Trump attacks GOP opponents, Biden at Las Vegas campaign event: ‘The gloves are off’
Former President Donald Trump went on the offensive Saturday night, ripping into his Republican opponents and President Biden during a rambling speech at a campaign event in Nevada.
Trump, the leading GOP presidential candidate, told an enthusiastic crowd that “the gloves are off” and his campaign “will not play prevent defense” at the Team Trump Nevada Commit to Caucus Event at Stoney’s Rockin’ Country in Las Vegas.
Biden, 80, took the brunt of the punches, with the 45th president blasting him as “incompetent” and “corrupt” and making fun of his recent public gaffes, such as appearing to get lost on stage after speeches and stumbling on the Air Force One staircase.
“He can’t get off a stage,” Trump, 77, said. “He can’t put two sentences together and he’s in charge of nuclear warfare.”
Trump then impersonated Biden wandering away from the microphone “after everything has worn off,” holding his hands up in confusion and asking, “Where am I?” as the audience roared with laughter.
“Honestly we shouldn’t be laughing, we should be crying,” he said. “And thank God for the Secret Service because they grab him and point him to the exit.”
He called out Biden for tripping on multiple occasions while getting on and off the president’s plane when traveling, quipping that now “he comes out of the children’s stairs.”
At one point, he polled the crowd for their preference for his nickname for Biden: Sleepy Joe or Crooked Joe.
He declared “crooked” the winner, since he retired the word for Hillary Clinton, whom he said he now calls “Beautiful Hillary.”
Trump also went after the two candidates posing the biggest threat to his campaign.
He slammed South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, whom he has recently bestowed with the nickname “Bird Brain,” for running against him after earlier saying she never would and support his bid for the White House.
“Somebody said that Bird Brain is now is second place, but she’s going nowhere,” he said of his former ambassador to the United Nations.
He said Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has emerged as Trump’s most formidable opponent despite trailing far behind in the polls, has “dropped like a falling bird, badly injured from the sky.”
His campaign geared up to attack DeSantis as soon as Trump had a feeling he was going to run, he said. Trump had endorsed DeSantis in his Florida gubernatorial run.
Trump spoke for roughly an hour during his speech, which he complained was largely improvised since he couldn’t read from his prepared remarks due to poor lighting.
He also touted the recent endorsement of longshot candidate Larry Elder, who has recently dropped out.
“Everybody that leaves seems to be endorsing me,” he said.
“I don’t know about Mike Pence,” he said of his former vice president, who suspended his own longshot campaign on Saturday.
“He should endorse me because I had a great successful presidency with him as my vice president.”
It was Trump’s second public event in Las Vegas on Saturday, as he spoke earlier at the Republican Jewish Coalition gathering.
Trump holds a commanding lead in the primary, polling at 56.9%, according to the latest national polling data compiled by FiveThirtyEight.
Lagging behind him is DeSantis at 14.1%, Haley at 8% and Ramaswamy at 5.8%. Pence was next at 3.8%.