Former President Donald Trump said at an event in Smithton, Pennsylvania on Monday that energy jobs in the state would plummet if he wasn't elected president.
President Trump hosted a roundtable with former acting national security director Rick Grenell, Pennsylvania Republican Senate candidate Dave McCormick, former Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-New York), and a number of Pennsylvania farmers.
One farmer, Nick Staffieri, told the former president that he and his wife both work in the energy sector and use the income they earn to support their parents-in-law's farm, which has been in business for at least 70 years.
“My wife and I both work in energy, so our focus and our ability to put capital back into the farm has been great during the energy transition in Pennsylvania,” he explained.
“Without that energy job, we wouldn't have been able to improve our farm, we wouldn't have been able to make things better. Without my industry and my work family, the opportunities that I have today especially wouldn't be possible,” Staffieri continued.
Staffieri added that he and his wife's income “depends on a pro-American energy policy,” including allowing “operators to exploit the abundant, clean natural gas beneath our feet.”
Trump stressed that if Vice President Kamala Harris is elected president, the state will lose energy jobs.
“Thanks, Nick. That's great. So, without your job, it's a good energy job, but if we don't elect Trump as president, there will be no energy jobs here,” he said.
“They won't allow you to fracking, you know that. She's never said the words fracking in her life, except not long ago when she noticed her approval rating was dropping in Pennsylvania,” Trump added of Harris.
Trump said Pennsylvania polls show that residents were familiar with Harris' radical policy stance on fracking even before she suddenly became vague on the issue and many other issues.
“But when the energy and the revenue goes away, it's a whole other story for Pennsylvania. And we're not going to let that happen,” Trump said. “We have to win the election.”
