FORMER US president Donald Trump on Saturday (5) returned to Butler, a city in Pennsylvania where he narrowly escaped an assassination bid 12 weeks ago, and addressed thousands of his supporters in this key battleground state, urging them to elect him as the next president of the US.
Joined by high-profile figures like Tesla owner Elon Musk and his running mate, Senator J D Vance, Trump (78) made a passionate plea to "defeat" vice president Kamala Harris, the Democratic candidate in the November 5 presidential poll.
"We must stop her country-destroying regime, radical-left agenda once and for all. We cannot have it happen. So you must get out and you must vote," Trump said, which in this election cycle has emerged as a must-win situation for both candidates.
Trump launched a scathing attack on Harris and accused her of being a failure on multiple fronts, including border security and economy. "She imposed a natural gas export ban on Pennsylvania, which is killing your energy workers and your pricing," he said.
"Kamala Harris is a radical-left Marxist. She is a woman that is not respected in Congress. She was laughed at Congress. Nobody thought she could win. They did a coup of Biden. Whether you like him or not, I am not a particularly big fan. We had a debate, and the debate ended. And all of a sudden, they come to him, and they say, we want you out. You are not going to win the election. And he said, 'I do not want to get out'," Trump said.
"He (Biden) got 14 million (1.4 crore) votes. If you believe in democracy or a system, he got 14 million votes. And she (Harris) got none. She was the first one out, 22 candidates, and she never made it to Iowa. She quit before Iowa, and now she is running. And that is okay. But, you know, we spent $150 million beating Biden, and as soon as he was down and out for the count, they said, let us take him out. We will give somebody else to run. Never happened before," he said.
"She is a person that rated even worse in every statistic than any other senator. She was rated at the bottom of the US Senate. She has destroyed everything she touched," Trump said.
The former president said if elected, on the first day of his presidency, he would seal the border and stop the migrant invasion into the country.
"We will begin the largest deportation operation in the history of the United States," he said, adding that 2024 is the most important election in the history of the country.
In his brief speech, Musk said this is a must-win situation for the country.
"President Trump must win to preserve the Constitution. He must win to preserve democracy in America. This is a must-win situation. So I have one ask for everyone in the audience, everyone who watches this video, everyone in the livestream. This one request is very important. Register to vote. And get everyone you know and everyone you do not know, drag them to register to vote.... Then make sure they actually do vote. If they do not, this will be the last election. That is my prediction," he said.
Musk said the true test of someone's character is how they behave under fire. "We had one president who could not climb a flight of stairs. Another who was fist pumping after getting shot. Fight, fight, fight. Blood coming down the face. America is the home of the brave. There is no truer test than courage under fire. So who do you want representing America?" he asked the audience.
"This election, I think it is the most important election of our lifetime. This is no ordinary election. The other side wants to take away your freedom of speech. They want to take away your right to bear arms. They want to take away your right to vote effectively. You have got 14 states now that do not require voter ID. California, where I used to live, just passed a law banning voter ID for voting. I still cannot believe that is real. How are you supposed to have a proper election if there is no ID?" he asked.
Vance said Trump took a bullet for democracy.
"A Democrat senator called Donald Trump an existential threat to our democracy. Kamala Harris said he was attacking the foundations of our democracy. I think you all will join me in saying to Kamala Harris, how dare you talk about threats to democracy? Donald Trump took a bullet for democracy. What the hell have you done?" Vance said.
(PTI)
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