Pennsylvania, a key state that will likely decide who controls the U.S. Senate, became a battleground for the titans on Nov. 5, when President Joe Biden teamed up with his former boss Barack Obama, and former President Donald Trump campaigned in dueling rallies in the Commonwealth.
All three current and former presidents urged voters to support the candidates from their respective parties but for very different reasons.
In a toss-up race, Republican candidate Mehmet Oz is in a close battle with Democrat Lt. Gov. John Fetterman for Pennsylvania’s Senate seat that is being vacated by retiring Republican Sen. Pat Toomey.
Trump, who was stumping for Oz as well as state Sen. Doug Mastriano for governor, told supporters in Latrobe that the United States is being destroyed by the far-left and that Americans need to vote for true “America first” Republicans “in a giant red wave.”
“Every freedom-loving American needs to understand the time to stand up to this growing left-wing tyranny is right now,” Trump said. “If you want to save your rights and liberties, you have to start by dealing a really humiliating rebuke to the radical left in this upcoming election on Tuesday.”
Trump criticized the Biden administration over many of its policies, including its border disaster and the push for people to buy expensive electric cars. This is at the expense of affordable gasoline models, which don’t rely on battery materials over which communist China commands a monopoly.
The former president also criticized Biden’s controversial remarks about coal plants on Friday, saying it was a “slap in the face” to the state’s coal industry.
“Yesterday, he [Biden] declared that we’re going to be shutting down coal plants across America. Can you believe this?” Trump said. “In favor of highly unreliable wind and solar that cost us a fortune.”
Biden’s comments immediately drew criticism from fellow Democrat, Sen. Joe Manchin (W.Va.), who said they were “outrageous and divorced from reality.” Manchin demanded Biden issue a public apology.
Trump also characterized the policies and actions of the Biden administration as being “hostile to liberty, freedom and faith.”
“Before our very eyes, Biden and his left-wing handlers are turning America into a police state like something straight out of a communist country. That’s what’s happening,” Trump said. “We skipped over socialism, that took about two weeks. We’re long gone from socialism; we are into communism.
“With your vote, you can reject left-wing maniacs, you can reject left-wing tyranny and proudly declare that America will always remain a free country.”
Getting Oz elected is now very important, Trump said, adding that he will “vote to end Joe Biden’s socialist spending spree” and fight runaway inflation.
“Pennsylvania desperately needs Dr. Oz in the U.S. Senate. He could very well be the tie-breaking vote,” Trump said. “He is so much better than the senator that he’s replacing.”
As for Mastriano, Trump called him “a fighter and a warrior for the America First agenda.”
“He’s the only person in this race standing between your family and Pennsylvania being destroyed by violent crime,” Trump said.
Philadelphia, with 447 homicides so far in 2022, is on pace to exceed last year’s record of 562 murders.
Trump added, “Doug will clean up Harrisburg, and he will stand up to the special interests. He’ll protect our workers. And Doug will not rest until he has restored public safety to Pennsylvania.”
Polling aggregate site RealClearPolitics currently rates Pennsylvania’s governor race as “leans Democrat,” with estimates showing Democrat gubernatorial candidate and attorney general Josh Shapiro holding a 10.7-point lead.
At one point at the rally, Trump again hinted that he will run for president in 2024. Two days earlier, he said of another White House bid he would “very, very, very, probably do it again.”
“Everybody, I promise you, in the very next, very, very, very short period of time, you’re going to be so happy,” Trump said.
Biden, Obama Back Democratic Party’s Model for Democracy
At Temple University’s Liacouras Center, Biden touted the upcoming midterms as “one of the most important elections in our lifetime” but dismissed the vote as a referendum on his leadership.
“Pennsylvania, this isn’t a referendum this year; it’s a choice—a choice between two vastly different visions of America. Vastly different,” Biden said. “The outcome is going to shape our country for decades to come.”
Some Republicans, including Trump, have billed the Nov. 8 elections as a referendum on the Biden administration’s policies.
“This election is a referendum on skyrocketing inflation, rampant crime, soaring murders, crushing gas prices, millions and millions of illegal aliens pouring across our border, race and gender indoctrination, converting our schools,” Trump said at a rally in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, in September.
Biden reiterated his previous claim that democracy was at stake in the upcoming elections.
“Democracy is literally on the ballot. This is a defining moment for the nation,” Biden said. “We all must speak with one voice, regardless of our party.”
Biden slammed Oz as a “carpetbagger” who recently moved to the state in 2020, touting Fetterman and his long-standing ties to Pennsylvania.
“Look, I lived in Pennsylvania longer than Oz has lived in Pennsylvania. And I moved away when I was 10 years old,” Biden said. “John Fetterman IS Pennsylvania.”
Biden applauded Fetterman, saying the Democrat candidate has “character [and] integrity” and will be a good senator.
“[I]f we elect John Fetterman to the Senate and keep control of the House, we can restore the right to choose in this country by codifying Roe v. Wade and make it the law of the land,” Biden said.
Obama echoed Biden’s claim characterizing the vote on Tuesday as being about democracy.
“Truth and facts and logic and reason and basic decency are on the ballot. Democracy itself is on the ballot—the stakes are high,” Obama said.
Obama touted Biden’s achievements so far and what he could do with two more years of a Democrat-controlled Congress.
“Think about what Joe Biden has already gotten accomplished,” Obama said. “Despite a historic pandemic, he not only repaired the economy and kept unemployment lower, which by the way, you should not take for granted, because a lot of folks thought, with a historic pandemic like that, and the shutdowns, we would go into a great depression. And we did not.”
“And unemployment is low now because of the actions that he took,” Obama added.
The U.S. unemployment rate inched up to 3.7 percent in October, up from 3.5 percent in September.
Obama also dismissed Republicans promises that they will launch investigations into alleged politicization of government institutions and the failed policies of the Biden administration, like the handling of national security at the southern border, claiming that doing so will not help Americans.
“Now, I don’t know how that’s going to help you. Some of them say we will impeach Biden,” Obama said. “Think about that, how is that going to help you, your family, young people launch a career, start a family, get a mortgage?”
House Republicans have said they will launch investigations into issues from the border and fentanyl crisis to Hunter Biden and the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic—if they retake the chamber.
From The Epoch Times