Donald Trump needs Pennsylvania to win the election. In a speech there, he railed against crime supposedly made possible by Kamala Harris. And recommended “brutal violence.”
It is one of the most competitive states: If Donald Trump and Kamala Harris want to win the presidency, they each have to win Pennsylvania. The Republican candidate is now relying on rhetorical escalation in a speech there. The best way to prevent crime is violence, he claimed.
“These stores have to close, they won’t pay rent anymore,” Trump complained at the campaign rally in Eerie. The lax approach to shoplifters and other criminals is to blame; they simply don’t tackle them hard enough. His solution: violence. “All it takes is one violent day,” he explained. “One brutal hour – and I mean brutal – and word gets out. It will stop in an instant.”
Donald Trump relies on police violence
The proposal, which was applauded by the audience, sounds familiar to many observers. “Who let him watch ‘The Purge’?” wonders not only X user Bill DeMayo. In the horror film, crime is combated by allowing even the most brutal crimes such as murder for twelve hours. With predictable consequences.
In fact, in Trump’s vision there is less general anarchy, but it is not any less scary: the presidential candidate does not want to allow violence for everyone. In his imagination, police officers should finally be able to strike freely. “They want it, but they’re not allowed to,” Trump claims, referring to the police and border officials. “They’re not allowed to because the liberal left forbids them. They want to destroy them.” As soon as a police officer acts too harshly, “he loses his pension rights, his family, his house,” said Trump. The one “brutal” hour should fix that.
“Clear joke”
His campaign team tried to catch up with the escalation after the fact. The police violence was “clearly suggested in jest,” spokesman Steven Cheung told Politico. “President Trump has always been the law and order president, and he now continues to emphasize the importance of enforcing existing laws.” His opponent Kamala Harris, on the other hand, would have allowed “complete anarchy” during her time as chief prosecutor in California.
The attack against Harris can also be found in Trump’s speech. She allowed “you to steal $950 worth of goods without any consequences,” Trump claimed. During Harris’ term in office, a referendum was passed in the state that no longer classed thefts below this value as a crime, but only as a misdemeanor. However, Harris had nothing to do with it: Arnold Schwarzenegger had passed the legislative initiative during his time as governor – i.e. a Republican. Harris had shown herself to be neutral towards the law; as a prosecutor, she was criticized for being too harsh.
Contested swing state
The fact that Trump’s failure occurred in Pennsylvania should not be a coincidence. The swing state is considered one of the most important states to ensure electoral success. Because Pennsylvania has the most electoral votes of the seven states in contention, the state could end up being decisive. Won by Trump in 2016, Joe Biden won it in 2020. In both cases the difference was only a small percentage point of the votes cast. “If we win Pennsylvania, we have won,” emphasized Trump in his speech on Sunday. Harris is currently ahead of Trump by a hair’s breadth in polls by one percentage point.
Sources:Reuters, Politico