Participants wait in line to enter the Liacouras Center for a rally for the Republican presidential candidate, the former US president Donald Trump on June 22, 2024 in Philadelphia. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
PHILADELPHIA — FFormer President Donald Trump headed to the city of Brotherly Love on Saturday for a rally, his first in the city of 2024.
“Few communities to have past more below the Biden regime than Philadelphia,” Trump said as he took the stage promptly at 7 p.m
Local Democrats spent the morning anticipating the presumptive GOP nominee’s messages.
“Later today, a 34-time criminal will come to North Philadelphia to do what he does best: lie about his record, talk about the past, and thumb his nose at working families across Pennsylvania,” said Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta. D-Philadelphia) said Saturday morning. He made the comments during an event aimed at Black voters at a Biden campaign office in North Philadelphia.
Kenyatta, Sen. Sharif Street (D-Philadelphia), chairman of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party, and Philadelphia City Councilman Jeffrey Young said it was important for Democrats to counter his message ahead of the meeting.
“We really need to show Mr. Trump that he is not welcome here in this town, in this city, in this state,” Young said. He added that it is up to Democrats to remind voters in their communities of Trump’s record.
“Donald Trump is all talk, right,” Young said. “In our community we tend to idolize celebrities for one reason or another, and Donald Trump appeals to that when he tries to appeal to black voters and other voters in our community, but we need to let them know that the celebrity It’s all smoke and mirrors, there’s no substance in that at all, he doesn’t care about moving our community forward.”
Kenyatta blasted Trump for his record before entering politics and his false accusations that former President Barack Obama was not born in America.
“Donald Trump is an individual who has a record, a well-documented record, of disrespecting Black people and destabilizing Black communities,” Kenyatta said.
Trump’s rally on Saturday will be his fourth appearance in Pennsylvania so far this year and his second appearance in Philadelphia. In February he has gave a short speech at SneakerCon at the Pennsylvania Convention Center to promote his new line of Trump-branded shoes.
Although Trump has held numerous rallies in the Philadelphia suburbs since his first run for office in 2016, Saturday will be his first rally within the city limits.
In response to a question about Trump’s decision to hold a rally in North Philadelphia, Street said Trump is trying to create a national narrative to convince black voters to support him, and that he believed the Trump campaign would bring in supporters from out of town. .
“So a young black person sitting in Detroit will say, ‘Well, black people in North Philly support him, how bad can he be?’” Street said.
Kenyatta, who serves on the Biden-Harris National Advisory Board and is running for state auditor general, echoed a similar message, saying Trump’s visit to Philadelphia was partly about pushing the press to write headlines that ‘Donald Trump is trying to talk to black people’. people.”
He compared Trump’s rally in North Philadelphia to someone showing up to Lincoln Financial Field, home of the Philadelphia Eagles, wearing a Dallas Cowboys jersey and saying, “the Eagles suck.”
“That’s not intended to reach Eagles fans,” Kenyatta said. “So, Donald Trump bringing his KKK rhetoric, and bringing his racist Bull Conner megaphone to North Philadelphia, doesn’t mean he’s going to target black people, he’s going to disrespect black people.”
“Listen, Donald Trump is in a black place, but Donald Trump doesn’t care about black people,” Kenyatta added
Black voters in Philadelphia played a key role in President Joe Biden’s victory over Trump in 2020 92% of black voters in the state voted for Biden, while 7% voted for Trump. Recent opinion polls have shown this that gap has narrowed, but Biden still has a significant lead.
Last weekend, Trump visited Detroit before launching his “Black Americans for Trump” effort, claiming there that he had “done more for Black people than any American president since Abraham Lincoln.”
When asked about recent polls showing Trump gaining support among black voters, Street pointed to polling from the past two cycles in the state and said Democrats have continued to win statewide since he took the party’s chairmanship took over.
“Donald Trump famously said that ‘bad things happen in Philly,’ he is the bad thing happening in Philly,” Kenyatta said. “And he’ll get the kind of welcome he deserves in North Philly, and it won’t be nice.”
Protesters gathered across the street from the Liacouras Center on Saturday afternoon as temperatures soared into the mid-90s. Some exchanged words with Trump supporters in anticipation of his arrival, while others waved anti-Trump signs and made their displeasure known.
Anne Geheb, 69, a resident of suburban Philadelphia, said Saturday was supposed to be a beach day but decided instead to come to the city to express her opposition to Trump. Geheb, who is lesbian, said Trump’s negative rhetoric about the LGBTQ community, and especially transgender people, was particularly concerning to her. But she said she was encouraged that many younger people were also protesting.
“I am very afraid that the young people will not show up [to vote]and we need them to show up,” she said.
This is a developing story that will be updated.
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