Trump calls for “violent” police action and insults Harris

Donald Trump used a speech in the key swing state of Pennsylvania on Sunday to urge a “violent” police crackdown on crime in the United States and repeated his new insult for Kamala Harris, calling her mentally disabled.

Pennsylvania is considered the most important of the seven battleground states that will likely decide the balance in the Nov. 5 presidential election.

Harris, the Democratic nominee, was scheduled to address supporters later Sunday in another battleground, Nevada.

Republican candidate Trump, who held a similar rally in swing state Wisconsin on Saturday, repeated his dark, racially charged message about an America collapsing under the “invasion” of violent migrants and other criminals.

Trump reported isolated but widely publicized incidents of thieves carrying out brazen daytime raids on stores in major cities, drawing loud cheers when he said police should be “extraordinarily rough.”

Criminals, he said, “need to be taught” and this could be done “if you were having a really violent day.”

“A hard hour — and I mean really hard — would spread the word and end immediately,” Trump said.

“The police aren’t allowed to do their job” because “the liberal left won’t allow it.”

As he did Saturday in Wisconsin, Trump spent much of his speech painting a picture of a failing United States overrun by what he said were “massive numbers of savage criminal aliens that Kamala Harris has allowed to invade.”

He claimed “terrorists are pouring into our country” and cited “a large prison in the Congo in Africa” ​​as a source for “many people” last week.

Since Trump’s presidential victory in 2016, anti-immigrant sentiment has been at the heart of Trump’s appeal in economically depressed, majority-white parts of the country, but as Election Day approaches, the rhetoric has become more extreme.

After a record number of illegal border crossings early in President Joe Biden’s term, a tightening of rules – to the dismay of immigration rights and civil rights groups – led to a plunge in numbers this year.

According to the FBI, crime, including murder, has also fallen sharply across the country.

Trump has long prided himself on his ability to coin offensive nicknames or insults for his opponents, and on Sunday he repeated one he aired on Saturday in which he called former California top prosecutor and current Vice President Harris “mentally disabled.” .

“The corrupt Joe Biden became mentally disabled. Sad. But the lie Kamala Harris, honestly, I think she was born that way,” Trump said to loud laughter from the crowd.

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