Trump campaigns in Harrisburg in first trip back to Pennsylvania since assassination attempt
Republican presidential nominee, former U.S. President Donald Trump walks onstage at a rally on July 31, 2024 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
HARRISBURG — Just over two weeks after he was injured in an assassination attempt at a rally in Butler, former President Donald Trump returned to Pennsylvania on Wednesday for a campaign rally in the state capital. Now the official 2024 GOP presidential nominee, Trump sought to firm up support for his candidacy in the key battleground state, in a presidential race that has changed dramatically over the past month.
Trump took the stage at about 7 p.m., an hour behind schedule, and immediately spoke about the assassination attempt, saying he wasn’t going to give up outdoor rallies.
“As you know, this is my first return to Pennsylvania since our rally in Butler,” he said, adding he planned to go back to Butler. “By all accounts, I should not be with you today. I shouldn’t be with you, but I am. I want to thank all of the people of Pennsylvania for their extraordinary love and support. It is incredible.”
After a poor debate performance in June, President Joe Biden bowed out of his reelection bid on July 21 and immediately endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for the top of the ticket. Democrats have coalesced behind Harris and she has secured enough commitments from state delegates to effectively clinch the nomination.
The attempted assassination at Trump’s Butler rally on July 13 left rallygoer Corey Comperatore dead, and two others injured. The gunman shot Trump’s ear using an AR-15-style rifle, and was killed by law enforcement at the scene. U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned July 23, following an intense congressional hearing where Democrats and Republicans grew dissatisfied with her answers about how the gunman was able to get within shooting range of the former president.
Trump asked the audience to join him for a moment of silence Wednesday to honor Comperatore.
“In the wake of this heinous attack, we gather tonight, more determined than ever, our resolve is unbroken and our will is undeterred.,” Trump said. “Nothing will stop us on our mission to make America great again. Nothing’s going to stop us.”
Two days after the shooting, Trump announced U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio as his running mate, who was introduced during the Republican National Convention. Trump and Vance have campaigned together and separately in several swing states, but Vance has yet to come to Pennsylvania. Trump did not mention Vance during his 90-minute address Wednesday.
U.S. Senate candidate Dave McCormick, who was also at the Butler rally, joined Trump in Harrisburg.
“This is a moment where we have a stark choice,” McCormick said, calling Harris “the most liberal nominee in the history of America.” McCormick, who is seeking to unseat U.S. Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) said the incumbent “votes 98% of the time with that awful Biden Harris agenda that’s taking our country in the wrong direction. That’s why we need new leadership. We need new leadership in the White House that’s going to get our economy back on track, pull in the spending, deregulate, help small businesses.”
Pennsylvania U.S. Reps. Mike Kelly (R-16th District), Dan Meuser (R-9th District), Scott Perry (R-10th District), Lloyd Smucker (R-11th District) and Glenn “GT” Thompson (R-15th District) and state Treasurer Stacy Garrity were all in attendance at Wednesday’s rally as well.
Smucker was the only one to mention Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat believed to be under consideration to be Harris’ running mate. Smucker said Shapiro had “left Pennsylvanians behind” as Harris’ process for choosing a vice president continued.
“He says he likes to get s**t done, but I don’t know that he’s done diddly squat,” Smucker said. “Progressives have the run of the governor’s mansion here in Harrisburg, just like they have at the White House.”
Democrats criticized Trump ahead of his speech Wednesday. “Pennsylvania voters remember Trump’s failures and know exactly how much is at stake in November,” Democratic National Committee Spokesperson Addy Toevs said in a statement. “That’s why they’ll reject Trump and Vance and their extreme Project 2025 agenda, and elect Kamala Harris to keep fighting for working families in the Oval Office.”
But the rally was Trump’s opportunity to try out attacks on his new likely opponent.
“Two weeks ago I was talking about Biden,” Trump said. “I didn’t even know her name. Kamala.”
‘She’s the worst’
Earlier in the day, Trump was interviewed by a panel of journalists at the National Association of Black Journalists’ convention in Chicago, where he questioned whether Harris was Black.
While Trump did not bring up the attack on stage in Harrisburg, his campaign appeared to double down. Video screens at the New Holland arena intermittently showed contemporaneous headlines about Harris being sworn in as the first “Indian-American” senator before Trump spoke. The images conspicuously reflected Trump’s language using her Indian heritage to question the authenticity of her Blackness.
In his Harrisburg speech, however, Trump’s attacks boiled down to a few key themes.
Primarily, he accused Harris of being responsible for an influx of immigrants from South and Central America.
Opposing immigration has been a central tenet of Trump’s campaigns and presidency since 2015 and Trump has long claimed that criminals cross the border in large numbers.
“We have become a dumping ground for the world and we’re not gonna take it anymore,” Trump told the Harrisburg crowd.
He added later, “We will begin the largest deportation operation in American history.”
