Trump turns to general election mode with Pennsylvania rally

Mitko didn’t feel like he knew the celebrity heart surgeon, who, with Trump’s backing, won the May primary by a narrow margin.

Instead, Mitko plans to vote for Oz’s Democratic rival, Gov. Lt. John Fettman, a name he was familiar with when Fettman was mayor of nearby Braddock.

“Dr. Oz didn’t show me a thing that made me vote for him,” he said. “I’m not going to vote for someone I don’t know.”

Mitko’s idea underscores the political challenges facing Trump and the rest of the GOP, as the former president held a rally Saturday night in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, for the first time in his fall campaign. , turn to general election mode.

Former President Donald Trump speaks at a rally in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, Saturday, Sept. 3, 2022. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

While the rally was organized to support Republican hardline Pennsylvania gubernatorial candidates Oz and Doug Mastriano, it was Trump’s first since the FBI raided his Mar-a-Lago club. At the rally, Trump opposed it for part of the evening.

He called it “one of the most egregious abuses of power by any administration in American history” and “a satire of justice.” “They’re trying to silence me, and more importantly they’re trying to silence you. But we’re not going to be silent, are we?” Trump said.

Investigators found thousands of documents in the search, including more than 100 that were marked classified and top secret.

Trump-backed picks won many Republican primaries this summer, but many of the candidates he supports are inexperienced and polarized figures who are now struggling in the November race.

That puts control of the Senate — once considered a Republican lock — in jeopardy. In addition to Oz, the others include Ohio State writer JD Vance, Arizona State venture capitalist Blake Masters and Georgia State former soccer star Herschel Walker.

“Republicans have now nominated some candidates who have never run for office before for very high-profile Senate races,” said veteran Republican pollster Whit Ayers.

Rep. Marjorie Tyler Green speaks in front of former President Donald Trump at a rally in Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania, Saturday, Sept. 3, 2022, when a man dressed as Uncle Sam Supporters show support. (AP Photo/Mary Altaver)

While he hasn’t written about his party’s chances, he said, “it’s a lot harder than a candidate who’s won a few tough political races before.”

Trump’s stakes are especially high as he lays the groundwork for an expected 2024 presidential bid amid a series of escalating legal challenges.

Last week, President Joe Biden delivered a prime-time speech in Philadelphia, warning Trump and other “MAGA” Republicans — an acronym for Trump’s “Make America Great Again” campaign slogan — of the threat to American democracy. .

As he did in the 2020 election, Biden sought to frame the upcoming vote as a battle for the “soul of the nation.” Biden’s Labor Day visit to Pittsburgh will be his third to the state in a week, a sign of Pennsylvania’s importance in an election year.

Trump has repeatedly attacked Biden — at one point saying “the most important thing in this election is a referendum on corruption and extremism in Biden and the Democrats” — and briefly focused on Oz and Mastriano .

Pennsylvania Republican Senate candidate Muhammad Oz speaks before former President Donald Trump at a rally in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, Saturday, Sept. 3, 2022. (AP Photo/Mary Altaver)

He noted that Mastriano had fought him from the start, trying to help Trump overthrow the 2020 election and stay in power, saying Mastriano fought “like few people fight.” Trump says Oz ‘will be for Pennsylvania’ as he blasts Feltman and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Josh Shapiro for being extreme while misrepresenting their positions on issues like crime and abortion .

In particular, the former president followed Feltman’s irreverent dressing habits — shorts and hoodies — by saying, “I don’t like those dirty tracksuits, they’re disgusting.”

“Feltman may be dressed like a teenager playing high in his parents’ basement, but he’s a rabid lunatic bent on keeping die-hard criminals out of the country in the worst crime wave in Pennsylvania history,” Trump said. rescued from prison.”

Republicans are targeting Feltman for his support for proposals to release more elderly or convalescent inmates from prison and provide flexibility in certain mandatory sentencing laws.

While Republicans had been seen as likely to gain control of both houses of Congress in November, they benefited from the surge inflationhigh oil prices and a slide in Biden’s approval ratings, Republicans have found themselves on the defensive since the Supreme Court overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling that protected abortion rights.

Some candidates, like Mastriano, are sticking to their main campaign playbook, hoping that even if they alienate or ignore more moderate voters, they can win by cultivating Trump’s loyal base.

Mastriano, who wants abortions banned even if the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest or endangers the mother’s life, has played a leading role in Trump’s effort to oust the 2020 election and said on Jan. 6, 2021, in The U.S. Capitol is seen outside as pro-Trump thugs storm the building.

But others have been trying to expand their appeal, removing anti-abortion messages from their sites that don’t align with the political mainstream. Others downplayed the once-high-profile Trump endorsement.

The changing climate has sparked multiple rounds of accusations within the party, including from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, who last month cited “the lowering of expectations for Republicans to regain control of the Senate” Candidate quality”.

Florida Sen. Rick Scott, who leads the National Republican Senate Committee, said those who complained about the party’s nominee were “contemptuous” of the voters who chose them. Trump also hit back, calling McConnell a “disgrace” in defending Democrats. Party list of candidates.

Democrats are also stepping up. “Republicans have come up with a deeply flawed recruit list,” said David Bergstein, communications director for the Senate Democratic Campaign Committee.

In Pennsylvania, Republicans hope Oz’s shortcomings as a candidate will be overshadowed by concerns over Feltman, who suffered a stroke just days before the primary and has been sidelined for much of the summer .

Republicans admit that Oz has a hard time showing his real side, and that he was stunned when Feltman trolled him on social media all summer and painted him as a super-rich, disjointed rug bag from New Jersey. The hit back is slow.

While Feltman leads Oz in the polls and fundraisers, Republicans say they expect the funding gap to narrow and are pleased to see Oz battered by $20 million in negative advertising during the primary campaign. very close.

Oz won over some once-skeptical voters like Glenn Reuben Doyle, who didn’t vote for TV Doctor in the seven-person primary — a victory so small that a statewide recount was made — — but he says he’s back and has a “pro-Oz view now.

“Tracy Martin, a registered independent, also plans to vote for Oz because she opposes abortion, despite Oz’s past statements appearing to support abortion rights in ads that aired during the primary.

“I wish he was (pro-life),” Martin said, “but sadly, we live in an age where we see politicians say one thing and do another.”