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Former President Trump held his third Save America rally of the year in Florence, South Carolina on Saturday evening. The campaign-style rally was his first since Biden’s State of the Union address and Putin’s invasion into Ukraine.
The rally was held in a field near Florence Regional Airport in northeast South Carolina. Trump supporters lined up early to attend despite the rain and chilly winds. Trump tore into Biden as he called him “physically and mentally challenged” during this important time in history.
‘You could take the five worst presidents in American history and they would not have done the damage Joe Biden has done in just 13 months. We have a president representing our country at the most important time in history, who is physically and mentally challenged,’ the former president said.
He claimed Biden ‘failed to deter Russia’s outrageous invasion of Ukraine’ and that Russian President Putin would never have attacked Ukraine during his presidency.
‘The fake news said my personality got us into a war. ‘I’m telling you, that guy’s going to get us into a war.’ But actually, my personality is what kept us out of war. I was the only president in nearly four decades who did not get America into any new conflicts.’ Trump claimed.
Trump blasted Putin’s invasion as a ‘terrible atrocity’ though he did not mention the autocrat by name. The condemnation is a far cry from his heavily-criticized remarks calling Russia’s plan ‘genius’ late last month.
‘The Russian invasion of Ukraine is a terrible atrocity that should never have been allowed to happen or would have never happened. I know I speak for everyone here tonight. When I say we are praying for the proud people of Ukraine. They are going through hell,’ he said.
He’s not wrong. It is hard to watch and listen to Biden day after day and not be alarmed at how feeble and inept he seems to be. He doesn’t look physically strong and his mental sharpness is often called into question. It won’t get any better. Biden is pushing 80 years of age. Remember, it was Biden who said a little invasion into Ukraine wouldn’t be such a big deal as Putin prepared to make his move and assembled troops on the Ukrainian border.
Trump’s rally was in support of two candidates he has endorsed in the mid-term election – Katie Arrington, who is challenging Rep. Nancy Mace, and Russell Fry, who is running to oust Rep. Tom Rice. South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster also spoke at the event.
Both Mace and Rice have gotten on Trump’s bad side. For example, Rice joined Democrats and nine other Republicans to vote to impeach Trump for his alleged role in the January 6 riot at the Capitol. Rice was censured by Horry County and S.C. Republicans after that vote and several challengers signed up to run against him in the primary race. Trump labeled Rice as disloyal because of that vote during the rally.
“It’s like I said earlier, on June 14 it’s our turn to vote and on June 14 here in the 7th Congressional District, we’re going to vote to impeach Tom Rice at the ballot box,” Fry told the crowd with Trump standing by his side.
The two shook hands several times.
Fry, though, has played up the impeachment vote, cutting an ad that dropped days ahead of the rally painting Rice as a villain and out of touch with South Carolina’s conservative values.
Rice, a Republican from Myrtle Beach, fired back after Trump spoke. He said Trump is a man motivated by spite. Rice said he is being punished by Trump for casting one vote against him.
n a statement ahead of Saturday’s rally, Trump referred to Rice as “doesn’t have a clue Tom Rice.”
Rice hit back at both Trump and Fry in his remarks, issued shortly after Trump left the stage. “Trump is here because, like no one else I’ve ever met, he is consumed by spite,” Rice said. “I took one vote he didn’t like and now he’s chosen to support a yes man candidate who has and will bow to anything he says, no matter what.”
He went on to describe Fry as a Republican politician who “supports political violence in Ukraine or in the United States Capitol, who supports party over country, who supports a would-be tyrant over the Constitution, and who makes decisions based solely on reelection.” By contrast, he pitched himself as a “congressman who cowers to no man, who votes for what is right, even when it’s hard, and who has fought like hell for the Grand Strand and Pee Dee.”
The rally was just two days after Biden spoke at the DNC’s winter meeting in Washington. He was trying to pump up morale as the writing is on the wall – the mid-term elections will likely deliver the House and maybe the Senate back to Republican control. Biden’s agenda will be shut down even more than it is now with an equally split Senate. Biden frequently launches into angry attacks against Republican criticism and hopes to blame the GOP for his failures.
“We have a record, a record to be proud of – an agenda that addresses the biggest concerns here in America and in people’s lives,” Mr. Biden said. “Now what we have to do is sell it with confidence, clarity, conviction and repetition.”
On the domestic front, Mr. Biden said the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan lifted the nation out of a crisis, and the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill will transform lives.
He also touted the 6.5 million jobs that were created on his watch last year, suggesting it shows the economy is recovering from the coronavirus pandemic.
“I feel so good about what we are doing,” Mr. Biden said. “I believe we have a record to be incredibly proud of.”
Biden was the closing speaker for the House Democrats retreat in Philadelphia the next day. On Friday, an angry, whispering Biden told the Democrats that if they lose their majority in the House and the Senate, too, all he’ll be left with is a veto pen.
“We have to continue to maintain our majority,” the president said, calling the midterms perhaps the most important off-year election in modern history. “We know the fundamental change that shifts if we lose the House and Senate. The only thing I’ll have then is a veto pen.”
Biden is particularly angry that Republicans criticize high gas prices and Biden’s plan to beg nefarious world leaders for oil.
Acknowledging that higher prices are crimping family budgets, Biden said it wasn’t fair to blame his administration for inflation’s rise. He doesn’t want anyone pointing out that gas prices were already rising before Putin invaded Ukraine and that Biden bad policies have ramped up inflation to a 40 year high.
“I’m sick of this stuff,” Biden said, expressing frustration at GOP talking points. “We have to talk about it, because the American people think the reason for inflation is the government spending more money. Simply not true.”
Speaking on the anniversary of his signing of a $1.9-trillion pandemic-relief plan, however, Biden sought to put the last year’s difficulties behind him and encouraged Democrats to focus on their accomplishments. He said the COVID-19 relief measure was a hard-won success that they should tout to voters.
“Let’s be clear: We did it alone,” Biden said, leaning toward the microphone. “Without one single, solitary Republican vote.”
The political atmosphere in the country points to voter dissatisfaction with Biden and his bold plans to transform America. He governs as though he has a mandate to push progressive policies on the American people and he is frequently called out for leading from behind. A red wave, perhaps a red tsunami, is in the making for November mid-term elections. Biden will have only himself to blame, not the Republicans.
Source: This post first appeared on HotAir
