Former President Donald Trump held, this Saturday (20), the first campaign rally, since he narrowly escaped an assassination attempt. The candidate mocked the Democrats in an arena full of supporters in the state of Michigan.
The speech follows the Republican convention, where the candidacy was confirmed. Trump appeared in the presence of the chosen vice president, Senator JD Vance, from Ohio. The two took the stage at their first campaign event together.
Parallel to this, pressure continues on President Joe Biden from the Democratic Party to face Trump in the United States elections on November 5th.
Biden has faced calls from some top Democrats to end his re-election bid after last month’s poor debate performance raised concerns about whether he could defeat Trump or complete another four-year term.
Trump mocked Democrats, saying they wanted to remove Biden from the ticket after he won the race for the presidential nomination.
“They have some problems. No. 1, they have no idea who the candidate is,” Trump said amid laughter and boos. “This guy goes and gets the votes and now they want to take them away.”
“As you can see, the Democratic Party is not the party of democracy. They are truly the enemies of democracy.”
Trump added: “And they keep saying, ‘He’s a threat to democracy.’ I say, ‘What the hell have I done for democracy? Last week, I took a bullet for democracy.”
Opinion polls show a tight race between the two men nationally, but Biden is trailing Trump in the swing states that are likely to determine the winner. Many Democrats fear he has no realistic path to victory and that the party needs a new candidate to take on Trump.
Trump even took a poll between Biden and Kamala during the rally.
There was a heavy police presence at the rally, with officers on every corner for several blocks. US Secret Service agents were stationed on the upper balconies of the Van Andel Arenaa position that gave a panoramic view of the crowd inside.
Searches of the bags of people who entered the indoor arena earlier in the day were long and thorough, and the Secret Service sweep of the building took about an hour longer than usual.
The rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, last weekend was outdoors. At that event, the shooter managed to scale the roof of a building outside the Secret Service perimeter before opening fire on Trump, cutting off his ear, killing one rally attendee and injuring several others.
The Secret Service, which is responsible for protecting Trump, declined to comment on security at the Grand Rapids event. An investigation is underway into security failures at Butler’s rally.
Trump gave a detailed account of his close brush with death in his convention speech on Thursday, telling the audience that he was speaking to them only “by the grace of Almighty God.”
Trump’s former doctor, Ronny Jackson, said Saturday that the former president is recovering as expected from the gunshot wound to his right ear, but noted intermittent bleeding and said Trump may need a hearing test.
The bullet fired by the would-be assassin at the July 13 rally in Pennsylvania passed “less than a quarter of an inch from his head,” said Jackson, a Republican congressman from Texas who served as physician to Presidents Trump and Barack Obama.
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