Trump also criticized Harris as an absolute radical on abortion, apparently seeing an opening to attack her on the issue. (Photo: Reuters)
As the presidential campaign enters its final, crucial 100-day period, Republican candidate Donald Trump and his running mate, J.D. Vance, rallied supporters Saturday in a state that has not supported a Republican candidate for the White House since 1972.
The rally in St. Cloud, Minnesota, was intended as a sign of the campaign’s optimism about the prospects in the Midwest, especially as President Joe Biden showed signs of weakness ahead of his decision to leave the campaign.
Trump, who won Michigan and Wisconsin in 2016 but lost them four years later, is increasingly targeting Minnesota as a state where he wants to put Democrats on the defensive.
Trump criticized presumptive Democratic nominee Kamala Harris as a crazed liberal and a radical leftist, accusing her of wanting to dismantle the police.
The former Republican president, on the other hand, said he wants to overfund the police.
Trump also criticized Harris as an outspoken radical on abortion. He seemed to see an opening to attack her on the issue, as she has become the most outspoken advocate for abortion rights in the Biden administration.
He misleadingly suggested that Harris wants abortions up to and after birth. Infanticide is a crime in every state and no state has passed a law that allows the killing of a baby after birth.
Trump’s remarks followed a lively speech from Vance in which he leaned heavily on issues of concern to the GOP base, particularly security at the U.S.-Mexico border and crime. He also took a broadside against the news media, saying that journalists were comparing the first black woman and person of South Asian descent to lead a major party ticket to Martin Luther King, Jr.
The rally is something of a gamble, potentially forcing Harris and Democrats to devote resources to a state they might otherwise ignore. But it could also be a risk for Trump if he spends time in places that could prove challenging with Harris as the front-runner, when he could otherwise focus on maintaining his support in more traditional battlegrounds.
In May, Trump headlined a GOP fundraiser in St. Paul, where he boasted he could win the state and made a point of calling on the iron ore mine in northeastern Minnesota, where he hopes a large portion of the working-class and unionized population will switch to the Republicans after years of solid Democratic backgrounds.
By appealing to that demographic, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz has also landed on the list of about a dozen Democrats being screened for possible Harris’ running mate.
Earlier on Saturday, Trump spoke at a bitcoin conference in Nashville, Tennessee. He laid out a plan to embrace cryptocurrencies if elected, promising to make the U.S. the crypto capital of the planet and a bitcoin superpower.
Trump wasn’t always a proponent of cryptocurrencies, but in recent years he has changed his stance on digital tokens. In May, his campaign began accepting donations in cryptocurrencies.
Saturday’s rally took place at the Herb Brooks National Hockey Center, a 5,159-seat hockey arena. Since surviving a July 13 assassination attempt at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, Trump has held events exclusively at indoor venues. But he said in a social media post Saturday that he will be planning outdoor stops and that THE SECRET SERVICE HAS AGREED TO SIGNIFICANTLY INCREASE THEIR OPERATIONS. THEY HAVE BIG AUTHORITY TO DO SO. NO ONE SHOULD EVER STOP OR INTERFERE WITH FREEDOM OF SPEECH OR ASSEMBLIES!!!
Secret Service officials declined to say whether the agency had agreed to expand activities at Trump’s campaign events or whether they were concerned that he might hold outdoor rallies again. “Ensuring the safety and security of our protected individuals is our highest priority,” Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said in a statement Saturday. “In the interest of maintaining operational integrity, we cannot comment on specifics about our protective equipment or methods.”
(Only the headline and image of this report may have been edited by Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
First print: Jul 28, 2024 | 08:02 AM IST