Donald Trump looks forward to Philly debate with Harris, responds to Arlington backlash at Pa. rally

Former President Donald Trump referred to his Johnstown, Pa., rally as a “show” Friday evening as he performed a set of his greatest hits.

During his often-meandering speech, Trump repeatedly railed about illegal immigration, complained about his treatment by the media, attacked Vice President Kamala Harris on fracking, and boasted about the size of his crowd at the 1st Summit Arena. It was a variation of a speech he has delivered before in a state he needs to win.

Trump is currently in a dead heat in Pennsylvania with Harris, according to an August poll from Emerson College/the Hill, which shows both candidates at 48% among likely voters.

“We win this state, we win the whole thing,” Trump said Friday.

But, for a large portion of his remarks, the former president focused not on Johnstown but instead on a visit almost 180 miles away in Arlington National Cemetery, which sparked a national outcry and even provoked a rare public statement from the Army.

Here are takeaways from Trump’s Johnstown rally:

Trump addressed an incident that unfolded Monday when he visited Arlington National Cemetery at the request of grieving family members who wanted him there as they memorialized the 13 U.S. service members who were killed during the evacuation of Afghanistan.

Pentagon officials were concerned Trump’s visit would become a campaign stop — a federally prohibited act — and their worries became a reality when a cemetery employee sought to block Trump’s team from bringing cameras to the graves of U.S. soldiers. A campaign aide insisted cameras were allowed and pushed past the employee.

Trump argued against this and reasoned that a family had asked him for a photo at a tombstone and that he “absolutely … wasn’t doing it for publicity.”

“I would like to get a lot less publicity,” Trump said. “I’m the only guy who would hire a public relations agent to get less publicity.”

The Trump campaign said the employee was having a “mental health episode,” which caused the Army to issue a rare statement in which it said it was “unfortunate that the [cemetery] employee and her professionalism has been unfairly attacked.”

The Harris and Trump campaigns can’t seem to tear their focus away from Pennsylvania heading into Labor Day weekend and a little over a week before the two face off at an ABC presidential debate in Philadelphia.

On Monday, Harris will join President Joe Biden in Pittsburgh, seeking to mobilize their union base on Labor Day, for their first joint appearance since Harris officially accepted the Democratic nomination.

Then on Wednesday, the former president will return to Pennsylvania, where he is expected to join Fox News host Sean Hannity for a town hall in Harrisburg.

Trump had previously cast doubt on his participation in the debate with Harris, citing various gripes, but he confirmed Friday night: “I look forward to the debate with her.”

The former president’s involvement in the debate has become something of a saga over the last several weeks. Trump originally backed out of the debate because of his ongoing litigation against ABC News and anchor George Stephanopoulos and the fact that Biden would no longer be his opponent.

He eventually agreed to the debate earlier this month, but had recently suggested he could skip out on the debate before he confirmed otherwise Friday evening. Meanwhile, the Harris and Trump campaigns have sparred over whether there should be live microphones during the duration of the debate.

Trump knocked Harris’ flip-flopping record on fracking, as he and running mate JD Vance have done in their recent visits to Pennsylvania, where the oil drilling industry is important to many residents.

The message was particularly pertinent to the blue-collar Johnstown crowd, where four years ago he said he “brought back steel.” The former president and Vance, an Ohio senator, have been traveling the state looking to make their pitch to working-class voters.

“I will tell Pennsylvania to drill, baby, drill,” Trump said, echoing what has become something of a slogan for Vance and him. “We’re going to drill, baby, drill.”

Harris had supported a ban on fracking as a presidential candidate in 2019, but upon becoming Biden’s running mate in 2020 she backed away from that position. In 2024, she no longer supports a ban, solidifying that point on Thursday evening during her CNN interview, saying: “We are in 2024 and I’ve not changed that position, nor will I going forward. I’ve kept my word and I will keep my word.”

Trump continued to lambaste Harris on Friday evening and played into his signature us-vs.-them way of thinking, exemplified with the former president assuring the crowd that a rowdy audience member was “on our side.”

But at times, his rhetoric turned more violent. Trump said that if a Republican had performed similarly to Harris on the border, “they’d be stringing them up.”

Also on the topic of immigration, Trump repeated his claim that other countries are sending convicts to the U.S. He said he would call for the death penalty of drug dealers and mocked the questions he would receive from the media about the idea.

The divisive rhetoric that has become a trademark of Trump’s campaigns has been a major talking point for the Democratic Party.

In her acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention, Harris said: “Just imagine Donald Trump with no guardrails. How he would use the immense powers of the presidency of the United States — not to improve your life, but to serve the only client he has ever had: himself.”

In the first few moments of his speech, Trump borrowed language from Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who suspended his campaign and endorsed Trump in a Pa. court filing last week. Kennedy, an anti-vaccine activist and former environmental lawyer, has said that Trump will “make America healthy again.”

“We’re going to get toxic chemicals out of our environment, and we’re going to get them out of our bodies,” Trump said.

During the former president’s administration, he ended more than 100 environmental policies, including bans on toxic chemicals, and weakened policies on healthier school lunches, something that Kennedy has been a strong advocate for.