‘WE GET PA., WE WIN THE WHOLE THING’
President slams Biden on energy, Wolf on shutdowns; says only ‘massive fraud’ can keep him from second term
To wild cheers from thousands of supporters who lined up in a cold rain hours before his speech, President Donald Trump took the stage at a Northampton County rally Monday morning, launching into a familiar litany of campaign claims and warning of “massive fraud” as the only way he will lose reelection.
The rally at HoverTech International, a medical equipment maker in Hanover Township, was meant to cement support in a swing county in a swing state that Trump won by the slimmest of margins in 2016, one he will almost certainly need to win again to prevail against Democratic opponent Joe Biden.
“We get Pennsylvania, we win the whole thing,” said Trump, who spoke for about 80 minutes. “This election is a choice between a Trump super-recovery and … a Biden Depression. You will have a depression the likes of which we have never seen outside, perhaps, 1929.”
In the crowd, where some wore masks and many didn’t, Trump signs bobbed and banners waved. Heads, many capped with red MAGA hats, nodded in approval as the president promised to fight for American workers, put more police on the streets, protect Second Amendment rights and restore “patriotic education.”
“I support this man wholeheartedly. As gruff as he can be at times, he tells you the truth,” said Don Perry, an Air Force veteran from Lehigh County.
The president is “a hero sent by God to ensure government by the people, for the people,” said Edward X. Young of Brick, New Jersey, who wore a “Barron 2052” button, imagining Trump’s 14-year-old son carrying a presidential dynasty far into the future.
Right out of the gate, the president attacked Biden for what he said is the former vice president’s plan to “abolish the entire U.S. oil industry,” a major campaign talking point in a state
where fracking is a vital industry.
“Surging energy bills, no air conditioning in summer, no heat in the winter, no electricity during peak hours,” Trump said, imagining a Biden energy plan dependent on windmills. “‘Let’s watch President Trump on TV.’ ‘I’m sorry, we can’t. The wind isn’t blowing today, darling.’”
Trump thanked HoverTech for hosting him on short notice. “You have a governor named Tom Wolf, I guess?” he said, evoking a chorus of boos. “Your governor made it almost impossible to find a site. Normally, we would have had [this] at an airport. ... I’ll remember it, Tom.”
Trump said Wolf, a Democrat, “has got your whole commonwealth shut down,” and went on to claim that state and national restrictions would disappear after election day — an idea rooted in a conspiracy theory that the pandemic story has been engineered to cost Trump the election. The FBI recently charged a group in a plan to kidnap Michigan’s Democratic governor, Gretchen Whitmer, over restrictions she initiated to curb the virus’ spread.
The pandemic has killed 225,000 Americans and sickened more than 8 million, including Trump, his wife and his young son. Trump claimed he had saved 2 million lives by taking early action such as limiting travel from China, a figure that can’t be verified and is based on estimated deaths if the government had taken no action. He also said vaccines are on the way and predicted 2021 will bring a tremendous economic comeback.
“The vaccines are going to be incredible,” he said, claiming the government will deliver 100 million doses by year’s end. “They are going to be very quick. If someone else was president, you would get a vaccine about 40 years from now.”
Over the weekend, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute for Allergy & Infectious Diseases, told the BBC that Trump was correct in saying there might be an effective vaccine by the end of the year. However, Fauci said a substantial portion of the population likely would have to wait until the second or third quar
ters of next year before receiving the vaccine, which would first be given to health care workers and people at high risk for complications from the virus.
While polls show Trump trailing Biden in the election, the president told the crowd he will win “almost easily,” claiming “fake news” touts only polls that show him trailing. The media, he said, have been hard on him and soft on Biden, whom he said supported NAFTA — the North American Free Trade Agreement — in the 1990s. Trump blamed NAFTA for devastating Pennsylvania’s manufacturing industry.
“Joe Biden is a die-hard globalist who wiped out your steel mills, closed down your factories, killed your coal jobs, outsourced your industries and supported every terrible, disastrous trade deal,” Trump said, adding that Biden, a Scranton native, has accomplished nothing good in a 47-year career.
Touching on a centerpiece of his 2016 campaign, immigration, Trump said the southern border is “the strongest border we’ve ever had” after 400 miles of his border wall had been built. That provoked the familiar chant of “Build that wall” from the crowd. According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, 371 miles of the wall have been constructed, nearly two-thirds.
Trump said no one believed
he would get the women’s vote in 2016, but he did. Political analysts say that since then, many suburban women have turned away from the president, prompting Trump at a recent Johnstown rally to ask: “Suburban women, will you please like me?”
At Monday’s rally, he said, suburban women are going to vote for him in part because “they don’t want to have Antifa and anarchists running through the streets.”
He earned a big ovation when he brought up Amy Coney Barrett, confirmed Monday as a Supreme Court justice. He also claimed Biden will pack the court with “radical left judges” if elected. “Maybe it’ll be 16 [ judges], maybe 18, maybe 20, why don’t you put a couple hundred people in there.”
Trump concluded by predicting he will keep on “winning, winning, winning,” and dancing off the stage to the Village People’s “YMCA.”
The rally also included quick appearances by U.S. Rep. Dan Meuser, a Coal Region Republican running for reelection in the 9th District against Democrat Gary Wegman, a dentist and farmer. And Lisa Scheller, a Republican from South Whitehall Township trying to unseat Democrat Susan Wild in the 7th Congressional District, which
covers the Lehigh Valley.
Trump acknowledged Scheller during his remarks, calling her “someone who’s supposed to be fantastic, and a star.”
If there were protesters at the rally, they were well hidden there and at Lehigh Valley International Airport, where Air Force One landed. A lone man holding a Biden sign was booed by the rally crowd. A few people tried to talk to him, but he told them to stand back and put on masks.
While Biden has yet to make a campaign stop here, Trump has been to the Allentown area twice in five months. He made his first visit to the Lehigh Valley as president in May, touring Owens & Minor Inc., a medical equipment distributor in Upper Macungie Township.