news

Trump makes defense on age at PA Town Hall ahead of Steelers game

Vaseline October 21, 2024

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump pushed back against attacks on his age on Sunday during a campaign event in the state of Pennsylvania, which came between a visit to hand out french fries at a McDonald’s and plans to attend a Pittsburgh Steelers game.

“I’m not 80, and I’m not that close to 80,” the 78-year-old former president said at a town hall event in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

“I did cognitive tests. I’ve done them twice, and I’ve done them both, and the doctor in one case said, ‘I’ve never seen anyone who could get them,’” Trump added.

Trump appeared to be referring to the Montreal Cognitive Assessment that his White House physician, Ronny Jackson, now a Republican congressman from Texas, said the then-president answered perfectly in January 2018. Trump has previously claimed to have passed that test, which takes approx. 10 minutes and asks 30 questions, including naming the animal in a picture and repeating a series of words.

During Sunday’s town hall, Trump also took a tough stance on Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris’ evolving position on fracking, an energy extraction technique used for natural gas in Pennsylvania and more than two dozen other states. Harris called for a ban on the practice when she first ran for president in 2019, although she now says she would allow it.

Earlier in the day, the former president visited a McDonald’s in Feasterville, Pennsylvania, where he donned an apron, worked the chip shop and handed out food to pre-screened people at the drive-thru.

Harris, for her part, celebrated her 60th birthday on Sunday with a visit to two churches in Georgia, where she encouraged early voting in another key swing state.

‘She may have a cognitive problem’

Democrats have taken heat over Trump’s age and behavior in recent days, including a town hall in Pennsylvania last week where the Republican presidential nominee walked around to music for nearly 40 minutes after ending the question and answer portion of his event due to two medical emergencies in the crowd.

At a fundraiser in Boston, Tim Walz, the Democratic vice presidential candidate and two-term governor of Minnesota, referenced Trump’s comments at a rally on Saturday in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, where the former president shared a story about the private anatomy of a former professional golfer, praising the personal anatomy of a former professional golfer. the late Arnold Palmer as ‘all man’.

“These are people who are out there, and I run into them – hell, they’re in my family – and I run into them, they – ‘I don’t really like Trump.’ Are you saying you don’t like him talking about Arnold Palmer in the shower, that kind of stuff you don’t like?’ Walz said Sunday. “And they are quite embarrassed.”

Trump pushed back on criticism over his age at his Sunday town hall by spotlighting Wall Street Journal opinion writer James Taranto, who wrote in a recent article that there was no “derailment” in Trump when the Republican nominee met with the newspaper’s editorial. on board on Thursday. Although Trump’s “discursive way of talking can confuse listeners,” Taranto said that was also the case nine years ago.

At his town hall, Trump tried to turn the tables on Harris again. “She may have a cognitive problem, but there is no cognitive problem,” he said.

‘Frack, baby, frack’

Asked by a small businessman at Lancaster town hall about gas prices, Trump promised that his future administration would cut electricity and energy bills in half “within a year” by implementing policies that expanded oil and gas production.

‘What are we going to do? Drills, baby drill. Frack, baby frack,” Trump said.

Trump’s campaign then played for town hall attendees a series of video clips of Harris discussing energy policy during her 2020 presidential campaign, including one in which she said she was “committed to passing a Green New Deal and finally always end fracking’. for everyone.”

“She doesn’t want fracking. She never wanted fracking,” Trump said.

Trump also claimed that Harris, along with California Governor Gavin Newsom, was “destroying” California, but repeatedly mispronounced Newsom’s last name to sound like New “scum.”

“We will not let her destroy America,” he said.

Trump calls for protecting law enforcement from ‘the bad stuff’

A Pennsylvania sheriff who said he had supported Trump asked the former president how his law-and-order plan would support local sheriffs. Trump responded that law enforcement officers needed to be protected from any legal consequences.

“We have to protect our law enforcement. We have to compensate them for the bad things,” Trump said.

Trump said a law enforcement officer doing his job is often attacked by critics who want to take away their job or pension, or have the person fired.

“We have people who need to be given back their authority and respect because our cities are exploding,” he said.

Trump goes to the Steelers game as Harris shows his support

Trump said he plans to attend Sunday night’s Steelers-New York Jets game at Acrisure Stadium in Pittsburgh.

In a press release before the game, the Harris campaign praised the messages of support from former Steelers players Jerome “The Bus” Bettis and Joe Greene, as well as the family of former player Franco Harris, who died in 2022.

“It’s time we elect a leader who will fight for us. Someone who will roll up their sleeves and get the job done. Not just complaining about it in a half-empty room,” Bettis said in a video. “There is only one person in this race who meets that goal: Vice President Kamala Harris.”

The Steelers are owned by Arthur Rooney II. His father, the late Dan Rooney, served as U.S. ambassador to Ireland during the Obama administration. The Jets are co-owned by Robert Wood Johnson IV, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Kingdom during the Trump administration.

(This story has been updated with more information.)