INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Trump also knocked Harris as an absolute radical on abortion, seemingly sensing an opening to attack her on the issue
(Photo: Reuters)4 min read Last Updated : Jul 28 2024 | 8:02 AM IST
As the presidential campaign enters a critical final 100 day stretch,
Republican nominee Donald Trump and his running mate, JD Vance, rallied supporters on Saturday in a state that hasn't backed a GOP candidate
for the White House since 1972.
The rally in St
Cloud, Minnesota, was designed as a sign of the campaign's bullishness about its prospects across the Midwest, particularly when President
Joe Biden was showing signs of weakness ahead of his decision to exit the campaign.
Trump, who won Michigan and Wisconsin in 2016 only to
lose them four years later, has increasingly focused on Minnesota as a state where he'd like to put Democrats on defense.
Trump attacked
the likely Democratic nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris as a crazy liberal and a radical left lunatic, accusing her of wanting to defund
the police.
The former Republican president said, by contrast, he wants to overfund the police.
Trump also knocked Harris as an absolute
radical on abortion, seemingly sensing an opening to attack her on the issue after she has become the Biden administration's most vocal
proponent of abortion rights.
He misleadingly suggested Harris wants abortion right up until birth and after birth
Infanticide is criminalised in every state, and no state has passed a law that allows killing a baby after birth.
Trump's remarks followed
a spirited speech from Vance, in which he leaned heavily into issues that animate the GOP base, particularly security at the US-Mexico
He also took a broadside against the news media, arguing that journalists were comparing the first Black woman and person of south Asian
descent to lead a major party ticket to Martin Luther King, Jr.
The rally is something of a gamble, potentially forcing Harris and
Democrats to devote resources in a state they would likely otherwise ignore
But it could also be a risk for Trump if he spends time in places that might prove to be a reach with Harris leading the ticket when he
Paul, where he boasted he could win the state and made explicit appeals to the iron-mining range in northeast Minnesota, where he hopes a
heavy population of blue-collar and union workers will shift to Republicans after years of being solidly Democratic.
Appealing to that
population has also helped Minnesota Gov
Tim Walz land on the list of about a dozen Democrats who are being vetted to potentially be Harris' running mate.
Earlier Saturday, Trump
spoke at a bitcoin conference in Nashville, Tennessee, laying out a plan to embrace cryptocurrency if elected and promising to make the US
the crypto capital of the planet and a bitcoin superpower.
Trump didn't always support cryptocurrency but has changed his attitude toward
the digital tokens in recent years and in May, his campaign started accepting donations in cryptocurrency.
Saturday's rally took place at
the Herb Brooks National Hockey Center, a 5,159-seat hockey arena
After surviving the July 13 assassin attempt on him at an outdoor rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, Trump has only had events at indoor venues
But he said in a post on his social media network Saturday that he will schedule outdoor stops and the SECRET SERVICE HAS AGREED TO
SUBSTANTIALLY STEP UP THEIR OPERATION
THEY ARE VERY CAPABLE OF DOING SO
NO ONE CAN EVER BE ALLOWED TO STOP OR IMPEDE FREE SPEECH OR GATHERING!!!Secret Service officials would not say whether the agency had agreed
to expand operations at Trump's campaign events or had any concerns about him potentially resuming outdoor gatherings
Ensuring the safety and security of our protectees is our highest priority, Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said in a statement
In the interest of maintaining operational integrity, we are not able to comment on specifics of our protective means or methods.(Only the
headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a
syndicated feed.)First Published: Jul 28 2024 | 8:02 AMIST
