Former President Donald J. Trump was the featured speaker at the ‘Save America’ rally at the Mohegan Sun Area, Willkes-Barre Twp. on Saturday night.
Tony Callaio | For Times Leader
45th President endorses GOP candidates, takes aim at opponents, still falsely claims 2020 was rigged
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Republican nominee for U.S. Congress Jim Bognet adresses the ‘Save America’ rally at the Mohegan Sun Arena Saturday night. Bognet will face incumbent Democrat Matt Cartwright in November.
Tony Callaio | For Times Leader
Doug Mastriano, Republican candidate for governor, applauds his wife Rebecca’s remarks at Saturday’s rally.
Tony Callaio | For Times Leader
WILKES-BARRE TWP. — The words spoken by his long line of opening speakers were echoed and emphasized by former president Donald Trump on Saturday: This November, it’s freedom or tyranny.
The 45th president of the United States made a stop at the Mohegan Sun Arena on Saturday to voice his support for several Republican candidates running in races across Pennsylvania, while also taking shots at President Joe Biden, the FBI and Democratic leadership across the board.
He also repeated the frequently debunked lie that the 2020 election, which he lost, was “rigged.”
“This battle is not about me, it’s a struggle for the very fate of our republic,” Trump said. “If you want to stop this destruction, you have to vote Republican.”
The former president’s stop in Luzerne County comes just four days after President Biden spoke at Wilkes University on Tuesday afternoon. On Thursday, House GOP Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy made a stop in West Pittston to denounce the president’s speech from Independence Hall, also from Thursday.
It was Congressional candidate Jim Bognet, running in Pennsylvania’s 8th Congressional District against incumbent U.S. Rep. Matt Cartwright who pointed out just how popular this area has been in the arena of politics over the last few days.
“NEPA has become the epicenter of the political universe,” Bognet said.
It was Bognet, State Sen. Doug Mastriano and Dr. Mehmet Oz who received support from Trump on Saturday, as they look to capture office in the House, the Senate and Pennsylvania’s governor race, respectively.
Mastriano, in particular, received an enthusiastic vote of confidence for Trump, praising Mastriano as a “fighter.”
“He [Mastriano] was there at the beginning, he fought for us,” Trump said. “The one person they [Democrats] didn’t want to run against was Doug Mastriano.”
After taking the stage in front of a near-capacity crowd at Mohegan Sun Arena to the familiar sounds of “God Bless the USA,” Trump spent over an hour taking shots at Democrats, the FBI and DOJ, President Biden and so many others, while underscoring how important it was for Republicans to get out and vote in November to begin making America great again — again.
“The MAGA movement is the greatest movement in the history of our country,” Trump said. “We can’t use Keep America Great because they destroyed it [America].”
Most notably, Trump took aim at the FBI after his Mar-A-Lago estate was searched by officials looking for classified documents, calling the search “a travesty.”
“It was a desperate attempt to distract from Joe Biden’s record of failure,” Trump said. “It was a disgrace, our country has never seen anything like it.”
While making overtures toward a presidential run in 2024, Trump stopped short of formally declaring himself in the race, saying instead that they needed to focus on this November’s election.
“Two months from now, the people of Pennsylvania will fire the far-left Democrats,” he said.
With Mastriano, Dr. Oz and Bognet in attendance, Trump ran down each of their opponents.
He referred to Josh Shapiro, running for governor against Shapiro, as a “lightweight” and accused the attorney general of a number of things, including using his office to keep kids masked in schools and of being a pro-abortion extremist.
“The states will make the decisions, and I have a feeling that Pennsylvania will make an interesting decision,” Trump said of Shapiro. “No person in Pennsylvania should listen to a single word on abortion from these twisted sickos [Shapiro and Fetterman].”
On Fetterman, Oz’s opponent in the race for Pennsylvania’s U.S. Senate seat that will be open upon the end of Sen. Pat Toomey’s term, Trump didn’t mince words.
“He’s dangerous,” Trump said of Fetterman. “He’s the fringiest far-left freakshow to run for Congress.”
Trump also made unsupported allegations in which he mentioned Fetterman’s intent to decriminalize illegal substances and then suggested Fetterman probably takes them himself.
Fetterman campaign spokesperson Joe Calvello sent the Times Leader a statement that said, “More and more lies from Dr. Oz; another day, but it’s the same crap from these two desperate and sad dudes.”
Trump referred to Cartwright as a “radical Democrat” and told supporters that Cartwright voted with Biden 100% of the time.
“Please get out and vote for Jim,” he said.
Trump brought Mastriano and Oz back to the stage for a few more remarks, after all three candidates gave speeches earlier in the night, joined by U.S. Rep. Dan Meuser, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and several other guest speakers.
The crowd, many of whom were in line to enter the building for hours and hours before the doors formally opened, hung on Trump’s every word and burst into applause on many occasions.
Two major themes in Trump’s speech: dishonesty on the part of the Democrats and the “fake news,” and the unrelenting violence happening under President Biden’s watch.
“Under Democrat control the streets of our cities are drenched in the blood of innocent victims,” he said.
The process of making America great again, according to Trump, starts in just two months — and extends to 2024.
“We’re going to take back the House, the Senate and we’re going to take back America,” he said. “And in 2024, we’re going to take back our magnificent White House.”
