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President Joe Biden will make his pitch to ‘fund the police’ and renew his call for an assault weapons ban during his Tuesday trip to Pennslyvania, which comes four days ahead of Donald Trump’s visit to the same town.
Biden’s stop in Wilkes-Barre marks the first of three visits over a week to the politically important swing state ahead of November’s congressional elections.
It also comes ahead of Trump’s Saturday rally in the same town. The former president will be campaigning for Republican gubenatorial candidate Doug Mastriano and GOP Senate candidate Dr. Mehmet Oz.
Democratic gubenatorial candidate Josh Shapiro will appear with Biden on Tuesday but the party’s Senate nominee, John Fetterman, will not. But Fetterman will join Biden when the president is in the state on Labor Day.
President Joe Biden will make his pitch to ‘fund the police’ and renew his call for an assault weapons ban during his Tuesday trip to Wilkes-Barre, Pennslyvania
Donald Trump will be in Wilkes-Barre on Saturday to hold a campaign rally for Republicans’ Senate and gubernatorial candidates
In the highly-competitive governor’s race, Mastriano has accused Shapiro, the state’s attorney general, of being soft on crime.
Crime has become a political hot potato issue in the state.
Republicans have tried to tie the post-pandemic rising crime rates to Democrats and to the ‘defund the police’ movement that arose out of racial justice protests in 2020.
Many Democrats, including Biden, have never supported cutting police funds.
In his remarks, Biden will ask Congress for $37 billion for crime prevention programs and provide some of that money to police to reduce gun crime.
The president will talk ‘about his Safer America Plan and the simple, basic notion that, when it comes to public safety in this nation, the answer isn’t to defund the police, it’s to fund the police,’ White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on Monday.
Biden will also use the visit to lay the groundwork for his campaign message, where he has focused his attack lines on Trump supporters, calling them ‘extreme MAGA Republicans.’
‘You know, the President has been really clear that congressional Republicans — that extreme MAGA agenda that you heard him talk about last week is a threat to the rule of law,’ Jean-Pierre said.
‘He will say that you can’t propose defunding the FBI or defund the mob that stormed the Capitol and attacked and assaulted police officers on January 6th and pre- — and be pro-police,’ she noted.
Biden was originally scheduled to give the speech in mid-July before he tested positive for covid.
Pennsylvania is a big state for both parties in November’s midterm election with its competitive gubernatorial and Senate contests.
Biden also plans visits to the state on Thursday for a major political speech and next Monday to mark Labor Day.
The president will speak Thursday outside of Philadelphia’s Independence Hall, the site where the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution were debated and adopted by America’s founding fathers.
He will discuss how the nation’s standing in the world and its democracy are at stake.
‘He will talk about the progress we have made as a nation to protect our democracy, but how our rights and freedoms are still under attack,’ the White House said. ‘And he will make clear who is fighting for those rights, fighting for those freedoms, and fighting for our democracy.’
Democratic gubenatorial candidate Josh Shapiro (left) will appear with Biden on Tuesday; Shapiro in a battle with Republican gubenatorial candidate Doug Mastriano (right)
President Joe Biden will campaign with Democratic Senate candidate John Fetterman (left) on Labor Day in Pennsylvania amid his battle with Dr. Mehmet Oz (right)
It is unclear if he will mention his predecessor in the Oval Office: former President Donald Trump.
Biden had made Trump’s supporters and his brand of conservatism a punching bag for Democrats, accusing ‘extreme MAGA Republicans’ of wanting to take away people’s rights.
He is seeking to paint November’s contest – which will decide control of the House and the Senate – as one between the support of Democracy or the GOP extremism.
At a political rally in Rockville last week, Biden said Trump and MAGA Republicans were ‘destroying America.’
‘I respect conservative Republicans, I don’t respect these MAGA Republicans,’ Biden told the crowd gathered at the Richard Montgomery High School in Rockville, Maryland.
Biden warned that ‘the MAGA Republicans don’t just threaten our personal rights and our economic security, they’re a threat to our very democracy.’
‘They refuse to accept the will of the people, they embrace political violence, they don’t believe in democracy,’ he continued. ‘That’s why in this moment, those of you who love this country, we must be stronger, more determined and more committed to saving America than the MAGA Republicans are destroying America.’