Trump accuses Biden of ‘abandoning Pennsylvania’ at rally near his hometown
President Trump accused Joe Biden of “abandoning Pennsylvania” during a rally just miles from Biden’s hometown of Scranton in an appearance designed to needle his opponent hours before he addresses the Democratic National Convention.
Describing Biden as “slow Joe,” the president fired a preemptive strike ahead of Biden’s virtual DNC speech on Thursday evening and tried to discredit the former veep’s story of growing up poor in Scranton before a crowd in the battleground state.
“He’ll remind us he was born in Scranton, but he left a long time ago — like 70 years ago,” Trump said during an event at in Old Forge, Pa. — reminding the audience that Biden and his family moved to Delaware when he was aged 10.
“He abandoned Scranton. He left Scranton. I thought I would come here to explain it to you,” the president joked. “He abandoned Pennsylvania.”
In a bullish, hour-long speech, the president declared he would defy polls and win Pennsylvania and other battleground states in November and accused Democrats of having gone “stone-cold crazy.”
“There’s only one thing standing between you and the left-wing mob, and that’s your vote this November,” Trump said. “I feel like I’m the wall.”
The president said Democrats under Biden would take away guns, charter schools, fracking, fossil fuels, immigration control and most importantly, jobs.
Trump took the stage as the US market continued its incredible recovery from the coronavirus crisis, with the NASDAQ and S&P 500 closing at record highs as he was speaking.
“You will see a crash like you’ve never seen before. If he won the markets gonna crash,” the president said while warning that Biden, 77, would try to introduce a Green New Deal and “socialized medicine.”
With just 75 days until the presidential election, Trump this week began a battleground state barnstorm, visiting Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa and now Pennsylvania as many polls show Biden still ahead, but with a shrinking advantage.
Instead of hitting Biden on his mental acuity, Trump, 74, accused the Democratic elder of being a Washington insider who had turned his back on his working-class roots.
“He spent the last half century in Washington, selling out our country and ripping off our jobs and letting other countries steal our jobs. Mexico, China, all of them are stealing our jobs,” the president said.