Former President Donald Trump insisted he would protect Social Security, not President Joe Biden, and said a defeat would be “bloody” in November while campaigning for U.S. Sen. Bernie Moreno in Ohio. I warned you.
Speaking at a wind-swept airfield outside Dayton on Saturday, Trump praised his chosen candidate as “America’s first champion” and “a political outsider who has spent his life building communities in Ohio.” did.
“He’s going to be a warrior in Washington,” President Trump said days after securing enough delegates to secure the 2024 Republican nomination.
Moreno will face Secretary of State Frank LaRose and state Sen. Matt Dolan in Tuesday’s Republican primary. LaRose and Moreno are aligned with the pro-Trump wing of the party, while Dolan has the backing of establishment Republicans such as Gov. Mike DeWine and former Sen. Rob Portman.
Saturday’s rally was hosted by Buckeye Values PAC, a group supporting Moreno’s candidacy. But President Trump used the stage to deliver a profane version of his usual rally speech, once again painting an apocalyptic picture of the country if Biden wins a second term.
“If I don’t get elected, it’s going to be a disaster… It’s going to be a disaster for the country,” he said, talking about the impact of offshoring on the country’s auto industry and plans to raise tariffs on the United States. I warned you. foreign-made car.
President Trump then claimed, “If we don’t win this election, I don’t know if there will ever be another election in this country.”
President Trump repeatedly noted that it was difficult to read the teleprompter, as it was visibly shaking in the 35 mph wind gusts.
Moreno, a wealthy Cleveland businessman and former Trump critic, said he supported Marco Rubio for president in the 2016 Republican primary and said that listening to Trump was “unpleasant.” “It’s like watching a car crash get worse, but you can stop watching.” he once tweeted. ” In 2021, NBC News reported on email exchanges before and after Trump’s first presidential election in which Moreno called Trump a “lunatic” and “lunatic.”
But on Saturday, Moreno praised Trump as a “great American” and slammed those in his party who have criticized the former president, who this week became the candidate for a third straight term.
“I’m tired of Republicans saying, ‘I support President Trump’s policies, but I don’t like this person,'” he said on stage with Trump.
President Trump also denied the latest allegations against Moreno and compared them to attacks Moreno has faced over the years, including criminal charges. Trump is charged in four separate cases, ranging from handling classified documents to efforts to overturn the 2020 election results.
“He’s currently being treated very harshly and falsely by the Democratic Party,” Trump said. “And we’re not going to stand for that.”
The Associated Press reported Thursday that in 2008, someone with access to Moreno’s work email account created a profile on an adult site seeking “men seeking one-on-one sex.” The Associated Press could not definitively confirm whether it was created by Moreno himself. Moreno’s attorney said a former intern created the account and provided a statement from intern Dan Rich, who said he created the account as “part of a juvenile prank.”
Questions about the profile have been floating around in Republican circles for the past month, according to seven people with direct knowledge of conversations about how to deal with the issue, and Republicans are worried that Moreno could be vulnerable in the general election. Dissatisfaction is said to be growing among executives. They requested anonymity to avoid conflict with Trump and his allies.
In his remarks, Trump also accused Biden of continuing to backtrack on comments he made in an interview earlier this week that he was open to cuts, posing a threat to Social Security.
“Social Security will be gone,” he warned of a second Biden term, even though Biden has promised to protect and strengthen Social Security in the face of expected budget shortfalls. “If this guy becomes president, we won’t have Social Security because he’s destroying our economy. And by the way, that includes Medicare, and older Americans won’t have Social Security. We are going to be in big trouble.”
“I promised to always protect Social Security and Medicare. We will always protect them. We will never cut them.”
The comments came after President Trump responded to a question about Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid in an interview with CNBC, saying, “There’s a lot we can do on the entitlement side, on the cuts side, and also on the theft side.” . “And mismanagement of rights, very mismanagement of rights. The amount and number of things that could be done is huge.”
President Trump also continued to criticize Biden over his handling of border issues and the immigration crisis. He called Dolan a “weak RINO who is only a Republican in name” and accused him of “trying to become the next Mitt Romney.” He also criticized the Dolan family, owners of the Cleveland baseball team, for changing the team’s name from the Cleveland Indians to the Cleveland Guardians.
In addition to Mr. Trump, the rally was attended by Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio, who is running against Mr. Moreno and is considered a running mate, and Gov. Kristi Noem of South Dakota.
Trump’s decision to endorse Moreno was a major blow to LaRose, who had taken several steps to win Moreno’s support. Just days after entering the Senate race, Mr. LaRose endorsed Mr. Trump for president, reversing his previous position that state election officials should remain politically neutral. The following month, he fired a longtime trusted aide after old tweets from the employee surfaced criticizing President Trump.
The winner of Tuesday’s primary will face three-term Sen. Sherrod Brown, considered one of the most vulnerable Democrats in the nation, in November.
Brown was first elected in 2006, went unopposed in this year’s primary, and managed to hold onto his seat even as the state moved to the right. He most recently won re-election in 2018, defeating his then-Rep. He beat Jim Renacci by about 7 percentage points. Two years later, Ohio voted for then-President Trump by an 8-point margin.
