In Erie speech, Trump airs grievances about criminal probes, Biden policies and DeSantis

Former President Donald Trump, two days removed from being indicted on additional felony charges for allegedly mishandling classified documents after leaving the White House, went on the defensive at a rally Saturday in his return to bellwether Erie County in the critical battleground state.

Despite losing here in 2020 after carrying the county and state four years earlier, he declared Erie a "Trump stronghold" that would deliver victories again for him next year.

"For seven years you and I have been fighting side by side to rescue our nation from the sinister forces that truly hate it and want to destroy it and some of those are from within," he said. "We're approaching the most important battle of our lives. With your help we are going to win the Pennsylvania primary very easily and we're going to evict crooked Joe Biden from the White House."

Attempting to deflect from the multiple criminal probes that could derail his third run for the presidency, the twice-impeached Trump, who this year became the first ex-president ever arrested, said he "did nothing wrong" and that President Joe Biden has "weaponized" the Department of Justice to interfere with the 2024 election as a continuation of what Trump has long referred to as the "greatest witch hunt in American history."

"They're not indicting me," Trump told the audience of roughly 4,500 people. "They're indicting you. I'm just standing in the way."

Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Special Counsel Jack Smith in November to investigate Trump's role in efforts to overturn the 2020 election, which include a fake elector scheme, as well as Trump's alleged mishandling of classified documents after leaving the White House. With new charges in the case being leveled late last week, Trump now faces 32 counts of willfully retaining national defense information and eight counts related to alleged efforts to obstruct the probe.

He's also been indicted by a grand jury in New York for hush-money payments paid to cover up alleged affairs and he's under investigation in Georgia for efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Smith sent Trump a letter last week to inform him that he's a target of the election-related probe, a sign that a grand jury could be close to indicting him on new charges.

However, on Saturday Trump instead tried painting Biden as the "most corrupt president in U.S. history," citing unsubstantiated claims that Biden has used his political influence for personal financial gain via his son, Hunter Biden.

The business dealings of Hunter Biden, who was in court this past week for a hearing on misdemeanor tax evasion charges, have been the subject of right-wing conspiracies, and now Trump allies in Congress are probing the DOJ and IRS for creating what they say is "a two-tiered system of justice" for "refusing to follow evidence that implicated Joe Biden, tipped off Hunter Biden’s attorneys, allowed the clock to run out with respect to certain charges" and put the younger Biden on a path toward a "sweetheart plea deal." There's little hard evidence to support the extent of their allegations.

Still, the crowd erupted when Trump promised to appoint a special prosecutor of his own to investigate Biden and he said any Republican lawmaker who's unwilling to address the allegations should face primary opposition from someone who will.

Trump also cast a deeply grim picture of America under Biden's presidency. "Democrat-run cities," like Philadelphia and Atlanta, he said, are overrun with crime. Illegal immigration has run rampant. And inflation, which has since fallen to a two-year low, pushed up the cost of gasoline and groceries in the first half of Biden's term.

And despite unemployment being at a 54-year low, a hyperbolic Trump said the economy is a "cesspool of ruin."

"We are not going to allow this horror to continue," he told the crowd. "Three years ago we were a great nation and we will soon be a great nation again."

Democratic response

Earlier Saturday, an official with the AFL-CIO, the largest federation of labor unions in the country, gave the Democratic National Committee's official response to Trump's Erie visit. AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Fred Redmond said that, as president, Trump rolled back workplace safety rules, cut job-training programs and undermined worker rights.

By contrast, Redmond praised Biden for his bipartisan infrastructure bill, making "historic" investments in clean energy, strengthening prevailing wage rules and employing worker-friendly project-labor agreements.

"It all adds up to 13.2 million new jobs and a half a million new jobs in the great state of Pennsylvania," said Redmond, who added that Trump "doesn't care about workers."

GOP rivals

Trump lambasted Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who's running a distant second in the polls, which Trump attributed to DeSantis' lack of personality, and said his once-promising campaign now appears "dead."

"DeSanctimonious is done," he said. "DeSanctimonious is over."

