ST. CLOUD, Minnesota — As the presidential campaign enters a critical 100-day final stretch, Republican nominee Donald Trump and his running mate, JD Vancerallied supporters Saturday in a state that has not backed a Republican candidate for the White House since 1972.
The rally in St. Cloud, Minnesota, was organized as a sign of the campaign’s optimism about its prospects in the Midwest, especially as President Joe Biden was showing signs of weakness ahead of his decision to drop out of the race. Trump, who won Michigan and Wisconsin in 2016 only to lose them four years later, has increasingly focused on Minnesota as a state where he would like to put Democrats on the defensive.
The rally was a gamble of sorts, one that could force the likely Democratic nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris, and Democrats to devote resources in a state they would otherwise likely ignore.
Trump spoke for more than an hour and a half before a crowd that cheered him with signs supporting the police and calling for the deportation of migrants who are in the country illegally.
“She knows nothing, she’s evil,” Trump said, suggesting Harris had failed in her border-related duties as vice president. “Kamala Harris’ deadly destruction of America’s borders completely and totally disqualifies her from being president.”
Trump criticized Harris for a post she made in 2020 following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis at the hands of police officers. The post had encouraged people to help protesters by donating to the Minnesota Freedom Fund, which had been working on bail reform and had paid criminal bail to help people as part of a campaign to address inequalities in the system.
While Harris herself did not contribute to the fundraiser, her tweet was among a number sent by celebrities and prominent figures to help the cash-strapped nonprofit quickly raise $34 million. In the immediate aftermath of the protests and riots, the group spent very little on rescuing protesters.
Harris campaign spokesman Ammar Moussa called Trump’s line of attack a “lie.”
But the former president also recycled much of his anti-Biden repertoire, demonstrating how his campaign has sought to continue reminding voters of Biden’s missteps even after the president ended his candidacy and threw his support behind Harris.
Vance focused on issues that energize the Republican Party’s base, particularly security on the U.S.-Mexico border and crime.
In May, Trump headlined a Republican fundraiser in St. Paul, where he said he could win the state and made explicit appeals to the iron ore mining region of northeastern Minnesota, where he hopes a large population of blue-collar and union workers will vote Republican after years of being solidly Democratic.
Appealing to that demographic has also helped Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz get on the shortlist of about a dozen Democrats who could become Harris’ running mate.
Saturday’s rally took place at the Herb Brooks National Hockey Center, a 5,159-seat hockey arena. Since surviving an assassination attempt on July 13 at an outdoor rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, Trump has held events exclusively indoors. But he said on his social media account Saturday that he will schedule outdoor stops and that the “SECRET SERVICE HAS AGREED TO SUBSTANTIALLY INCREASE ITS OPERATION.”
“Ensuring the safety of our protected individuals is our highest priority,” Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said in a statement Saturday. “In the interest of maintaining operational integrity, we cannot comment on the specifics of our protective means or methods.”
Earlier on Saturday, Trump spoke at a bitcoin conference in Nashville, Tennessee, outlining a plan for cryptocurrency adoption if elected and vowing to make the United States the “crypto capital of the planet” and a “bitcoin superpower.”
Also on Saturday, Harris stepped up her presidential campaign with her first fundraiser since becoming the presumptive Democratic nominee for the White House.
Source: AP