(The Center Square) – Former President Donald Trump on Wednesday appeared in Pennsylvania for the first time since an attempted assassination in Butler on July 13.
He took the stage in a packed auditorium in Harrisburg, where he chided Vice President Kamala Harris, the presumptive Democratic nominee, for shifting her public image and relying on celebrities to draw crowds to her rallies.
“We didn’t need a star,” he said. “We didn’t need some entertainer to fill it up.”
Trump’s comments come 10 days after Harris ascended to the top of the ticket vacated by President Joe Biden via a statement shared on social media.
Since then, delegates across the nation and top Pennsylvania Democrats – including Gov. Josh Shapiro – have thrown support behind the vice president.
The governor himself is on a short list to join Harris as a running mate, along with Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly and Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear.
One of the nation’s top election forecasters, Nate Silver, said Wednesday – 97 days from Election Day – that Harris’ chances of winning the November election have risen to 43%, “close enough that you could almost get away with calling the race a toss-up, something the Biden-Trump matchup never was.”
A poll conducted from July 20 through July 23 shows Trump holds a 2-percentage point lead over Harris. The vice president, however, is significantly more popular than Biden in the state.
Trump said Wednesday her “personality makeover” shouldn’t distract from her progressive stances on natural gas drilling, immigration, criminal justice and gender politics.
“Don’t forget four weeks ago she was like considered the worst,” he said. “Not smart, terrible, the worst vice president we’ve had in history … and all of sudden she’s the new Margaret Thatcher.
“You’re going to learn. Little things like ‘defund the police,’ that doesn’t work does it? Everything about Kamala Harris rollout, it’s phony and fake,” he added.
During a campaign rally in Montgomery County on Monday, Shapiro and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer attacked Trump as “dangerous” and “destructive.”
Shapiro also tied the Republican nominee to Project 2025, a conservative policy agenda developed by The Heritage Foundation.
Trump has said his platform doesn’t include Project 2025. Democrats, however, argue that the plan centers on him – whether he wants it to or not – and promotes far-right policies on abortion, public education and illegal border crossings.