In an interview on MSNBC Wednesday, Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. Austin Davis pushed back on Trump’s remarks at the NABJ conference. “Who the hell is Donald Trump to question Vice President Harris’s blackness? ” he said. “She doesn’t need to prove anything to him, it’s the latest example of his disrespect that’s often targeted at women in marginalized communities, and quite frankly, it’s disqualifying for him to serve as our president.”
Trump also brought up policies Harris appeared to endorse in her 2020 presidential primary campaign. In interviews and Democratic debates, Harris signaled support for policies like universal healthcare, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement reform and a fracking ban.
Trump’s campaign has also utilized footage of Harris apparently endorsing the “defund the police” slogan as it was embraced by civil rights protesters in 2020. However, it’s unclear exactly what Harris was supporting, saying only that she agreed in principle with diverting some police spending to other public safety measures like social services and mental health crisis intervention.
“She is the most extreme, liberal candidate in the history of our country by far,” Trump said at the rally. “When a politician comes out early on with an idea like ‘she wants to defund the police’ and all these other things … That’s where they’re at.”
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Trump also accused Harris of covering up Biden’s failing health and orchestrating an effort to “overthrow him” as Democratic nominee at the top of the presidential ticket.
“She’s the worst ever,” Trump said about Harris. “She will destroy our country.”
Rallygoers seek to support Trump
Inside the arena, as attendees slowly filed in, a video of Donald Trump played between warm-up songs.
Democrats, he warned in the video, would try to cheat in the upcoming election. “It’s the only thing they do well,” he said.
Trump has still refused to concede the 2020 election, despite no evidence of large scale voter fraud. Courts tossed out dozens of cases brought by Trump’s legal team attempting to challenge the results.
Still, some of the rally-goers still believe that the last election was stolen.
“Last time he was winning and then all of a sudden the dirty deals started,” said Sherry Yocum, of Allentown. “But I’m gonna think very positive. I think this is in God’s hands this time.”
Despite his refrain that the election will be unfair, Trump is still encouraging his followers to vote. “If we swamp them, they can’t cheat,” Trump said in the pre-recorded video.
Tim Yocum, Sherry’s husband, also believes the election was stolen.
“People need to wake up with these Democrats in office,” Tim said. “They’re nothing but a bunch of communists.”
Tim, who said he was a veteran, added, “I was shooting the wrong people,” referring to his time at war.
Sherry glared and hit him on the shoulder.
George, 62, a physician from Harrisburg declined to give his last name, but said Wednesday was his first time attending a Trump rally. He said he wasn’t concerned about safety in light of the Butler shooting, saying it seemed liked security had been increased, and since it was an indoor venue everyone was being screened. He even brought his two grandsons with him. “They’ve never been to a Trump rally so this is a good surprise for them,” he said.
Trump appeals to him as a fellow businessman, George added. “The past three and a half years have been a total disaster. Trump, when he was in office, took the economy in the right direction. No problems with crises around the world. We need a strong leader back like him.”
Like others at the rally George raised concerns about the economy: “… the cost of everything, inflation, you know, you go to the grocery store, you get two bags of groceries, and it’s $100 but it’s all the basics, yeah, whereas four years ago, it’s a different story.”
Nathan, 46, a military veteran who described himself as an ex-Democrat (“until Obama”), said he didn’t care about Trump being “crass, crude and rude,” because “it’s not a popularity contest,” and said he had supported the former president since 2016. “I think we’ve gone from trying not to hurt people’s feelings to assuaging the feelings of people to get offended when the wind blows wrong,” he said.
He described himself as a “constitutional purist,” and said the founding fathers never wanted the government to be the size it is. He’s a strong supporter of free speech, Nathan added. “You might not like what I say, but I might not like what you say, but I’ll fight anybody who tries to stop anybody from saying anything, because there’s an ocean of difference between hate speech and speech people hate, ” he said. “I think sometimes that gets lost in emotions and ideologies.”
He added “nobody should be shot at for what they believe,” in reference to the assassination attempt.
Barbara and Patience, who declined to give their last names, said they have supported Trump since 2016 and went to his recent rallies in Harrisburg, Schnecksville, and Wildwood, N.J. Barbara called the former president a “family person” who cares about people. “People are struggling, and we’re struggling to put food on the table and gas in our tanks,” she said. “How do you afford to take care of a family today? And, I mean, Kamala Harris, she doesn’t even care if people have children anymore.”
Harris is stepmother to two adult children.
Shapiro in the veepstakes
Harris has yet to choose a running mate, and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro is believed to be one of several finalists for the job. The Harris campaign said late Tuesday that she will make a campaign visit to Philadelphia next Tuesday with her “future running mate” accompanying her.
A poll from Susquehanna Polling released Tuesday found Harris leading Trump by 4 points in Pennsylvania, 47% to 43%. Independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. received 3% in the poll, conducted between July 22 and 28.
Pennsylvania’s 19 electoral votes make it the biggest prize among swing states, and both campaigns consider it key to winning the White House.
Biden beat Trump in Pennsylvania in 2020 by just over 80,000 votes.
John Cole of the Capital-Star staff contributed
This story was updated throughout the day July 31, 2024 with a final update at 10:30 p.m.