Trump hones his ‘law and order’ message during Pennsylvania trip
LATROBE, Pennsylvania — President Donald Trump on Thursday honed the “law and order” message he intends to wield against his Democratic rival, Joe Biden, with two months to go until Election Day, stepping up attacks that his campaign believes are resonating with battleground state voters.
“Biden’s plan is to appease the domestic terrorists and my plan is to arrest them and prosecute them,” Trump declared in a state that flipped in his favor in 2016 helping to pave his road to victory.
The rally comes as Trump’s campaign is claiming signs of momentum in Pennsylvania — a longtime Democratic stronghold that Trump won by less than 45,000 votes in 2016. Polls show
Trump and his Democratic rival, Joe Biden, are closely matched.
Trump campaign officials have been feeling encouraged in the last few weeks as Trump has pivoted to a “law and order” message amid protests over racial injustice. They believe efforts to paint Biden as weak on crime will help Trump win back suburban voters, and especially women, who supported him in 2016 but have since soured on him.
That includes in Pennsylvania, where they argue the president is in a better position than he was in 2016, citing Democrats’ shrinking voter registration advantage. This time, they believe their getout-the-vote operation will result in better turnout among working-class rural voters, along with improved margins among African Americans, Latinos and union supporters. At the rally, Trump announced that he had received the endorsement of the
Boilermakers Local 154 in Pittsburgh.
Trump was speaking in front of a crowd of hundreds packed into an airport hangar, where people stood closely together and few were seen wearing masks, despite the continued pandemic.
The rally came the same day that Biden paid a visit to Kenosha, Wis., amid turmoil following the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man, seven times.
Trump mocked Biden for coming so late and talked up his own visit this week that included meetings with National Guard members and federal officers.
“I went to see them two days ago. Biden went there today, there was nobody there. There was nobody there. He was a little late. I was going to say, ‘hey listen, we ended that problem,’ but we can end it in Portland,” he said.