Trump talks about shooting the press and ramps up election fraud claims at Pa. rally

Former President Donald Trump Sunday relied heavily on claims of election fraud and appeared to call for violence against members of the press at his rally in Lititz, Pennsylvania, continuing a nearly decade-long series of attacks on the media.

Speaking about the bulletproof glass placed in front of his lectern, the former president said that before a bullet would hit him in an attempted assassination, a gunman would have to “shoot through the fake news, and I don’t mind that. ”

“I’ve got a piece of glass here, and I haven’t got a piece of glass there, and I’ve got this piece of glass here,” Trump said, pointing to the glass around his lectern that has become common since he survived two years. assassination attempts earlier this year, one of which took place at a similar outdoor gathering in Butler, Pennsylvania.

Often cruel to his critics, Trump has dwelt on the violent demise of his enemies in the final weeks of his campaign.

Trump has called Democrats “the enemy within,” called for the shooting of shoplifters, imagined former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney facing a firing squad, and suggested that his former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff deserved to to be executed.

“All we have here is fake news,” Trump added. “And to get me, someone would have to cut through the fake news. And I don’t mind that so much.”

Earlier in the meeting, Trump also criticized the press, telling his supporters that “the media is so damn bad. It’s incredible.”

He also specifically mentioned several media outlets, telling the audience, “It’s one thing for CNN and MSNBC to be terribly crooked. Watch CBS. Look what CBS did,” Trump said before criticizing the network last month for his interview with Vice President Kamala Harris on “Face the Nation,” which he has repeatedly said was unfairly edited to portray Harris in a positive light set. On Thursday, the former president sued the network, saying the Harris interview was misleading.

Later in the meeting, Trump said, “ABC, ABC, fake news, CBS, ABC, NBC. These are, in my opinion, in my opinion, these are seriously corrupt people.”

In a statement, Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung defended the former president’s comments on Sunday, saying: “President Trump spoke brilliantly about the two assassination attempts on his own life, including one that came within an inch of killing him, something the media constantly talks and jokes about.”

Cheung added: “The president’s statement about installing protective glass has nothing to do with harming the media, or anything else. It was about threats against him fueled by dangerous rhetoric from Democrats. In fact, President Trump stated that the media was in danger, in that they were protecting him and therefore were in grave danger themselves, and should also have had a protective glass shield. There can be no other interpretation of what was said. He actually cared for their well-being, much more than his own!”

Trump’s attacks are part of a long-standing trend of attacks on the media, which he has made publicly since his first presidential election in 2016.

At the time, he called members of the press “dishonest,” “not good people” and “scum” during press conferences and campaign events.

The former president’s comments Sunday came during a lengthy speech in which he also attacked Harris as “corrupt,” called President Joe Biden “a poor, stupid guy” and criticized former President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle Obama.

“I took over a mess because I took over the mess from Barack Hussein Obama (left),” Trump said at Sunday’s rally, adding that Obama was a “big troublemaker,” “a big divider” and “a terrible president.” was.

Trump also told the crowd, “I think we’re going to have some fun with Michelle. I think we’re going to have a little fun with Michelle, but I’ve always treated her with a lot of respect.

A spokesperson for the Obamas did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

At another point in the meeting, Trump said he should not have left the White House on January 20, 2021, when Biden was sworn in.

“The day I left, I shouldn’t have left. I mean, honestly, because we did that, we did so well,” the former president told his supporters.

And at the start of the meeting, Trump focused his remarks on criticizing the way the election was conducted, sharpening his attacks on mail-in voting and election security at the end of a cycle in which some Republicans have advocated early voting .

The former president issued an extensive critique of the US electoral process, calling for single-day voting and paper ballots, while expressing doubts about Election Day and the subsequent process of counting votes.

“I just heard that a few states may go an extra 12 days. How on earth can you hold elections? You know, if they spent all this money on these damn machines and paper ballots, you’d have the answer at nine o’clock tonight. It’s a damn, it’s a damn shame,” Trump said, later arguing: “You should have the election over by 9 o’clock. I now hear that it will take weeks.”

Trump also repeated baseless claims of widespread election fraud in states like Pennsylvania and said the upcoming election is “all about the lawyers.”

“There are hundreds of lawyers in every voting booth. It’s all about the lawyers. Everyone, standard lawyers. No one should have that. You should have a damn ballot and turn it in,” the former president said.