Former Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump gestures to the crowd during a campaign rally in Vandalia, Ohio, Saturday, March 16, 2024.
Jeff Dean/Associated Press
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Jeff Dean/Associated Press
Former Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump gestures to the crowd during a campaign rally in Vandalia, Ohio, Saturday, March 16, 2024.
Jeff Dean/Associated Press
VANDALIA, Ohio — Former President Donald Trump was campaigning for U.S. Senate candidate Bernie Moreno in Ohio, claiming he would protect Social Security, not President Joe Biden, if he loses in November. He warned there would be “bloodshed”.
Speaking at a wind-swept airfield outside Dayton on Saturday, Trump praised his chosen candidate as “America's first champion” and “a political outsider who has spent his life building communities in Ohio.” did.
“He's going to be a warrior in Washington,” President Trump said days after securing enough delegates to secure the 2024 Republican nomination.
Moreno will face Secretary of State Frank LaRose and state Sen. Matt Dolan in Tuesday's Republican primary. LaRose and Moreno are aligned with the pro-Trump wing of the party, while Dolan has the backing of establishment Republicans such as Gov. Mike DeWine and former Sen. Rob Portman.
Saturday's rally was hosted by Buckeye Values PAC, a group supporting Moreno's candidacy. But President Trump used the stage to deliver a profane version of his usual rally speech, once again painting an apocalyptic picture of the country if Biden wins a second term.
“If I'm not elected, it's going to be a disaster for the whole thing. That would be the bare minimum. It's going to be a disaster for the country,” he said while talking about the impact of offshoring on the world. I warned you. The Prime Minister's plan to increase tariffs on the country's auto industry and foreign-made cars.
Biden campaign press secretary James Singer accused Trump of “doubling down on his threats of political violence.”
“He wants another January 6th, but the American people continue to reject his extremism, love of violence, and thirst for vengeance, which is why he wants an election this November,” Singer said in a statement. I will give him another defeat.”
Trump campaign spokesman Stephen Chan said Trump was clearly talking about the impact of a second Biden term on the auto industry and the broader economy.
“Crooked Joe Biden and his campaign are making deceptive edits out of context,” he said.
President Trump repeatedly noted that it was difficult to read the teleprompter, as it was visibly shaking in the 35 mph wind gusts.
Moreno, a wealthy Cleveland businessman and former Trump critic, said he supported Marco Rubio for president in the 2016 Republican primary and said that listening to Trump was “unpleasant.” “It's like watching a car crash get worse, but you can stop watching.” he once tweeted. ” In 2021, NBC News reported on email exchanges before and after Trump's first presidential election in which Moreno called Trump a “lunatic” and “lunatic.”
But on Saturday, Moreno praised Trump as a “great American” and slammed those in his party who have criticized the former president, who this week became the candidate for a third straight term.
“I'm tired of Republicans saying, 'I support President Trump's policies, but I don't like this person,'” he said on stage with Trump.
President Trump also denied the latest allegations against Moreno and compared them to attacks Moreno has faced over the years, including criminal charges. Trump is charged in four separate cases, ranging from handling classified documents to efforts to overturn the 2020 election results.
“He's currently being treated very harshly and falsely by the Democratic Party,” Trump said. “And I'm not going to support that just because I know this guy. We all know this guy. He's a hero, he's a winner. And we… I’m not going to forgive these people. These people are sick.”
The Associated Press reported Thursday that in 2008, someone with access to Moreno's work email account created a profile on an adult site seeking “men seeking one-on-one sex.” The Associated Press could not definitively confirm whether it was created by Moreno himself. Moreno's attorney said a former intern created the account and provided a statement from intern Dan Rich, who said he created the account as “part of a juvenile prank.”
Questions about the profile have been floating around in Republican circles for the past month, according to seven people with direct knowledge of conversations about how to deal with the issue, and Republicans are worried that Moreno could be vulnerable in the general election. Dissatisfaction is said to be growing among executives. They requested anonymity to avoid conflict with Trump and his allies.
In his remarks, Trump also continued to try to dispel comments Biden made in an interview earlier this week in which he appeared to be open to cuts, accusing him of posing a threat to Social Security. .
“If this guy becomes president, we won't have Social Security because he's destroying our economy. And by the way, that includes Medicare, and older Americans are going to have a big problem. “We will face this,” he warned. As Biden faces an expected budget shortfall, he has promised to protect and strengthen Social Security.
“I promised to always protect Social Security and Medicare. We will always protect them. We will never cut them.”
In an interview with CNBC on Monday, President Trump responded to a question about Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, saying, “There's a lot that can be done on the rights side, on the cuts side, and also on the theft and wrongdoing side.” Rights management, rights management is very poor. The amount and number of things you can do is enormous. ”
Trump also continued to criticize Biden over his handling of the border, treating immigrants as subhuman. “In my opinion, in some cases, they are not human beings,” he says. President Trump criticized Dolan as a “weak RINO” (a Republican in name only) and accused him of “trying to become the next Mitt Romney.” He also criticized the Dolan family, owners of the Cleveland baseball team, for changing the team's name from the Cleveland Indians to the Cleveland Guardians.
In addition to Mr. Trump, the rally was attended by Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio, who is running against Mr. Moreno and is considered a running mate, and Gov. Kristi Noem of South Dakota.
Trump's decision to endorse Moreno was a major blow to LaRose, who had taken various steps to win Moreno's support. Just days after entering the Senate race, Mr. LaRose endorsed Mr. Trump for president, reversing his previous position that state election officials should remain politically neutral. The following month, he fired a longtime trusted aide after old tweets from the employee surfaced criticizing President Trump.
The winner of Tuesday's primary will face three-term Sen. Sherrod Brown, considered one of the most vulnerable Democrats in the nation, in November.
Brown was first elected in 2006, went unopposed in this year's primary, and managed to hold onto his seat even as the state moved to the right. He most recently won re-election in 2018, defeating his then-Rep. He beat Jim Renacci by about 7 percentage points. Two years later, Ohio voted for then-President Trump by an 8-point margin.