He also jeered former Vice President Mike Pence, who served Trump loyally until refusing to throw the 2020 election to him on Jan. 6, 2021, when Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol Building in an effort to disrupt Congress's certification of the presidential election, a process that Pence oversaw. Trump poked fun at Pence, now a presidential candidate, for garnering only 5% support in one GOP primary poll. Mention of Pence's name elicited loud boos from the audience.

Trump even criticized wealthy conservative donors for staying on the sidelines for the past six months. Those donors have begun reaching out to Trump, he claimed, as polls consistently show another candidate failing to gain momentum.

In a second term

If sent back to the White House, Trump said he would stop the influx of immigrants entering the United States by reinstating policies that have been scrapped under Biden's presidency. He said he'd deny federal funding to any school that enacted vaccine or mask mandates and he would ban the teaching of critical race theory and prevent "men from playing women's sports."

He also listed "purging the deep state" and preventing "World War III" among his priorities. Had Trump remained president, he said he would have used his relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin to prevent Russia's invasion of Ukraine. He would demand that European countries pay more to support Ukraine and would stop sending taxpayer dollars to the country for the war efforts.

An early Erie stop

The timing of Trump's early campaign stop signaled that the 2024 presidential campaign is now upon us.

For Trump to repave his 2016 path to the White House, especially amid multiple criminal probes, Pennsylvania is a must-win.

As Erie County went in 2016 and 2020, so went Pennsylvania. It gave Trump the first victory by a Republican since Ronald Reagan's 1984 re-election and then, four years later, became the state that put Biden over the top with its 18 Electoral College votes.

Of course, Trump will need to push aside several GOP candidates, including DeSantis, Pence and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, before getting a shot at Biden.

He's a comfortable frontrunner in all GOP polls, a fact he made abundantly known to backers Saturday. Some national polls give him an edge over Biden in a general election matchup.

He said he's not yet decided if he'll participate in upcoming GOP debates and polled the crowd about whether he should given his lead in polls. The crowd appeared split. Trump joked that those who want him to debate "just want entertainment."

"We'll see what happens," he said. "I haven't made a decision one way or another."

As U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly, R-16th Dist., noted, Trump has been to Erie now four times since his first presidential run in 2016 and many of his cabinet members visited the city during his four years in office.

"They love Erie and they did not forget the importance of what Erie has done for them," Kelly said.

'Can't Stop til You Get Enough'

But if rally size is any indication, and Trump has stressed repeatedly that it is, his Erie stop might be foreboding. The small arena, which is home to the Ontario Hockey League's Erie Otters, was packed when Trump made an appearance here in 2018 ahead of the midterm election. That was less than a month before voters went to the polls, but it also wasn't a presidential election.

The arena holds more than 6,800 people for hockey games and 9,000 for concerts. About a half-hour before Trump took the stage, two Erie Insurance Arena ushers estimated attendance at around 4,500.

In deep red Pickens, South Carolina, Trump drew a massive crowd of an estimated 75,000 supporters to an outdoor rally to kick off the Independence Day weekend in early July.

Trump said rally organizers initially considered holding the Erie rally outdoors but worried about a forecast for 90-degree temperatures.

In a foggy, rainy Erie Saturday, Trump left several sections of the arena vacant. Only a smattering of people sat in Sections 101, 201, 102, 202, 103, 203, 122, 222, 121, 221, 120, and 220 — some of them were entirely empty. Sections 204, 205, 206, 207, 219 and 2018 were half full at best.

The floor seating between the press risers and stage was nearly packed, though. So were the sections behind the stage and to the left and right of it.

The campaign paid $25,000 to rent the arena, but returned to Erie having not repaid more than $35,000 it was billed by the city for police protection and other services that his campaign committee incurred five years ago. Erie Mayor Joe Schember said the city will bill Trump for his latest stop, which occurred as the Erie SeaWolves played at neighboring UPMC Park.

Those who were in attendance Saturday brought raucous chants for Trump that filled the arena. Shortly after 4 p.m., Michael Jackson's "Can't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" inspired a conga line that snaked up and down the aisles of chairs on the arena floor.

Trump, too, appeared to have fun with the Erie crowd during his 90-minute speech.

"Are we having fun, what the hell?" he said as the crowd burst into applause. "It's Saturday night. We've got nothing else to do."

Matthew Rink can be reached at mrink@timesnews.com.

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Donald Trump bashes Biden, DeSantis during Erie PA rally