By JILL COLVIN and JONATHAN J. COOPER
LITITZ, Pa. — Donald Trump delivered a profane and conspiracy-laden speech two days before Tuesday’s presidential election, talking about reporters being shot and suggesting he “shouldn’t have left” the White House after his 2020 loss to Democrat Joe Biden.
In remarks Sunday that bore little resemblance to the speech he’s been delivering at his recent rallies, the former president repeatedly cast doubt on the integrity of the vote and resurrected old grievances after trying to overturn his 2020 election defeat. Trump intensified his verbal attacks on what he cast as a “demonic” Democratic Party and the American media, steering his rally in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, at one point to the topic of violence against members of the press.
He noted the ballistic glass that is used to protect him at outdoor events after a gunman’s assassination attempt in July and pointed to openings between the panels.
“I have this piece of glass here,” he said. “But all we have really over here is the fake news. And to get me, somebody would have to shoot through the fake news. And I don’t mind that so much.”
It was the second time in recent days that Trump has talked about guns being pointed at people he considers enemies. He suggested former Rep. Liz Cheney, a prominent Republican critic, wouldn’t be willing to support foreign wars if she had “nine barrels shooting at her.”
Facing criticism for suggesting violence against the media, Trump’s campaign later played down his comments.
“The President’s statement about protective glass placement has nothing to do with the Media being harmed, or anything else,” Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung said in a statement. Instead he claimed that Trump was suggesting that reporters were in “great danger themselves, and should have had a glass protective shield, also. There can be no other interpretation of what was said. He was actually looking out for their welfare, far more than his own!”
Trump also revived falsehoods about elections and argued that he can only lose to Democrat Kamala Harris if he is cheated, even though polls suggest a very tight race.
“It’s a crooked country,” Trump railed to his crowd on a chilly airport tarmac, returning to the grievance that had defined the early days of his campaign. “They’ll want to put you in jail because you want to make it straight. Think of it, think of it. They cheat in elections and you call them on it and they want to put you in jail.”
Trump was indicted for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election in both Washington and Georgia.
Some of his allies, notably former chief strategist Steve Bannon, have encouraged Trump to prematurely declare victory on Tuesday night after polls close even if the race is too early to call. That’s what Trump did four years ago, kicking off months of denial and lies that culminated in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
For much of this year, Trump had run a relatively disciplined campaign, emphasizing the issues his aides believe can deliver him victory, even as he clung to false theories about voter fraud and frequently went on digressions, stirring controversy. But that discipline is increasingly collapsing.
Trump in recent weeks has joked about golfer Arnold Palmer’s genitalia, continued using gendered or sexist language in his efforts to win over women and staged a rally at New York’s Madison Square Garden with speakers who made crude and racist insults that continue to dominate the headlines.
The darker and more profane tone of his campaign has comes as the former president, who has long been a fan of the masculine pageantry of the WWE, has been entering his rallies to the ominous tolling bell music once used by the wrestler known as “The Undertaker.”
Trump had nonetheless been delivering what was a fairly consistent stump speech most days, aided by a series of videos that kept him on script, even as he veered from subject to subject in a discursive style he has labeled “the weave.” But outside the Lancaster airport, he completely abandoned his planned remarks, skipping his usual points on the economy, immigration and rote criticisms of Harris.
Trump’s remarks in Pennsylvania were not planned according to a person familiar with them, who noted Trump is known to ad-lib. While it was unclear exactly what had set Trump off, his campaign had released a memo earlier in the day criticizing new polling from The New York Times again showing the race extremely close in the seven major swing states.
Trump had spoken by phone before he took the stage with two reporters who had mentioned polling, including one who had asked him if he thought there was any way he could lose.
Trump has been frustrated that the campaign remains locked in a close fight to the finish. He thinks Harris is an unworthy opponent and he cannot understand why he isn’t dominating, said one Republican familiar with the dynamics of the campaign who, like others, was granted anonymity to discuss it.
Another Republican blamed last-minute anxiety — and Trump having to trust a system that he believes is rigged against him.
Trump allies applauded his speech, saying that they were glad he was shining a light on concerns about fraud in the race’s final stretch.
Harris pushed back at Trump’s characterizations of U.S. elections, telling reporters on Sunday that Trump’s comments are “meant to distract from the fact that we have and support free and fair elections in our country.” Those “good systems” were in place in 2020, Harris said, and “he lost.”
The vice president said she trusts the upcoming vote tally and urged voters, “in particular people who have not yet voted to not fall for this tactic, which I think includes suggesting to people that if they vote, their vote won’t matter.”
Trump, for his part, acknowledged that he was sidestepping his usual approach with his conspiratorial speech. He repeatedly talked about disregarding the advice of his aides, repeating their feedback in a mocking voice and insisting that he had to talk about election fraud despite their objections.
In his next appearance a few hours later at an airport in Kinston, North Carolina, Trump returned to much of his usual script, alternating between prepared remarks and familiar stories.
At one point, he said, “hopefully, we get rid of Mitch McConnell pretty soon,” undercutting the Senate Republican leader who endorsed Trump earlier this year despite blaming him for the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol.
“Can you believe he endorsed me?” Trump added a minute later with a laugh. “That must have been a painful day in his life.”
He was scheduled to take the stage a third time Sunday night in Macon, Georgia. One of his warm-up speakers was Herschel Walker, the unsuccessful 2022 Republican Georgia Senate candidate who faced a number of damaging allegations, including claims that he paid for abortions for two former girlfriends despite supporting a national ban on the procedure.
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Cooper reported from Phoenix. Associated Press writers Lisa Mascaro in Washington, Darlene Superville in Detroit, Jeff Amy in Macon, Georgia, and Michelle L. Price and Bill Barrow in Washington contributed to this report
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