Donald Trump talks Pennsylvania's importance and listens to music at Montco town hall; Kamala Harris rallies supporters in Erie

Michelle Civitello’s Audubon neighborhood doesn’t have many Trump signs but the retired pharmaceutical worker wasn’t surprised to walk into the nearby Greater Philadelphia Expo Center and find the only available spot to stand along the back wall.

“There’s a lot of closet Trumpers out there,” Civitello, 70, said from the packed expo hall.

Former President Donald Trump made his first public campaign stop in the Philadelphia suburbs Monday night to Oaks, an exurb of Montgomery County.

Vice President Kamala Harris will be in Washington Crossing in Bucks County on Wednesday, a source familiar with the plans confirmed.

The vice president's visit to purple Bucks County comes as the candidates and surrogates from both Harris' and former President Donald Trump's campaigns are zeroing in on the Philadelphia area as Election Day inches closer. Trump just completed a town hall in Oaks Monday evening and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance, will be in Lafayette Hill Tuesday night.

President Joe Biden will be in Philadelphia Tuesday evening for the Philadelphia City Committee’s fall dinner. His wife, first lady Jill Biden, will be campaigning for Harris in the suburbs earlier that day.

During his first public campaign stop in the Philadelphia suburbs, former President Donald Trump made sure to pander to his Pennsylvania audience.

He jokingly warned South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, the event’s moderator: “Don’t ever call [Pennsylvania] a state. It’s a commonwealth.”

He then played up his Pennsylvania cred, telling the Montgomery County audience: “I know you so well. I'm here all the time. I'm here all the time.”

By the end of the event, former President Donald Trump appointed himself DJ. After playing "Ave Maria" during two medical emergencies, the former president seemingly didn’t want his self-curated and impromptu soundtrack for the evening to end.

“Let’s not do any more questions,” Trump joked, though he did answer several audience members’ questions during the town hall. “Let’s just listen to music … Who the hell wants to hear questions?”

The former president recalled that "Ave Maria" was played during his rally in Butler on Oct. 5, a high-profile and highly anticipated event that marked his first time in the Western Pennsylvania town since he survived an assassination attempt there on July 13.

Journalists whose stories he doesn't like. Election officials who refuse to cheat and "find" extra votes. Politicians who refuse to bend to his will.

In Erie, Vice President Kamala Harris continued to liken former President Donald Trump to something of a dictator, someone who would not be afraid to use the powers of the military to persecute his enemies.

Harris called Trump "increasingly unstable and unhinged."

When it comes to Project 2025, Vice President Kamala Harris had a message for her Erie supporters: "Just Google it."

"Donald Trump is an unserious man," Harris said after the crowd booed the Republican nominee. "But the consequence for him being president again are brutally serious."

Harris ran the gamut of the Heritage Foundation's proposed blueprint for a second Trump term, including stripping workers compensation protections and public healthcare.

Vice President Kamala Harris opened with a familiar pitch to her Erie supporters when mentioning former President Donald Trump, casting him as yesterday's news.

"It's time to turn the page," Harris said, before working in her "New Way Forward" slogan.

In a bid for unity, Harris also underscored the recent support her campaign has received from former Republicans who have defied Trump — a point her campaign has driven home through television ads featuring defected Trump officials, as well as a public appearance with former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney.

Vice President Kamala Harris took the stage in Erie just after 7:40 p.m., walking out to her signature campaign song, Beyonce's "Freedom."

"It's good to be back in Pennsylvania," Harris said with a large smile.

Supporters waved signs that also read "Freedom" high above their heads.

Two medical emergencies paused former President Donald Trump's town hall campaign event in Oaks.

A man appeared to lose consciousness on the bleachers around 7:30 p.m. and was wheeled out in a stretcher, appearing alert.

Then minutes later, a woman on another set of bleachers was being administered help as people in the crowd fanned her with Trump campaign signs. She walked out of the venue with help.

Sen. John Fetterman took the stage in Erie just before 7:30 p.m. backed by Bruce Springsteen's "The Rising." He wore a Pittsburgh Steelers beanie and a Carhartt hoodie.

Fetterman hails from Braddock, a town in the Pittsburgh region just under two hours from Erie.

"You win Erie, you win Pennsylvania," Fetterman said to cheers from Harris supporters. "That's what happened in 2020 — Joe Biden showed up and he smoked that clown and sent him home."

Former President Donald Trump emphasized his familiarity and support for guns, including the AR-15, which was used in the July 13 assassination attempt in Butler, Pa., where Trump was shot in the ear. Two other attendees were injured while Corey Comperatore, a firefighter, died shielding his wife and daughters from the gunfire.

“I know about that one too, I know a lot,” Trump said.

But Trump still called for looser gun restrictions, touted his National Rifle Association Endorsement, and claimed that Democrats, including Vice President Kamala Harris, want to take people’s guns away.

Trump brought Mary Ann and Charles Strange, a Montgomery County family, to the stage Monday evening. They lost their son, Michael, on Aug. 6, 2011, when he was killed alongside 29 other U.S. soldiers and eight Afghan security forces while carrying out a mission in a valley southwest of Kabul, Afghanistan.

Charles Strange told the former president that he wants Congressional hearing into what transpired that day.

