By The Associated Press August 21, 2024 at 9:31am
Holding his first outdoor rally since surviving last month’s attempted assassination, Donald Trump on Wednesday railed against Vice President Kamala Harris’ approach to national security in North Carolina as part of his week-long trip across the country.
“The world is on fire, and Kamala and Biden have marched us to the brink of World War III,” Trump said, blaming the current White House for the deadly Afghanistan withdrawal and wars between Russia and Ukraine and between Israel and Hamas.
He spoke at the North Carolina Aviation Museum & Hall of Fame from behind a podium surrounded by panes of bulletproof glass that formed a protective wall across the stage — part of ramped-up security measures aimed at keeping Trump safe after his narrow escape from a Pennsylvania gunman on July 13th.
Storage containers were stacked around the perimeter to create additional walls and block sight lines. Snipers were positioned on roofs at the venue, where old aircraft were sitting behind the podium and a large American flag was suspended from cranes.
Trump was joined Wednesday by his running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, who cast Harris as a candidate selected by power brokers instead of voters and lambasted her vice presidential pick, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, before Trump took the stage.
That included continuing to hammer Walz for, at times, mischaracterizing his service record as an Army National Guard member, as well as Walz’s retirement from service before his unit’s deployment to Iraq.
“What won’t Stolen Valor Tim Walz lie about?” Vance, who served four years as a Marine, asked the crowd.
Trump has spent the week visiting battleground states in his busiest week of campaigning since the Republican primaries.
Reflecting the importance of North Carolina in this year’s election, the trip is Trump’s second to the state in just the past week. Last Wednesday, he appeared in Asheville, North Carolina, for a speech on the economy.
Trump won North Carolina by a comfortable margin in 2016. The state delivered the former president his closest statewide margin of victory four years ago and is once again considered a key battleground in 2024.
Before Trump arrived, his plane did a flyover of the rally site. The crowd erupted into cheers.
Edna Ryan, a 68-year-old retired flight attendant and private pilot, said she was bullish on the Republican’s chances, but said: “We need to be strong because otherwise we’re going to be very sorry.”
Lisa Watts, a retired business owner from Hickory, North Carolina, who was attending her fifth Trump rally, said she’s feeling “very positive” about the race against Harris.
“I don’t think that her record proves that she is ready to run this country,” Watts said.
The Western Journal has reviewed this Associated Press story and may have altered it prior to publication to ensure that it meets our editorial standards.
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