Trump vies for spotlight amid Dems’ convention
WASHINGTON – Seeking to preempt the Democratic National Convention’s opening day, President Donald Trump attacked rival Joe Biden on Monday as a “puppet” pursuing a radical socialist agenda that he warned would unleash a future of crime, chaos and corruption on the nation’s suburbs.
During the first two stops of a weeklong tour to counter the Democrats’ events, Trump accused the former vice president and other Democrats of waging “a left-wing war on cops” and suggested their sympathies lie with “lawbreakers and criminals.”
“Mine lie with law-abiding, hardworking Americans,” he said during brief remarks at the airport in Minneapolis.
Trump poked fun at former first lady Michelle Obama for taping a speech that will be played at the Democratic convention and mocked California Sen. Kamala Harris, Biden’s running mate, for ending her own presidential bid before the first votes were cast.
“She finished so badly . ... She went down like a rock in water,” he said.
At a separate airport event in Mankato, Minnesota, Trump accused Biden of supporting “every globalist attack on the American worker.” If Biden is elected president, “we’ll end up with one boring socialist country that’ll go to hell,” Trump said.
Biden spokesman Andrew Bates said Trump’s failed leadership has cost thousands of American lives from COVID-19 and plunged the USA into one of the worst recessions on record.
“His presidency stands for crisis, lies and toxic attempts to drive Americans apart – the opposite of what voters are hungry for and what Joe Biden and Kamala Harris represent,” Bates said. “While these fly-in, fly-out airport sideshows might protect Trump from seeing the damage that he has done to communities throughout this country, they will only underscore why we have to win this battle for the soul of our nation.”
This week, Trump will travel to Yuma, Arizona, for remarks on immigration, and the Scranton area in Pennsylvania, where Biden was born.
Earlier Monday, Trump said he wanted to pay a “surprise visit” soon to a fifth battleground state: Iowa.
Trump said at the White House that he signed an emergency declaration for Iowa, which was battered last week by devastating storms. Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds requested $4 billion in federal aid.
Trump said he may hold a small memorial service at the White House on Friday for his brother, Robert, who died late Saturday of an undisclosed illness.
“He loved our country so much,” Trump said Monday. “He was so proud of what we were doing and what we are doing for our country, so I think it would be appropriate.”