PHILADELPHIA — FFormer President Donald Trump traveled to the City of Brotherly Love on Saturday for a rally that will be his first in the city in 2024.
“Several society To have he suffered more under the Biden regime than Philadelphia,” Trump said, taking the stage promptly at 7 p.m
Later in his nearly 90-minute remarks, Trump repeated his false claims of 2020 voter fraud in Philadelphia, saying it was “egregious” and “they used Covid to cheat.” They used many things to cheat, but we won’t let that happen again.
While Trump’s main topic of the evening was largely crime, the speakers before him focused largely on the economy and the border. At one point he suggested creating a “fighting league” for migrants to the US and discussed his support for school choice, which has emerged as a key point of contention between Democrats and Republicans in the state Legislature when setting the budget.
Trump invited Republican U.S. Senate candidate David McCormick on stage to personally offer him his “total support and my total support.” He previously supported McCormick after he won the Pennsylvania Republican primary in April.
On Saturday, McCormick took the stage twice: first, he delivered a speech in front of Trump, and secondly, he joined the former president on stage and encouraged his supporters to support his candidacy to replace US Senator Bob Casey. It was the first time Trump and McCormick appeared on the campaign trail together.
Trump called Casey “stiff” and said he had no memory of meeting the three-term senator while he was in Washington. “No one knows who he is, no one has any idea,” Trump said. “But Dave McCormick will be an activist for you.”
McCormick thanked Trump and said fresh leadership was needed. “We need a president in the White House who will pursue pro-growth economic policies and deregulation that will restore our business community.”
After the rally, Casey campaign members sent out a fundraising email that read in part: “This is sedate. Donald Trump just attacked Bob Casey by name at a MAGA rally in Philadelphia, saying Pennsylvania “must beat” Bob Casey.
Speaking to reporters in Philadelphia on Friday about McCormick’s expected attacks on him, Casey praised his record in the U.S. Senate, saying he “speaks words over and over again” on behalf of the state’s citizens.
“I won’t do what David McCormick does,” Casey told reporters. “It’s a bag for billionaires. That’s what he is. He will vote with the billionaires.”
U.S. Rep. Dan Meuser (R-9th District), who has become one of the Trump campaign’s most vocal surrogates in Pennsylvania, said Trump is keeping his promises to “reverse Bidenomics” and replace it with “MAGanomics.”
“Philadelphia needs a president who cares,” Meuser said. “Because the Joe Biden administration is all talk and no action.”
“Donald Trump doesn’t care about black people”
Local Democrats he spent the day anticipating the news of the presumptive GOP nominee.
“Later today, a 34-time indicted criminal will come to North Philadelphia doing what he does best: lying about his past, talking about his past and thumbing his nose at working families across Pennsylvania,” Malcolm said, a Republican. Kenyatta (Philadelphia), he said Saturday morning. He made the remarks during an event focused on Black voters at Biden’s campaign office in North Philadelphia.
Kenyatta, state Sen. Sharif Street (Philadelphia), who is chairman of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party, and Philadelphia City Council member Jeffrey Young said it was critical for Democrats to counter his message ahead of the rally.
“We really need to show Trump that he is not welcome here, in this city, in this city, in this state,” Young said. He added that it is up to Democrats to remind voters in their communities of Trump’s record in office.
“Donald Trump is just talk, isn’t he,” Young said. “We tend to idealize celebrities in our community, right, for one reason or another, and Donald Trump is appealing to that in an attempt to appeal to black voters and other voters in our community, but we need to let them know that celebrity is just smoke and mirror, there is no point in it, he doesn’t care about moving our community forward.”
Kenyatta criticized Trump for his achievements before entering politics and false accusations that former President Barack Obama was not born in America.
“Donald Trump is an individual who has a well-documented history of disrespecting Black people and destabilizing the Black community,” Kenyatta said.
Trump’s Saturday rally will be his fourth appearance in Pennsylvania this year and second in Philadelphia. In February he gave a low speech at SneakerCon at the Pennsylvania Convention Center to promote his fresh line of Trump-branded shoes.
