Pennsylvania winner “wins it all”

WILKES-BARRE — Former President Donald Trump ended his Saturday rally in Wilkes-Barre by making clear why he has become a constant visitor to the state, which could decide the election results.

“They say if you win Pennsylvania, you win everything,” Trump told a crowd of about 8,000 supporters at Mohegan Arena, ending a speech that lasted more than 90 minutes. “We can’t let these people win Pennsylvania.”

But before he could arrive at that final thought, Trump delivered a rambling speech — almost stream-of-consciousness at times — in which he made debunked claims about Olympic boxers, apparently confused Pennsylvania with North Carolina and made a lengthy comment about Vice President Kamala Harris’s appearance.

“They said, ‘No, her best asset is that she’s a beautiful woman,’” Trump said. “… I’m more handsome than she is.”

Trump criticized ABC, the network that will host his first debate with Harris, and mocked the vice president’s laughter. He falsely claimed that polls give him an advantage in Pennsylvania.

He also claimed that Democrats snubbed Gov. Josh Shapiro “because he’s Jewish,” something Trump and his allies have been saying since Harris chose Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her vice presidential running mate earlier this month. Shapiro rejected the suggestion that anti-Semitism had anything to do with choosing Harris, whose husband, Doug Emhoff, is Jewish.

“Any Jew who votes for her or a Democrat needs to come out and get their head examined,” Trump said. “If you see what’s happening to Israel and the Jews, it’s never been a more dangerous time since the Holocaust to be a Jew in America.”

The rally was Trump’s seventh visit to the state this year and his second event there since surviving the attempted shooting in Butler last month. In the final moments of Trump’s speech, the crowd chanted, “Fight, fight, fight,” echoing words Trump said after the shooting.

Trump’s rally came after polls showed Harris narrowly leading in the state following President Joe Biden’s withdrawal from the race.

Harris will visit the state on Sunday, stopping in Pittsburgh ahead of the Democratic National Convention. Both Trump and his vice presidential candidate, Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio, will return to Pennsylvania on Monday, as both campaigns see the election swinging in the state.

Luzerne County, where Wilkes-Barre is located, is nearly evenly split between Democrats and Republicans. Democrats won the county in four consecutive elections before Trump flipped it in 2016 and won it again in 2020. It is the only county in the state that flipped from Democratic to Republican in 2016 and remained that way four years later.

Trump won largely in white, working-class, small-town and mid-sized cities in northeastern and southwestern Pennsylvania. Luzerne County is about 80 percent white, according to census data.

Most of the crowd at the arena came dressed in their Make America Great Again best. Several voters at the rally said their biggest concern was the cost of living in Pennsylvania.

“We’re here to support Donald Trump’s policies to improve the economy, to make things more affordable,” said Linda Gubitose, 54, of Wilkes-Barre. “I just want the costs to come down.”

Although inflation has begun to decline from its record levels at the beginning of the Biden administration, most of the people of Pennsylvania believe they are worse off than they were a year ago, according to a Franklin and Marshall College poll released earlier this month.

Pennsylvania’s status as a wildfire state was likely a major factor in Trump and Harris reaching an agreement for next month’s debate in Philadelphia, but Trump has indicated he’s not necessarily ecstatic with the arrangement or the fact that the debate will be broadcast on ABC, which he called “the worst network.”

“I call it ‘fake news ABC,'” said Trump, who is in ongoing legal action against him ABC News and host George Stephanopoulos. The ABC presidential debate will be held at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia on Sept. 10. “These are fake, phony, disgusting people who hate our country,” he said.

Trump said at the rally that he would “accept anything, because otherwise [Harris is] “I will not discuss.”

Trump also used the opportunity to criticize Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.), who is running for re-election, saying he “barely knew him” and compared Casey to his father, former Pennsylvania Gov. Robert P. Casey.

“He’s navigating his father’s past,” Trump said of the younger Casey.

Trump praised Republican Senate candidate Dave McCormick’s positions on taxes and energy, among other things. Trump also criticized Sen. John Fetterman (D., Pa.), citing Fetterman’s poor performance in a debate with Trump-backed Mehmet Oz when he was running for the Senate in 2022. At the time, Fetterman was recovering from a stroke.

Trump has said that when he endorses candidates, they win. He previously endorsed state Sen. Doug Mastriano for governor and renowned surgeon Oz for the Senate. Both lost.

Trump at one point dismissed the accusation that he was rambling during speeches, defending the long speeches as something his supporters expected. He seemed unaware of his condition.

“I go in, I talk for 15 minutes and I leave… Would that be OK, North Carolina? I don’t think so, would you?” Trump said.

The clip quickly gained popularity online, promoted by Harris’ campaign and others.

About 15 minutes earlier in the speech, Trump mentioned a group of women who had traveled from North Carolina to attend his speech, but it was unclear whether the later comments were directed at that group or were a mistake.