Trump will speak at the Mohegan Sun Arena to support Doug Mastriano, who is running for governor against Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Schapiro, and Dr. Mehmet Oz, who is taking on Democratic Lt. Gov. John Fetterman in the U.S. Senate race. USA. Oz and Mastriano fired up the crowd before Trump’s speech as they criticized Biden and a range of Democratic policies ranging from COVID to immigration. “I think the only thing that Joe Biden built better is the Republican Party,” Oz said. Supporters of the former president lined the parking lot hours before Trump took the stage. Trump’s appearance in Pennsylvania comes days after President Joe Biden made back-to-back visits to the battleground state, in which he denounced Trump and his fellow “MAGA Republicans” as the dominant force in the current GOP and a threat to American democracy. “A lot of what’s happening in our country today is not normal,” Biden said in a prime-time speech from Independence Hall in Philadelphia on Thursday. “Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our democracy.” Biden’s heightened rhetoric comes as he tries to reframe the November election as a choice between those who want to save the “soul of the nation” or those he says are a danger to democracy. Trump supporters waiting in line to see the former president make remarks criticized Biden’s rhetoric and said it only emboldened them ahead of the midterms. Evy Mecjes and Debbie Latsha called Biden’s speech “very divisive.” “We are now the bad guys. We are the terrorists of the United States of America,” Mecjes said. Lacha said Biden’s speech showed how “scared” we Democrats were about the power Trump still has over the Republican Party. “They’re a little afraid of all the people who are rising up and whose eyes are being opened, who are waking up to what’s really going on in our government,” Latsa said. “So let’s see if we can crush them a little more and divide people a little more. I mean, there was nothing unifying about it.” They defended Trump supporters by pointing to school closings during the pandemic and inflation as examples of how Democrats have hurt Americans. “People are up in arms because we’re angry about how our government is treating us, and you know, President Biden doesn’t speak for the people,” Metges observed. Biden will return to Pennsylvania again on Sunday, spending part of the Labor Day weekend in Pittsburgh. Merchandise is available for sale as people gather to hear former President Donald Trump speak as he endorses local candidates at Mohegan Sun Arena, September 3, 2022, in Wilkes-Barre, Pa. Spencer Platt/Getty Images While Republicans have been generally favored to regain control of both houses of Congress this midterm cycle, recent Democratic legislative victories and some positive economic news have boosted Democrats’ chances of retaining their majority. Amid these high stakes, Trump’s rally also comes as fallout continues from an Aug. 8 FBI search of his Mar-a-Lago estate, where agents discovered classified documents as part of an investigation into the handling of presidential files after he left office. Attorneys for the Justice Department and Trump faced off in court Thursday over whether a judge-ordered independent review of Mar-a-Lago documents by a special master should be conducted. The judge, Aileen Cannon, has yet to rule on the matter. Former President Donald Trump arrives at a rally, Aug. 5, 2022, in Waukesha, Wis. Morry Gash/AP, FILE On Friday, Judge Cannon unsealed a detailed inventory showing what the FBI seized during the investigation. The list says some documents marked confidential to top secret were found mixed in with newspaper clippings, photographs and other documents. The inventory also revealed that the government seized dozens of folders that were empty but either had a “CONFIDENTIAL” banner or were marked “Return to Staff Secretary/Military Assistant.” Trump has denied wrongdoing as he publicly pushes back against the investigation. Those who lined up to hear him speak Saturday expressed their belief that Trump was unfairly targeted. “I don’t feel like he did anything wrong. I think this will come out in the end, but they just want to turn people against Trump,” said Barbara, a voter from Mountain Top, Pennsylvania.
