[1/5]Former U.S. President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump gathers with supporters at a “faction bonding” event at Whiskey bar in Ankeny, Iowa, U.S., December 2, 2023. REUTERS/Carlos Barria License Rights Acquire
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa, Dec 2 (Reuters) – Donald Trump, the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination, told supporters on Saturday to “go” to Philadelphia and two other Democratic-controlled cities to “keep the vote” in 2024 ., repeating his baseless claims of widespread election fraud in 2020 as justification for the call to action.
Speaking at two events in Iowa, Trump also sought to counter growing concerns among Democrats and some Republicans that his potential return to the White House poses a threat to democracy.
Even as he faces criminal charges for his efforts to reverse his 2020 loss, Trump has sought to flip the script and paint the winner, President Joe Biden, as a dangerous autocrat, calling him a communist, a fascist and a tyrant.
A spokesman for Biden’s re-election campaign said Trump’s comments portraying Biden as a threat to democracy were an attempt to distract the public from his own problems.
Looking ahead to next year’s general election, Trump said it was important to study voting in battleground states that will likely determine the outcome. He singled out the largest cities in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Georgia — all Democratic strongholds at the center of a blizzard of false voter fraud claims made by Trump and his allies three years ago.
“So the most important part of what’s coming up is to protect the vote. And you have to go to Detroit, and you have to go to Philadelphia, and you have to go to some of these places, Atlanta,” Trump said in Ankeny, a suburb of Des Moines.
Trump’s comments foreshadow what is likely to be a contentious election in November 2024. Despite the failure of dozens of lawsuits filed by Trump and his allies challenging the 2020 outcome, Trump continues to claim, without evidence, that he lost to President Joe Biden for fraud.
Trump did not specify who he wants to “enter” the battleground city-states. A campaign aide, asked to clarify, said he was referring to observers and volunteers whose goal is to ensure safe elections.
That would tie in with plans outlined by the Republican National Committee, which aims to hire and train tens of thousands of poll workers and observers in states that are hotly contested because their voting preferences could swing Republican or Democratic.
A “CONSTANT PERIOD” FOR DEMOCRACY
The comments by Trump, president from 2017 to 2021, come amid increasing scrutiny over his recent campaign rhetoric, which has included calling his political enemies “parasites,” a word some historians say echoes the language of Nazi Germany.
Timothy Naftali, a senior fellow at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, said Trump’s comments calling for control of elections in major cities controlled by Democrats were troubling because he made them as he sought to undermine confidence in US elections.
“We are in a very unstable period in our democracy,” Naftali said. “If he’s looking to increase confidence in our system, he needs to be clearer.” But what he said today was in the context of his distrust of our system.”
In recent weeks, Biden’s re-election campaign has gone more aggressively after Trump, highlighting his growing legal troubles and likely policies that are said to hurt the economy and damage the foundations of democracy. Trump, for example, has vowed to use his power to jail his political enemies.
“Donald Trump’s America in 2025 is one in which government is his personal weapon to shut down his political enemies,” campaign spokesman Amar Musa said in response to Trump’s remarks in Iowa.
“After spending an entire week defending his plan to take away health care from millions of Americans, this is his latest desperate attempt at a distraction — the American people see it, and it won’t work.”
Trump faces four criminal trials, including two that accuse him of trying to undermine the 2020 election, aided by a mob of his supporters who ransacked the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
At an event in Cedar Rapids, Trump’s campaign handed out signs reading “BIDEN ATTACKS DEMOCRACY.” During his speech, Trump repeated his baseless claim that Biden used the Justice Department to prosecute him, among other alleged wrongdoings, making Biden a threat to democracy.
“Joe Biden wants to make this race about which candidate will protect our democracy and our freedoms,” Trump said. “This campaign is a righteous crusade to rid our republic of Biden and criminals.”
Also on Saturday, Trump doubled down on comments made days earlier, indicating he wants to make major changes to the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare, calling the health insurance program used by millions of Americans a “disaster.” He did not specify.
Reporting by Nathan Lane in Cedar Rapids, Iowa and Gram Slattery in Washington; Editing by Matthew Lewis and William Mallard
Our standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
