Trump in Pa.: Digressions, threats and vows to be ‘protector’ of women

INDIANA, Pa. — Donald Trump repeatedly cast himself as the “protector” of women, who polls show heavily favor his Democratic rival, declaring they will “no longer be abandoned, lonely, or scared.” He suggested some critics of the Supreme Court “should be put in jail,” and compared them to the late college basketball coach Bobby Knight working the referees. And he reprised baseless suggestions of forthcoming election interference from bad actors, threatening to “go after them harder than anyone’s ever been sought before.”

In just over 90 minutes here Monday night, the Republican presidential nominee swerved repeatedly in remarks he used to try to shore up his political weaknesses, lash out his detractors and delve into digressions. Trump’s rally here in a key battleground state offered a glimpse of the often unfocused pitch he is making to voters with about six weeks left until Election Day — one that his most loyal fans revel in but is a less proven winner with swing voters.

He complained that Fox News follows his appearances with “horrible commercials.” He brought up Oprah Winfry, who supports Vice President Kamala Harris, multiple times, reminiscing that “she used to love me until I decided to run for politics.” He claimed to get “much bigger crowds” than Winston Churchill. He namechecked Shakespeare. He brought up Johnny Carson and insulted Jimmy Kimmel, without naming him. He called himself “cognitively very strong.” And he made false or misleading claims in attacking his Democratic rival.

Trump’s appearance in Pennsylvania, where he won in 2016 but lost to Joe Biden in 2020, underscored the importance of the state for both parties’ electoral math this fall. A recent Washington Post poll showed Trump and Harris essentially tied. Harris will campaign in Pittsburgh on Wednesday.

While much of Trump’s speech echoed remarks he has been giving for much of this election cycle, his comments about women were a recent addition to his stump speech, a detail that didn’t go unnoticed by attendees at the rally. Trump recently posted similar comments on his social media site: “WOMEN WILL BE HAPPY, HEALTHY, CONFIDENT AND FREE! YOU WILL NO LONGER BE THINKING ABOUT ABORTION, BECAUSE IT IS NOW WHERE IT ALWAYS HAD TO BE, WITH THE STATES.”

Polling shows a pronounced split in the electorate along gender lines, with some surveys and analysts suggesting a wider divide than recent elections is in the offing.

Democrats are campaigning heavily on the issue of abortion, seeking to build on their success in recent elections with women and other voters following the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, which had established a constitutional right to the procedure. They have pointed out Republican opposition to abortion rights and Trump’s appointment of three justices who helped overturn the decision.

“You will no longer be thinking about abortion,” Trump said Monday, pointing to the role states play in establishing abortion laws in the post-Roe era.

Trump has bragged about appointing the justices who backed overturning Roe and has falsely claimed that “every legal scholar” wanted to leave abortion rights up to the states. He has also offered confusing answers on the topic. Trump said he opposed a ballot initiative in Florida that would make abortion legal until fetal viability, one day after he said the state’s six-week abortion ban was too restrictive.

He continued to praise the Supreme Court Monday, saying the justices were “very brave.”

“They were very brave, the Supreme Court, very brave, and they take a lot of hits because of it, it should be illegal what happens,” Trump said. “You have these guys like playing the ref, like the great Bobby Knight, these people should be put in jail the way they talk about our judges and our justices trying to get them to sway their vote, sway their decision.”

Trump also repeatedly touched on the issues of immigration and border security, where polls show he has a decided advantage over Harris. He once again decried an “invasion” by undocumented immigrants, a term experts have disputed and immigrant advocates have roundly criticized. He mentioned the town of Springfield, Ohio, which Trump has previously singled out with false claims and racist tropes about immigrants eating pets, though he did not repeat that allegation Monday.

“Do you think Springfield will ever be the same,” he said. “The fact is, and I’ll say it now, you have to get them … out.”

The crowd immediately began to chant: “Send them back!”

And Trump once again cast doubt about the election results, echoing a statement he made earlier this month threatening to jail people “involved in unscrupulous behavior,” which prompted criticism from election officials who warned such rhetoric could provoke violence.

During the rally Monday, he continued to mispronounce Harris’s first name and mischaracterized her record. He said that Harris was “in charge of the border.” (Biden directed Harris to tackle the enduring root causes of migration, like poverty and violence, in Central America but she was not put in charge of the border.) And he blamed her for crime re-categorizations that were approved by California voters.

“Isn’t it nice to have a president that doesn’t have to use a teleprompter?” Trump said at one point in his speech.