In response to a question about Trump’s decision to hold a rally in North Philadelphia, Street said that Trump was trying to create a national narrative to convince black voters to support him, and that he believed the Trump campaign would provide transportation for supporters from out of town.
“So a young black person in Detroit will say, ‘Well, black people in North Philly support him, how bad can he be?’” Street said.
Kenyatta, who serves on the Biden-Harris National Advisory Council and is a candidate for state auditor general, echoed a similar message, saying Trump’s visit to Philadelphia was partly intended to prompt the press to write headlines that “Donald Trump is trying to talk to Black People.” ”
He compared Trump’s rally in North Philadelphia to someone showing up at Lincoln Financial Field, home of the Philadelphia Eagles, wearing a Dallas Cowboys jersey and saying “The Eagles suck.”
“This is not an attempt to reach Eagles fans,” Kenyatta said. “So Donald Trump bringing his KKK rhetoric, bringing his Bull Conner racist megaphone to North Philadelphia does not mean he is reaching out to Black people, but he is starting to disrespect Black people.”
“Listen, Donald Trump is black, but Donald Trump doesn’t care about black people,” Kenyatta added.
Trump rallies in Philadelphia as 2024 campaign intensifies
Black voters in Philadelphia played a key role in President Joe Biden’s victory over Trump in 2020. 92% black voters in the state voted for Biden, while 7% voted for Trump. A recent survey suggests this the gap has narrowed, but Biden still maintains a significant lead.
Last weekend, Trump visited Detroit for launching his “Black Americans for Trump” campaign and claiming there that he had done “more for the black population than any American president since Abraham Lincoln.”
Asked about recent polls showing Trump gaining support among black voters, Street referred to polls conducted over the past two cycles in the state and said Democrats have continued to win statewide since he took over as party chairman.
“Donald Trump became famous for saying that ‘bad things are happening in Philadelphia’; he is the bad thing that is happening in Philadelphia,” Kenyatta said. “And in North Philadelphia he will get the welcome he deserves, and it won’t be nice.”
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Calvin Tucker, a member of the Pennsylvania Republican Party Executive Committee, told the Capital-Star after his speech that his most critical takeaway was Trump’s message about the impact of “Bidenflation.”
“I want to see it back so we can get back to normalizing prices,” Tucker told the Capital-Star.
In 2016, Tucker welcomed Trump to North Philadelphia for approximately roundtable event with black leaders. Tucker said it was promising to see Trump again on Saturday in North Philadelphia.
“This is a preview of actions to come,” he said.
In 2020, Biden received 603,970 votes in Philadelphia and Trump received 132,740 votes. Tucker said he is confident Trump can narrow that margin, which could give him victory in November.
“If we can keep that number below 400,000, we will have a great opportunity to do so,” he told Capital-Star.
Tucker cited recent polls that showed Trump gaining ground among Blacks and Latinos, as well as others, as evidence he can get the state back into the win column. He told the Capital-Star that he thinks Trump can win 18% to 25% of Black voters. AND
While Saturday’s event saw the first level and first floor of the Liacouras Center occupied mostly by Trump supporters, no one was seated on the second level. Capital-Star is seeking an estimate of the event’s audience.
Before his speech Trump showed up at Tony and Nick’s in South Philly to buy cheesecake.
Protesters gathered across the street from the Liacouras Center on Saturday afternoon as temperatures climbed into the mid-90s. Some exchanged words with Trump supporters waiting for his arrival, others waved anti-Trump signs and expressed their displeasure.
Anne Geheb, 69, a suburban Philadelphia resident, said Saturday was supposed to be a beach day, but instead she decided to come to the city to express her opposition to Trump. Geheb, who is lesbian, said she was particularly concerned about Trump’s negative rhetoric about the LGBTQ community, especially transgender people.
On Saturday, Trump said during his speech that “it will beSign a new executive order cutting federal funding for any school that promotes critical race theory, transgender madness, and any other inappropriate racial, sexual, or political content to our children.”
But Geheb said she took comfort in seeing so many adolescent people protesting against Trump.
“I’m very worried that young people won’t show up [to vote]and we need them to show up,” she said.