Trump vowed to set up a commission to investigate America’s deadliest day of the war in Afghanistan.

The first question of the evening came from a man described as a single father and Iraq war veteran, asking former President Donald Trump how to make home ownership more affordable, and Trump delivered a rambling answer.

Trump started out by answering the question, pledging to bring interest rates down and to remove some of the red tape surrounding zoning approvals and other parts of the homeownership process.

“We’re going to create the American Dream for young people and for older people too,” Trump said, touting another proposal of his: no tax on Social Security benefits.

Former President Donald Trump has taken the stage for a campaign town hall at The Greater Philadelphia Expo Center & Fairgrounds in Oaks — almost one hour after he was scheduled to start speaking — to the tune of his usual soundtrack: Lee Greenwood’s "God Bless the U.S.A."

“They fight for themselves, and they've been fighting for a long time, and we’re going to make your fight easier,” Trump said to the crowd.

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem is moderating the town hall and spoke to the audience before Trump walked on stage.

The Oaks expo hall was filled with supporters of Donald Trump an hour before the former president was scheduled to start his town hall.

“I’m not surprised at all, said Michelle Civitello, a supporter from Audubon. “There’s a lot of closet Trumpers out there.”

Oaks is in Montgomery County, a Democratic bastion that helped deliver the 2020 election to President Joe Biden, but the crowd drew MAGA- merch wearing supporters from all over the populous five-county region.

As college-educated voters in Philadelphia’s suburbs continue to flock to the Democratic party — a seismic political realignment inspired by both former President Donald Trump and his larger MAGA movement — supporters in Oaks described a sense that their unchanged conservative beliefs had made them a minority in their affluent, bedroom communities.

Some supporters described political tension so palpable that giving their full name in the media could jeopardize their reputation.

Josh, a finance professional from the Main Line who requested his last name be withheld for that reason, said practically every sign he sees in his community is for the Harris-Walz ticket.

As autumn shadows cast over the Greater Philadelphia Expo and Fairgrounds on Monday, the venue’s Ferris wheel and carnival rides appeared all but abandoned.

In Oaks, the only amusement of importance was the arrival of former President Donald Trump.

Until this week, the Republican’s campaign had largely focused its efforts on the rural, deep-red communities he will need to secure Pennsylvania’s critical electoral college votes as Trump did in 2016.

Vice President Kamala Harris will sit down with Fox News Wednesday for an interview, the network announced Monday.

Fox News chief political anchor Bret Baier will conduct the interview, which will take place during Harris' visit to Philadelphia Wednesday. It will air during Special Report on Fox News that evening at 6 p.m.

It's the first time Harris has agreed to sit for an interview on Fox News, where much of the talent has outspokenly supported her opponent, former President Donald Trump.

President Joe Biden will be the special guest at the Philadelphia City Committee's fall dinner Tuesday, several sources familiar with the event said.

Both Bidens are scheduled to be in Philadelphia Tuesday – the president for the dinner and First Lady Jill Biden will be stumping for Vice President Kamala Harris through the Philadelphia suburbs. The First Lady grew up in Willow Grove.

The dinner is a fundraiser for the city committee with tickets starting at $75 for young Democrats and $20,000 for hosts.

Pennsylvania has emerged as the most crucial battleground state in one of the wildest presidential races in memory — with both campaigns battling for every last vote in the state that former President Donald Trump won eight years ago by just 44,000 votes.

Trump, who lost Pennsylvania in 2020, and Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, are both crisscrossing the commonwealth in hopes of eking out a win in the potentially decisive state.

Pennsylvania is unique in many ways — it’s closely divided, and it’s geographically diverse. It is also changing, according to an Inquirer analysis of election data and interviews with dozens of Pennsylvanians that informed a series of stories about voting trends this year.

Former president Donald Trump is headed to Montgomery County today.

The visit to Oaks for a town hall will be Trump’s first public campaign event in the Philadelphia suburbs of the 2024 campaign. It also will mark his fourth event in Pennsylvania since he returned to Butler, the site of his assassination attempt, on Oct. 5.

The event is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m., with doors expected to open at 2 p.m.

Vice President Kamala Harris is campaigning in Erie, Pa., Monday and will travel to Philadelphia Wednesday as polls show an increasingly tight race in Pennsylvania.

Harris will hold a rally at Erie Insurance Arena, where she will be joined by U.S. Sen. John Fetterman (D., Pa.). The event is expected to begin around 7 p.m. 

Harris will travel to Philadelphia on Wednesday for a campaign event, though specific details have not been released. 

Vice President Kamala Harris has maintained a narrow lead against former President Donald Trump in Pennsylvania, a state whose importance continues to loom large and where the margin of victory looks like it will be razor thin.

A Philadelphia Inquirer/New York Times/Siena College poll released Saturday shows Harris with a nearly 4-point advantage over Trump in the state, within the survey’s margin of error, meaning either candidate could be in the lead.

As an unprecedented campaign summer turned to fall, neither candidate has leaped ahead in stubbornly divided Pennsylvania. Both Harris and Trump have near-identical support in the state as they did in September despite spending more money and time here than in any other swing state. Their relative strengths remain the same as in September, with Trump still leading on the economy and Harris on abortion. The divided electorate remains sharply split by gender.