Trump amplifies warnings about Biden
LONDONDERRY, N.H. — Fresh off accepting the Republican Party’s nomination, President Donald Trump is looking to spread fear about the implications of a Joe Biden victory to voters in battleground states with just over two months until Election Day.
Trump held a rally in New Hampshire on Friday evening as he continues to flout coronavirus guidelines and launches an aggressive travel schedule heading into the fall campaign. In his convention finale a day earlier, Trump blasted Biden as a hapless career politician who will endanger Americans’ safety.
Trump opened his Friday rally with rant against demonstrators who accosted guests departing his Thursday convention speech at the White House and at times needed to be escorted by police officers. It marked his latest attempt to frame the general election as a dire choice between two futures for the nation — a theme he was expected to amplify on the campaign trail.
“They walked out to a bunch of thugs,” Trump said. “Unhinged, manic rage. You ought to see last night in Washington, it was a disgrace.”
Trump said he directed White House chief of staff Mark Meadows to study how to call in the National Guard to the nation’s capital. Trump previously ordered federal troops to the District in May amid protests over the killing of George Floyd in the custody of Minneapolis police.
“We’re not supposed to go in unless we call it an insurrection, and that’s a big statement,” Trump said. “But you know what we’re going to do. … We’re going to have to look at it because we’re not going to let that happen to people that go to the White House to celebrate our country.”
Trump said the protesters were “anarchists,” adding: “They’re just looking for trouble. Has nothing to do with George Floyd. Has nothing to do with anything. They don’t even know who George Floyd is.”
“The agitators will go from rioting in the streets to running the halls of government,” he added, saying voters needed to support him to “save democracy from the mob.”
“No one will be safe in Biden’s America,” he added.
Trump departed the White House by motorcade Friday, requiring it to weave through District of Columbia streets packed with demonstrators participating in a commemoration of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. The motorcade made it to Joint Base Andrews without incident. Isolated groups of protesters on street corners made their presence felt through gestures directed at the motorcade.
While the coronavirus kills 1,000 Americans each day, Trump defied his own administration’s pandemic guidelines on Thursday to speak for more than an hour to a tightly packed, largely mask-less crowd. In New Hampshire, a campaign advisory said masks for attendees are “required” in accordance with Republican Gov. Chris Sununu’s executive orders, and would be provided.
Similar indoor-outdoor rallies at aircraft hangars in recent weeks have seen limited compliance with face covering mandates. The event format has become the Trump campaign’s go-to amid the pandemic.
Before Trump arrived, many in the crowd did not put their masks back on after singing the national anthem. They later booed when a campaign staffer called on them to do so.
“This is a peaceful protest,” read official signs handed out by the Trump campaign, echoing a rationale Trump has used to violate local ordinances and contrast his political events with racial justice protests sweeping the nation.