Former President Donald Trump on Sunday leaned heavily into claims of election fraud and appeared to call for violence against members of the press at his rally in Lititz, Pennsylvania, continuing an almost decadelong streak of attacking the media.
Speaking about the bulletproof glass positioned in front of his lectern, the former president said that for a bullet to hit him in an attempted assassination, a shooter would have to “shoot through the fake news, and I don’t mind that so much.”
“I have a piece of glass over here, and I don’t have a piece of glass there, and I have this piece of glass here,” Trump said, pointing out the glass around his lectern that has become common since he survived two assassination attempts earlier this year, one of which occurred at a similar outdoor rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Often cruel to his critics, Trump has been dwelling on his enemies’ violent demise in the final weeks of his campaign.
Trump has called Democrats “the enemy within,” called for shoplifters to be shot on sight, imagined former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney facing a firing squad, and suggested his former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff deserved to be executed.
“All we have really over here is the fake news,” Trump added. “And to get me, somebody would have to shoot through the fake news. And I don’t mind that so much.”
Earlier in the rally, Trump also blasted the press, telling his supporters that “the media is so damn bad. It’s unbelievable.”
He also named several media outlets specifically, telling attendees, “It’s one thing when CNN and MSNBC are crooked as hell. Look at CBS. Look what CBS did,” Trump said before blasting the network for its interview last month with Vice President Kamala Harris on “Face the Nation,” which he has repeatedly said was unfairly edited to paint Harris in a positive light. On Thursday, the former president sued the network, alleging that the interview with Harris was misleading.
Later in the rally, Trump said, “ABC, ABC, fake news, CBS, ABC, NBC. These are, these are, in my opinion, in my opinion, these are seriously corrupt people.”
In a statement, Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung defended the former president’s Sunday comments, saying, “President Trump was brilliantly talking about the two assassination attempts on his own life, including one that came within 1/4 of an inch from killing him, something that the Media constantly talks and jokes about.”
Cheung added, “The President’s statement about protective glass placement has nothing to do with the Media being harmed, or anything else. It was about threats against him that were spurred on by dangerous rhetoric from Democrats. In fact, President Trump was stating that the Media was in danger, in that they were protecting him and, therefore, were in great danger themselves, and should have had a glass protective shield, also. There can be no other interpretation of what was said. He was actually looking out for their welfare, far more than his own!”
Trump’s attacks are part of a longtime trend of attacking the media, which he’s done publicly since his first presidential run in 2016.
Back then, he referred to members of the press as “dishonest,” “not good people” and “scum” during press conferences and campaign events.
The former president’s remarks on Sunday came during a long speech in which he also attacked Harris as “corrupt,” called President Joe Biden “a poor, stupid guy,” and blasted former President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle Obama.
“I took over a mess because I took over the mess that Barack Hussein Obama [left],” Trump said at Sunday’s rally, adding that Obama was a “major troublemaker,” “a big divider” and “a terrible president.”
Trump also told the crowd, “I think we’re going to start having a little fun with Michelle. I think we’re going to have a little fun with Michelle, but I always treated her with a lot of respect.”
A spokesperson for the Obamas did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
At another point in the rally, Trump said he should not have left the White House on Jan. 20, 2021, when Biden was sworn in.
“The day that I left, I shouldn’t have left. I mean, honestly, because we did so, we did so well,” the former president told supporters.
And at the beginning of the rally, Trump focused his remarks on criticizing the way the election has been carried out, sharpening his attacks on mail-in voting and election security at the end of a cycle where some Republicans have been advocating for early voting.
The former president launched into an extended criticism of the American election process, calling for single-day voting and paper ballots while casting doubts about Election Day and the ensuing ballot counting process.
“I just heard that a couple of states may go an extra 12 days. How the hell do you have an election? You know, they spend all of this money on these damn machines and paper ballots, you’d have the, you’d have the answer by 9 o’clock tonight. It’s damn, it’s a damn shame,” Trump said, later arguing: “You ought to have the election over by 9 o’clock. I’m hearing now they’re going to take weeks.”
Trump also repeated unfounded claims of widespread election fraud in states like Pennsylvania and said the upcoming election is “all about the lawyers.”
“Every polling booth has hundreds of lawyers standing there. It’s all about the lawyers. Everybody, standard lawyers. Nobody should have that. You should have a damn ballot and you hand it in,” the former president said.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
