Donald Trump told supporters he should have never left the White House after losing the 2020 election during one of his final rallies of the presidential campaign.
Addressing a rally in Pennsylvania, a visibly tired Trump ranted to the crowd about recent polls which showed him losing to Kamala Harris, and said he ‘didn’t mind’ if members of the press got shot at.
In a rambling speech, the former president resurrected old grievances about his loss in the 2020 election, which he claims was stolen from him by ‘demonic’ democrats, and lamented about being prosecuted for trying to overturn his defeat four years ago.
‘We had the safest border in the history of our country the day that I left,’ Trump said. ‘I shouldn’t have left, I mean honestly, we did so well, we had such a great…’ he said before trailing off mid-sentence.
At another point in the rally, the Republican nominee noted the bulletproof glass in front of him which had been installed following an assassination attempt in July, and pointed out places where he saw openings in that protection.
‘I have this piece of glass here,’ he said. ‘But all we have really over here is the fake news. And to get me, somebody would have to shoot through the fake news. And I don’t mind that so much.’
It was the second time in recent days that Trump has talked about guns being pointed at people he considers enemies. He previously suggested former Rep. Liz Cheney, a prominent Republican critic, wouldn’t be willing to support foreign wars if she had ‘nine barrels shooting at her.’
Trump’s advisors have been keen to try and steer the former president away from talking about his electoral loss in 2020, but after broaching the subject he soon found it difficult to stop.
Among his rants were debunked conspiracy theories about how 2020 was ‘stolen’ from him, and suggested that voting machines would be hacked by the Democrats. He also claimed efforts to extend polling hours in Pennsylvania, which his own team had previously called for, amounted to electoral fraud.
‘I’m the only one that talks about it because everyone is afraid to damn talk about it,’ Trump said. ‘And then they accuse you of being a conspiracy theorist, “He’s a conspiracy theorist,”’ he continued, using a singsong voice.
‘And they want to lock you up, they want to put you in jail. The ones that should be locked up are the ones that cheat on these horrible elections that we go through in our country.’
He added: ‘In Lancaster, they found 2,600 ballots, all done and by the same hand. In other words, the same exact penmanship, the same hand, the same everything,’ Trump told the crowd.
‘It was all done by the same pen, the exact same pen. And then they go and they say, “Well, this is a conspiracy theorist.’ It’s a terrible thing that’s happened to our country.’
Some of Trump’s allies, notably former chief strategist Steve Bannon, have encouraged him to prematurely declare victory on Tuesday even if the race is too early to call.
That’s the same strategy Trump employed four years ago,kicking off a process of fighting the election results that culminated in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
For much of this year, Trump has run a relatively disciplined campaign that emphasised the issues and voters his aides believe could deliver him victory, even as he clung to false theories about voter fraud and went on frequent digressions, stirring controversy.
But in recent weeks, that discipline has begun to collapse at an alarming rate.
Over the past month, Trump has joked about golfer Arnold Palmer’s genitalia, continued using gendered or sexist language in his efforts to win over women, and staged a rally at New York’s Madison Square Garden that included crude and racist insults about Hispanics and Puerto Ricans which have dominated headlines.
Following his remarks about shooting members of the ‘fake news media’, Trump’s spokesperson Steven Cheung claimed the statement has ‘nothing to do with the media being harmed’ but was in fact about ‘looking out for their welfare.’
Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi later said Trump’s comments were further proof of his ‘cognitive decline’.
During an interview on MSNBCm the former speaker of the house said: ‘I think that what the ex-president just said is further indication of his cognitive degeneration.
‘He can’t last as president for four years with his brain deteriorating at the rate that it is, and it’s clearly evident.’
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