Trump criticizes Harris ahead of her ‘closing argument’ speech at the Ellipse.
Former President Donald Trump dubbed his rally at Madison Square Garden a “lovefest” on Tuesday, as outrage over racist and obscene remarks made by several speakers at the famed New York City arena grew.
Trump mentioned the event near the close of remarks at Mar-a-Lago on Tuesday, which were mostly focused on criticizing Vice President Kamala Harris’ record ahead of her speech at the Ellipse in Washington, D.C., where she will make a final argument to voters.
“It was like a lovefest, an absolute lovefest,” Mr. Trump stated. “It was my honor to be involved.”
“I don’t think anybody’s ever seen what happened the other night at Madison Square Garden, the love, the love in that room — it was breathtaking, and you could have filled it many, many times with the people that were unable to get in,” Mr. Trump added.
Trump did not respond to particular comments made on Sunday that drew condemnation, most notably comedian Tony Hinchcliffe’s remark that Puerto Rico was a “island of floating garbage.”
Trump told ABC News Senior Congressional Correspondent Rachel Scott earlier Tuesday that he did not know the comedian and had not seen his statements, despite the fact that they had dominated the airwaves for the previous two days.
“I don’t know him; someone put him up there. “I’m not sure who he is,” Trump told ABC’s Scott.
When asked what he thought of the comments, Trump declined to repudiate them, instead repeating his claim that he had not heard them.
His team has stated that the comedian’s comments do not reflect the beliefs of Trump or the campaign.
During Tuesday’s event at Mar-a-Lago, Trump declined to take questions from reporters.
The former president addressed a number of old campaign themes as he chastised Harris on her record on immigration and the economy.
Harris was anticipated to address the violence that occurred on January 6 during her speech in D.C. on Tuesday evening, but Trump focused on immigration, using anti-immigrant rhetoric while standing next to folks who have lost family members to undocumented criminality.
Trump exhibited little energy as he spent the majority of the press conference reiterating his normal stump speech on border security, the economy, foreign policy, and other issues, but he closed with a promise to “fight like hell” in the final week of the election and once elected.
“We’re going to fight like hell for the next seven days and then hopefully…” Trump stated.
“Hopefully, and most importantly, we’re going to be fighting even harder for the next four years because we’re going to turn this around and we’re going to make this country,” he told the crowd.
He also opened his remarks by rehashing falsehoods about the election, alleging Democrats “stole” it when President Joe Biden stepped down and Harris was nominated as the party’s candidate. He also said that there were “bad spots” in Pennsylvania, a battleground state considered critical to the election outcome.
“There are some bad spots in Pennsylvania where some serious things have been caught, or are in the process of being caught, but the election itself is going very well,” according to Trump.