Former President Donald Trump touched on familiar themes from his presidential campaigns in 2016 and 2020 as well as new issues facing the country in a wide-ranging speech Saturday night near Wilkes-Barre, Pa.
In a nearly two-hour address during his Save America Rally at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Wilkes-Barre Township, Trump sprinkled in endorsements for Republican candidates, including Doug Mastriano and Dr. Mehmet Oz, the Republican candidates for Pennsylvania governor and U.S. Senate.
Trump brought some of those candidates to the stage with him, saying “This November, we're going to stand up for this rising tyranny, for sickness, for lawlessness and death and we're going to take back our country.
Trump also teased a run for president in 2024, saying, “We might just have to do it again.”
Earlier in the night, Mastriano also addressed the large and boisterous crowd that filled up the upper and lower levels of the arena. Jim Bognet, the Republican candidate for U.S. Representative in the 8th congressional district, and Oz also addressed the crowd.
“This country has dramatically turned in the wrong direction. I’m the person for change,” said Oz, a television personality and retired cardiothoracic surgeon who is running against Democrat Lt. Gov. John Fetterman.
Trump also ripped Fetterman as well as Josh Shapiro, the state attorney general and the Democratic nominee for governor.
In particular, the former president went after Fetterman’s irreverent dressing habits — shorts and hoodies — saying that “I don’t like those dirty sweat suits, they’re disgusting.”
“Fetterman may dress like a teenager getting high in his parents’ basement, but he’s a raging lunatic hell-bent on springing hardened criminals out of jail in the middle of the worst crime wave in Pennsylvania history,” Trump said.
Republicans have targeted Fetterman for backing proposals to release more geriatric or rehabilitated inmates from prisons and provide flexibility in certain mandatory-sentencing laws.
Trump called Mastriano, a state senator and U.S. Army veteran, an “incredible patriot and fearless warrior” who has been with him since the beginning. Late into his speech, Trump also brought Mastriano on stage with him.
“On 8 November, we’re taking our state back by storm,” Mastriano said. He reiterated the “Day One” goals that he spoke about earlier in the rally.
“We’re going to walk like free people like never before,” he said.
Mastriano slammed Shapiro for what he called rising crime in Pennsylvania during the attorney general’s term.
He also said he would require voters to show identification — a theme Trump picked up by calling for the elimination of mail-in ballots. The former president also addressed what he called the rigged 2020 election, as well as rising crime in the country.
The rally was the first for Trump since the FBI’s search of his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, which he termed “one of the most shocking abuses of power by any administration in American history” and “a travesty of justice.” Investigators recovered thousands of documents in the search, including more than 100 with classified and top secret markings.
Trump said President Joe Biden and his administration have weaponized the FBI and the U.S. Justice Department.
“It was not just my home that was raided … it was the hopes and dreams of every citizen that I've been fighting for,” he said.
Familiar themes from Trump’s 2016 presidential run were present in his address, including restoring law and order in the country and his now-famous slogan, "Make America Great Again."
“[Biden] thinks making America great again is a threat to our country," Trump said. "No, making America great again is great for our country.”
He also spoke about what the country would be like if he was still president, and he called for the death penalty for drug dealers.
Other speakers at the rally touched on an array of issues — transgender women playing sports on women’s teams, inflation and the Mexico/U.S. border — in speeches referencing God and family values.
They slammed Biden’s comments last week during appearances in Wilkes-Barre and Philadelphia about “MAGA Republicans.”
Trump said the president’s speech in Philadelphia was the “most vicious hateful and divisive speech ever delivered by an American president.”
Bognet, the congressional candidate running against incumbent Democrat Matt Cartwright, held a senior position in the Trump Administration.
“Biden put America in the ditch,” Bognet told the crowd, calling the Wilkes-Barre region the greatest place in the world. "Joe Biden and Matt Cartwright don’t represent our values in Northeast Pennsylvania."
Trump ended the rally by encouraging the crowd to vote in what he called one of the most important elections in their lifetime.
“This is the year we’re going to take back the [U.S. House of Representatives], we’re going to take back the Senate, we’re going to take back America," he said. "And in 2024, most importantly we are going to take back our magnificent White House.”
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
