote,” Trump exhorted the rally crowd before heading off to other campaign events in the state. “We win Pennsylvania, and we win the whole thing. You’ve got to get out there.”

Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 3. Polls in Pennsylvania will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.

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About the author

Josh Popichak

Josh Popichak is the owner, publisher and editor of Saucon Source. A Lehigh Valley native, he's covered local news since 2005 and previously worked for Berks-Mont News and AOL/Patch. Contact him at josh@sauconsource.com.

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