Former President Donald Trump took the stage before 1000’s of individuals at a campaign rally in Chesapeake, Virginia, on Friday afternoon, a day after squaring off with President Joe Biden in the primary presidential debate of the 2024 campaign season.
“As every American saw firsthand last night, this election is a choice between strength and weakness, competence and incompetence, peace and prosperity or war,” Trump told the gang.
The rally at Historic Greenbrier Farms drew 1000’s of supporters, lots of whom had been waiting in line for hours. Gates opened at 11 a.m. and speakers took the stage around 2 p.m., including former Gov. Bob McDonnell, U.S. Rep. Jen Kiggans and Republican Senate candidate Hung Cao.
To turn Virginia red, Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin appeared on the identical stage with Trump for the primary time. The governor said the United States needs a brand new leader and cited the southern border and the economy as top issues under the Biden administration.
“A friend of mine once told me that all roads lead through Hampton Roads,” Youngkin said. “(Virginia and North Carolina residents) are here and will help elect Donald J. Trump to the White House. Yes, all roads lead through Hampton Roads, and Joe Biden's road to retirement leads right through Hampton Roads.”
Traffic was backed up on the Chesapeake Expressway early Friday afternoon as supporters arrived on the 500-acre farm. Several attendees said it took about two hours to get through security on the event site.
Vendors sold all varieties of Trump merchandise, from T-shirts bearing Trump's original slogan, “Make America Great Again,” to candles, baseball caps, and even Trump's newly released gold sneakers. Other items reflected more current events. Several of the T-shirts on the market bore the slogan “I'm voting for the felon.”
Trump was found guilty last month of 34 counts of felony charges in reference to a plot to illegally influence the 2016 election by paying hush money to a porn star after claiming they’d sex.
Youngkin's appearance alongside Trump dispels long-standing doubts about whether Virginia lawmakers would ever fully embrace the previous president. Until recently, Youngkin and Trump had a relatively lukewarm relationship. Although Youngkin didn’t criticize the previous president, he avoided appearing with him in public and waited until Trump could claim the Republican nomination to support his campaign. Amid speculation in 2022 that Youngkin may his own candidacy for the presidencyTrump raged on social media, claiming Youngkin would never have been elected without his support and mocking the governor's last name.
Trump lost Virginia in 2016 and 2020, but a survey from Roanoke College last month indicated that Trump and Biden are neck and neck within the Commonwealth, with Biden holding a narrow two-percent lead when the opposite candidates are included.
“Our request for Virginia is very simple,” Trump said. “We're going to close the border. We're going to make the American dream affordable again. We're going to bring back the American dream, something you don't hear about anymore. Together with your great Governor Glenn Youngkin, you're going to get the American dream back. We're going to make Virginia greater than it's ever been before.”
During his speech, Trump mocked Biden's concerns about climate change, saying nuclear weapons in other countries pose a much greater risk to the United States. Trump used an incorrect number to explain the speed of sea level rise, saying sea levels could “rise 1/8 of an inch in the next 497 years” and joking that this might result in more waterfront property.
Accordingly probably the most recent certificate According to the Virginia Institute of Marine Science at William & Mary, Norfolk has an increase rate of 5.38 millimeters (0.212 inches) per yr, the best rate on the East Coast. The forecast measures changes in relative sea level — the peak of water relative to the land surface where people live. More broadly, NASA reported that sea levels rose globally by about 0.3 inches, or 0.76 centimeters, from 2022 to 2023, a “relatively large jump,” in keeping with the report.
Before Thursday's debate in Atlanta, Trump and Biden had not been on the identical stage or spoken to one another since their last debate weeks before the 2020 presidential election. Trump was absent from Biden's inauguration after leading an unprecedented and unsuccessful try and overturn his defeat to Biden that culminated within the rebellion of his supporters on the Capitol on Jan. 6.
Biden spoke at his own campaign rally within the afternoon in Raleigh, North Carolina.
In his speech, Trump also accused Biden of weaponizing the Justice Department and using law enforcement to harm his political opponent.
The charges for which Trump was convicted were brought by state prosecutors, not federal prosecutors. He faces a litany of other criminal chargesincluding conspiracy to to overturn the results of his election defeat in 2020. There isn’t any evidence that Biden directed the Justice Department or local prosecutors to pursue criminal prosecutions against Trump.
Meanwhile, Trump has called for retaliation within the wake of his convictions. Asked in the course of the debate What Trump meant when he said he would have “every right to attack his political opponents” if elected, Trump responded that “my retribution will be success.”
The last time Trump held a rally in Hampton Roads was in September 2020, when the then-president spoke to 1000’s on the tarmac of Newport News/Williamsburg International Airport.
One attendee at Friday's event, Theresa Evans of Chesapeake, said it was her first time attending a Trump rally. Evans said she is most concerned in regards to the state of the American economy and believes Trump will “get us back on track.”
“Our country is very divided and that is not a good thing,” Evans said.
Another participant, Olivia Ashworth, traveled overnight from South Point, Ohio, to attend the rally, arriving in Chesapeake at 2 a.m. Friday.
“I will take every opportunity to support him,” Ashworth said. “I absolutely love Trump and he will get back in office.”
The 22-year-old said the economy was her biggest concern.
“Everyone is struggling,” she said of the price of living.
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