Donald Trump’s closing argument in Lancaster County becomes a list of grievances and false conspiracies

LITITZ — At one of his final rallies in the presidential election’s most critical battleground, former President Donald Trump ranted off-script about unproven election fraud in the state, calling the Democratic Party “demonic” and repeatedly referring to the party as “cheaters.” ”

Trump’s closing argument to supporters in Lancaster County included a brief mention of a promise to “fix” what Democrats “broke,” but otherwise played out like an hour of stream-of-consciousness thoughts.

“When they say he gave a long and elaborate speech, say ‘it was brilliant,’” Trump told the crowd as his remarks reached the 90-minute mark.

Trump contradicted his own party’s push for Republicans to vote by mail, saying “we should have one-day voting and paper ballots.”

In what appears to be a neck-and-neck race in the stateTrump spent his 22nd visit of the year here, ignoring the teleprompter and vamping with a crowd of worshipers who gathered on a chilly, sunny Sunday morning. The visit came as polls predicted a photo finish in Pennsylvania three days before Election Day.

If there was one theme in Trump’s comments, it was a strong emphasis on false claims about election fraud in Pennsylvania and elsewhere. At the podium, he again inaccurately described a situation in Lancaster County in which county officials are investigating a series of 2,500 registration applications, including some potentially fraudulent applications. Trump said all 2,500 ballots were “written by the same hand.”

He complained about county officials “extending the hours” for voting when his own party successfully sued to give voters the ability to request mail-in ballots in Bucks County.

“There are so many things happening in Pennsylvania. We are in court all the time,” Trump said.

He has repeatedly criticized the country’s election administration system despite the fact that there is no widespread evidence of election fraud. He said voting machines “should never be used” and claimed it was unknown how many votes he received in 2020, but falsely claimed he won Pennsylvania.

“If nothing comes out of the whole thing, you’re better off buying a new system,” he said.

The stage was set for Trump to compare Vice President Kamala Harris’ record in the Biden administration to his own. But while the podium read, “Trump will fix it,” and attendees held up signs reading, “Kamala broke it, Trump will fix it,” his speech focused very little on the economy or policy differences.

Instead, Trump rolled out a list of grievances, some of which were nostalgic reflections on his nine years running for office.

“For future elections, I will not be a part of it,” Trump said. At one point he seemed to acknowledge that he could be defeated. “Things are going badly. And it can never be solved because we will never get the right people in because of what they do with elections.”

The day started with a series of female speakers, including race car driver Danica Patrick, Tulsi Gabbard and Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders. The former president trails women in the state by about nine points, according to a Philadelphia Inquirer/New York Times/Siena College poll released Sunday.

An hour and fifteen minutes after his speech (which he arrived an hour late), people began leaving Lancaster airport. Trump touted the size of his rally crowd, called polls fake and hurled insults at his political enemies. He called U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff (D., Calif.) “ugly,” former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi “crazy” and harked back to 2016 calling Hillary Clinton “crooked.” He called Chinese President Xi Jingping “brilliant” (but also “not a very good person”).

For nearly a decade, Trump has insulted the press, but on Sunday he went a step further as he assessed the bulletproof glass around him.

“To get me, someone would have to go through the fake news and I don’t mind that,” he said, gesturing to about a hundred reporters and photographers working for the media standing right in front of him.

That prompted a clarifying statement from Trump campaign communications director Steven Cheung, who said the former president’s comment “has nothing to do with harming the media” but rather “threats against him that were incited by dangerous rhetoric from the Democrats.”

“In fact,” Cheung continued, “President Trump declared that the media was in danger, in the sense that they were protecting him and therefore were themselves in grave danger, and should also have had a glass protective shield.”

Jeff Bartos, a former Republican Senate candidate from Lower Merion who has endorsed Trump, said Trump’s off-script style is often what people come to see.

“People who come out in the thousands in cold weather take him seriously, but not literally,” Bartos said. “I think too many people in the media may be taking it too literally.”

Robert Chirico, 56, who lives near Stroudsburg and works in IT, called the stakes in the election enormous. “I feel like everything is at stake.”

“You know, when you go to the grocery store, everything costs so much more. People are really in a lot of pain. You know, the border, immigration, security, things are really bad. I’ve never seen it this bad. I worry about my children and my grandchildren.”

Jen Coppello, 50, of Morgantown, voted for Trump in the last two presidential elections.

She said she doesn’t know why Trump is losing the female vote in the state, saying he thinks his policies are policies that help women.

“He cares about every gender,” she said. “Or both sexes – not every.”