“If you vote with Biden this country is finished,” said Trump, calling Biden “incompetent” and “stupid.”
Trump is the presumptive Republican Party nominee for president and will face President Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic Party nominee, and possibly other candidates in November’s General Election.
The Biden campaign issued a statement after the speech responding to Trump’s “bloodbath” comment.
“This is who Donald Trump is: a loser who gets beat by over 7 million votes and then instead of appealing to a wider mainstream audience doubles down on his threats of political violence,” said Biden campaign spokesman James Singer. “He wants another January 6, but the American people are going to give him another electoral defeat this November because they continue to reject his extremism, his affection for violence, and his thirst for revenge.”
On Monday the Trump campaign issued a statement saying his “bloodbath” comment was referring to damage to the auto industry he said will happen under Biden’s import and electric car policies.
At multiple points in his speech Trump repeated the debunked claim that he was cheated out of a win in the 2020 presidential election.
Biden won both the popular and Electoral College vote and multiple investigations, court rulings and election audits found no evidence that Biden was not the legitimate winner.
Trump said the Nov. 5 election will be the most important date in U.S. history.
“I don’t think you’re going to have another election in this country if we don’t win this election,” Trump said.
He spent much of the speech denouncing migrants, calling them “criminals” and “animals” and falsely claiming that 15-16 million people are crossing the southern U.S. border. Trump promised to begin the country’s largest mass deportation on his first day in office.
Trump opened his comments by calling the people jailed for attacking the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 “hostages” and said he plans to help them if he is elected. Trump said the criminal indictments against him for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results wouldn’t have happened if he wasn’t running for president, but have helped him gain more supporters.
“I’m being indicted for you. And never forget our enemies want to take away my freedom because I will never let them take away your freedom. That’s what this is all about,” Trump said. “They want to silence me because I will never let them silence you. And in the end they are not after me, they are after you.”
To the crowd’s delight, Trump’s jet pulled right up to the stage at Wright Bros. Aero Inc. for the rally, which was hosted by the Buckeye Values PAC for Republican U.S. Senate candidate Bernie Moreno, who is endorsed by Trump.
“I’m excited to have Trump as president. I want to be here to support him,” said Stephanie Madden, 52, of Centerville, at the rally.
“I’m here to support Trump because I think he’s what we need. I think everyone is done with Biden,” said Mike Curry, 60, of Xenia.
Moreno also took the stage, denouncing “establishment” Republicans who he said fought Trump when he was president.
“But these guys get to Washington, D.C. and their spine is metaphorically removed from their bodies. They cave and they become reliable votes for Democrats,” said Moreno, a Westlake businessman who is one of three Republicans running for U.S. Senate in Tuesday’s primary.
Moreno called for an “America First” agenda that he said will include deporting everyone in the country “illegally” and requiring that voting be in English, and eliminating the U.S. Department of Education.
Moreno said he is sick of hearing Republicans say they like Trump’s policies but “don’t like the man.”
“This is a good man. This is a great American,” Moreno said.
Other speakers included U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Urbana and South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, all of whom praised both Trump and Moreno.
Moreno is running against state Sen. Matt Dolan of Chagrin Falls and Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose of Columbus in the March 19 primary. In November the winner will challenge incumbent Democrat U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, who is unopposed in his primary.
“Today, Bernie Moreno proved once again that he’s out for himself, not Ohioans,” Katie Smith, spokeswoman for the Ohio Democratic Party, said in a statement released Saturday. “From refusing to pay his employees the overtime they had earned and going so far as to deliberately destroy evidence to cover it up, to supporting a national abortion ban which would overrule Ohioans, to opposing the bill that would crack down on fentanyl coming from China and Mexico — it’s clear that Moreno won’t work for Ohio.”
The Dolan and LaRose campaigns also released statements.
“President Trump’s visit is a reminder of the strength of America under his presidency and the disaster we face under President Biden,” LaRose said in a statement released Saturday. “I welcome President Trump to Ohio and look forward to working with him to fix our nation as Ohio’s next senator.”
“Bernie Moreno can’t beat Sherrod Brown and he won’t win this primary. This last minute attempt to drag his struggling campaign across the finish line will only make it harder and more expensive to win the senate in November,” Dolan campaign spokesman Chris Maloney said on Tuesday.
In advance of Trump’s appearance, the Democratic National Committee put out a statement criticizing Trump’s economic record.
“Donald Trump’s trip to Ohio is a stark reminder of how he failed workers in the state and across the country: When factories shut down under his watch, he said ‘it doesn’t really matter’ while he focused on rigging the economy for the ultra-wealthy and mega corporations at the expense of hardworking families,” said DNC Rapid Response Director Alex Floyd. “Trump broke his promises and put workers last while he was in office as factories closed and manufacturing jobs were shipped overseas.”
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