Trump ditches the teleprompter and calls the Democratic Party ‘demonic’ cheaters in raving closing pitch in Lancaster County

LITITZ, Pa. — In one of his final rallies in the most critical battleground of the presidential election, former President Donald Trump ranted off-script about unproven election fraud in the state and called the Democratic Party “demonic” and “cheaters.”

.

In what appears to be a neck-and-neck race in the state, Trump spent his 22nd visit of the year here ignoring the teleprompter and vamping with a crowd of faithfuls who gathered on a chilly, sunny Sunday morning. The visit came as polling three days before Election Day predicted a photo finish in Pennsylvania. But Trump’s closing pitch included just a brief mention of pledging to “fix” what Democrats “broke,” and otherwise played out like a lengthy stream-of-consciousness tirade.

“When they say he gave a long and rambling speech, say, ‘It was brilliant,’” the Republican candidate told the crowd as his remarks hit the 90-minute mark.

If there was one theme of Trump’s remarks it was a heavy focus on false claims of election fraud in Pennsylvania and elsewhere. On stage, he inaccurately described a situation in Lancaster County in which county officials are investigating a batch of 2,500 registration applications that included some potentially fraudulent applications. Trump contended all 2,500 ballots were “written in the same hand.”

Trump contradicted his own party’s push to get Republicans to vote by mail, saying, “we should have one-day voting and paper ballots.”

He lamented county officials who were “extending hours,” for voting, when his own party successfully sued to extend the window for voters to apply for mail ballots in Bucks County.

”There’s so many things happening in Pennsylvania. We’re in court all the time,” Trump said.

He repeatedly blasted the election administration system in the nation despite no widespread evidence of election fraud. He said voting machines should “never be used” and claimed it was unknown how many votes he got in 2020 while also falsely stating he won Pennsylvania.

”If nothing comes out of the whole thing, you better get a new system,” he said.

The stage was set for Trump to contrast Vice President Kamala Harris’ record within the Biden administration against his own. But while the podium said “Trump will fix it,” and attendees held signs that said “Kamala broke it, Trump will fix it,” his speech focused very little on the economy or policy differences.

Instead, Trump rolled out a list of grievances in what was, at times, a nostalgic reflection on his nine years of running for office.

”For future elections, I won’t be part of it,” Trump said. At one point he seemed to acknowledge he could be defeated. “It’s going bad. And it can never get fixed because we’re never gonna get the right people in because of what they do with elections.”

The day started with a lineup of female speakers, including race car driver Danica Patrick, former U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, and Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders. The former president is about nine points behind with women in the state, according to a Philadelphia Inquirer/New York Times/Siena College poll released Sunday.

An hour and 15 minutes into his speech (which he arrived for an hour late), people had started leaving the Lancaster airport. Trump flung insults at his political enemies. He called U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff (D., Calif.) “ugly,” former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi “crazy,” and harkened back to 2016, calling Hillary Clinton “crooked.” He called Chinese president Xi Jinping “brilliant,” (but also “not a very good person”).

For nearly a decade Trump has villainized the press but took his vitriol a step further on Sunday as he evaluated the bulletproof glass around him.

”To get me, someone would have to shoot through the fake news and I don’t mind that so much,” he said, gesturing to about 100 reporters and photographers working on the media stand directly in front of him.

That elicited a statement of clarification from the Trump campaign’s communications director, Steven Cheung, who said the former president’s comment “has nothing to do with the Media being harmed” but rather “threats against him that were spurred on by dangerous rhetoric from Democrats.”

“In fact,” Cheung continued, “President Trump was stating that the Media was in danger, in that they were protecting him and, therefore, were in great danger themselves, and should have had a glass protective shield, also.”

Jeff Bartos, a former GOP Senate candidate from Lower Merion who has been stumping for Trump, said Trump’s off-script style is often what people come to see.

”People who are coming out in cold weather by the thousands, they take him seriously, but not literally,” Bartos said. “I think too many in [the media] maybe take it too literally.”

Robert Chirico, 56, who lives near Stroudsburg, and works in IT, called the election stakes huge. “I feel everything’s at stake.”

”You know, you go in the grocery store, everything costs so much more,” Chirico said. “People are really, really hurting. ... The border, immigration, security, things are really bad. I’ve never seen it so bad. I’m worried for my children, for my grandchildren.”

Jen Coppello, 50, of Morgantown, has voted for Trump in the last two presidential elections.

She said she doesn’t know why Trump is losing the female vote in the state because she said he thinks his policies are policies that help women.

“He cares about every gender,” she said. “Or both genders — not every.”