Former President Trump addressed supporters at Temple University in the key battleground state of Pennsylvania on Saturday night, claiming that “few places have suffered more under the Biden administration than Philadelphia.”
“Because of Bad Joe, the City of Brotherly Love has been ravaged by blood and crime,” Trump said, discussing recent shootings and crime statistics.
He added: “Under a Trump Administration, we’re going to bring law, order, and safety back to our city. We’re going to bring success back to our schools. We’re going to bring prosperity back to our forgotten communities. And we’re going to liberate our once great city and make Philadelphia better and more beautiful than ever.”
“With your vote, Joe Biden’s tide of mayhem, death and fear will begin to subside the moment I am sworn into office,” Trump told the crowd in the Liacoras Center’s 10,000-seat auditorium.
Trump and Biden are using fiery post-debate rallies in those states to put each other on the defensive.
President Trump spoke to a packed audience at Temple University in Philadelphia on Saturday night. (Anna Moneymaker/Jim Watson/Getty Images)
He also spoke about illegal immigration, noting that in the audience at the rally was the family of Rachel Morin, the mother of five who was murdered on a Maryland hiking trail last year allegedly by illegal immigrant Victor Martinez Hernandez.
“She wanted to stay healthy, but she ended up being killed,” Trump said, adding that he had just spoken with Morin’s mother.
“A lot of Rachel’s family is here and I have to say they’re wonderful people,” he said, adding, “They’ve been through hell.”
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Trump also said he was “deeply honored” to be joined at the rally by eight family members of military members who died in Biden’s “catastrophic withdrawal from Afghanistan.”
He told the families: “They are all looking down on you parents, brothers and sisters right now and feeling so proud. There are a lot of families like that here.”
Pennsylvania Senate candidate David McCormick also appeared onstage at a rally two months after announcing his endorsement of Trump.
Supporters cheer as Trump speaks in Philadelphia on Saturday. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
“We have a warrior, a great soldier and a great person, and we should elect him to be a United States senator for your state,” Trump said of McCormick.
McCormick told the crowd, “As a father of six daughters, it breaks my heart to hear stories of young women who have been raped and murdered by illegal immigrants. Rachel’s story is heartbreaking. As a Pennsylvania native, it breaks my heart that 60 percent of Pennsylvanians have to make ends meet before payday.”
“We need a new president in the White House who can get the country back on the right track,” he added.
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Trump’s Philadelphia rally came just days before his first debate with President Biden next Thursday and after rallies in other heavily Democratic areas including the Bronx, the Jersey Shore and Detroit.
Winning the battleground state in November will be key for both Trump and Biden: Trump narrowly won the state in 2016, but Biden narrowly won it in 2020.
Supporters cheered as they waited for former President Trump to speak at a rally in Philadelphia on Saturday. (Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images)
Earlier Saturday, President Trump addressed conservatives and voters of faith at the Faith & Freedom Coalition’s annual “Path to the Majority” conference in Washington, D.C.
“Never again will the federal government target Americans of faith,” Trump said at the event, referring to the crackdown on gatherings during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Merchandise supporting Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump appeared before the start of his campaign rally on Saturday. (AP Photo/Chris Zagora)
President Trump likely received the loudest applause when he spoke out about illegal immigration and vowed to launch “the largest deportation campaign in American history” on his first day in office.
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President Trump greeted people at Tony & Nick’s Steakhouse in Philadelphia ahead of the rally. (AP Photo/Chris Zagora)
Before Trump arrived in Philadelphia, supporters had begun gathering at the Liacoras Center, waving American flags, wearing Trump merchandise and holding signs that read “Make America Great Again.”
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On his way to the rally, President Trump stopped by Tony & Nick’s Steak, a local sandwich shop in Philadelphia, to greet customers and staff.
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