On Sunday morning, during a campaign rally in Lititz, former President Donald Trump, the Republican Party’s presidential candidate, complained about the protective glass surrounding him on stage and pointed to where the hole was, suggesting that members of the media would be in the line of fire if they someone pointed a gun at him.
“I have this piece of glass here, but all we really have here is fake news,” Trump said, using his usual pejorative term for reporters covering his events. “And someone would have to sift through fake news to get me, and that doesn’t bother me too much.”
He then complained that in the case of glass – allegedly placed to protect the former president from another assassination attempt – “it doesn’t look great on TV – when you have a four-inch piece of glass that a howitzer can’t punch through.” Trump, whose voice sounded hoarse, lacked the energy he usually has at enormous rallies, most of which take place in the evening.
Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung provided an interpretation of Trump’s remarks in a statement after the rally.
“President Trump brilliantly talked about two attempts on his life, including one that came within a quarter of an inch of killing him, which the media constantly talks about and jokes about,” Cheung said, without citing the “jokes,” he alluded to. “The President’s statement regarding the placement of protective glass has nothing to do with harming the media or anything else. It was about threats against him caused by the Democrats’ dangerous rhetoric. In fact, President Trump stated that the media was in danger because they were protecting him, and therefore they were in great danger themselves and should have had a protective glass shield as well. There is no other interpretation of what was said. He actually cared about their well-being, much more than his own!”
The campaign of Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential candidate, criticized Trump’s statements.
“While Vice President Harris spent today at a church in Detroit speaking to voters about her vision to uplift all Americans, Donald Trump was busy breaking the Ninth Commandment,” Harris campaign spokesman Ammar Moussa said in a statement.
The ninth commandment warns against “bearing false witness” against your neighbor, i.e. lying.
“Trump is spending the final days of his campaign angry and upset, lying about stealing the election because he fears he will lose,” Moussa said. “The American people deserve a leader who tells the truth and enters the Oval Office with their focus – that is Vice President Harris.”
Trump frequently complains about media coverage he feels is unfair to him, often calling media members at his rallies “enemies of the people and ‘fake news'” and encouraging the audience to boo them. On Sunday, he also called reporters “bloodsuckers.” At the rally, he called Democrats “demonic” and told the audience he was getting off the teleprompter to tell the “truth.”
Trump arrived at the Lititz rally an hour later than scheduled and spoke for more than 90 minutes. He repeated several previous complaints and false claims about hacking of voting machines and said he preferred elections called before 11 p.m. on election night. And while the Trump campaign sued Bucks County last week to expand its business hours to allow more people to apply for absentee ballots, his suggestion of extending business hours so more people can vote is suspect. Iowa
After Trump’s lawsuit, judge orders Bucks County to extend mail-in ballot deadline to November 1
“They fight so hard to steal the damn thing. Look what’s happening. Look at what’s happening every day in your state, you’re talking about extending business hours and so on,” Trump said. “Anyone heard of these things? One day we should have voting and paper ballots.”
Trump also noted that he “shouldn’t have left” the White House after losing the 2020 election.
He complained about several recent polls, including a up-to-date one from the Des Moines Register that showed Harris leading him by four points.
The appearance in Lititz was the first of three rallies planned by Trump on the penultimate day before the election. He has rallies planned for Monday in Reading and Pittsburgh and will apparently be in Pittsburgh at the same time as Harris, who is holding events in Allentown, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia on the final day of the campaign.
Trump and Harris are campaigning tirelessly in Pennsylvania, a key battleground state with the 19 electoral votes they both need to have a path to the White House.
This article was updated on November 3, 2024 at 3:16 p.m., with comments from the Harris campaign
YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE.
