Trump's restless week on the trail ends with a rally riff about Arnold Palmer's manhood
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Former President Donald Trump called Kamala Harris a "sh** vice president" and implied golfer Arnold Palmer was well-endowed during a rambling Saturday rally in Pennsylvania that capped off a tumultuous week on the campaign trail.
Speaking in Latrobe, Penn., where Palmer was born, Trump delivered a lengthy monologue about the late golfer's life story and praised him as "all man," including an off-color joke about Palmer's anatomy.
"Arnold Palmer was all man, and I say that in all due respect to women — and I love women," Trump said. "But this guy, this guy, this is a guy that was all man. This man was strong and tough. And I refuse to say it, but when he took showers with the other pros, they came out of there, they said, 'Oh my God, that's unbelievable.'"
In the closing weeks of the 2024 campaign, Trump's rally speeches largely mirror the same trajectory as earlier in the year — meandering missives that paint a dire picture of an America governed by Democrats and overrun by migrants, touting a tariff-driven economic plan that's light on details, and aggressively railing against his political opponents — especially Democrats like Harris.
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After an extended riff mocking Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Trump said Harris was more "radical left crazy" than Warren and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.
"So you have to tell Kamala Harris that you've had enough, that you just can't take it anymore, we can't stand you, you're a sh** vice president," Trump told a roaring crowd. "The worst. You're the worst vice president. Kamala, you're fired! Get the hell out of here!"
Trump then asked the crowd how they liked the flyover his campaign plane did before landing and encouraged them to vote.
It was an unusually energetic rally for the former president, who has looked and sounded tired of late while doing multiple events and interviews a day across multiple swing states.
Harris' campaign has made a pointed attempt to highlight Trump's energy levels as part of a closing message that argues the 78-year-old does not have the stamina or fitness to lead the country.
"He is only focused on himself, and now he's ducking debates and canceling interviews because of exhaustion," Harris said at a rally in Atlanta Saturday night. "And when he does answer a question or speak at a rally, have you noticed he tends to go off script and ramble and generally for the life of him cannot finish a thought?"
Trump had a rough week with only a few of them left in the election
With less than 17 days until the final votes will be cast in the election, Trump's campaign blitz hit several bumps this past week.
Monday, a town hall in Oaks, Pa., was interrupted by two medical incidents in the hot, crowded room. After the second call for a medic, Trump opted to stop the question-and-answer session and instead played music for more than half an hour, swaying along to his favorite songs on stage while the crowd watched.
Tuesday, he sat for a contentious interview with Bloomberg News, taped a Fox News town hall focused on women's issues and then delivered remarks in suburban Atlanta, where he sounded a somber note about potentially losing the election.
"If you don't win win win, we've all had a good time, but it's not going to matter, right?" he asked. "Sadly, because what we've done is amazing: Three nominations in a row, what we've done. We've got to win. If we don't win, it's like was all —it was all for not very much. We can't, can't let that happen."
Wednesday, Trump's Fox town hall with an all-women audience aired, where he called himself the "father of IVF" and said Alabama Sen. Katie Britt (a "fantastically attractive person") had to explain to him what in vitro fertilization was before he supported it.
He also participated in a Univision town hall with Latino voters where he doubled down on false claims about Haitian migrants eating pets in Ohio and called the Jan. 6 insurrection attempt a "day of love."
At a Catholic charity dinner known for jokes in New York Thursday, Trump's remarks largely focused on Harris, who didn't attend. At his Friday rally in Michigan, the microphone stopped working a few minutes into his speech, as he began to talk about tariffs.
Trump paced the stage silently for about 20 minutes until audio was restored, while the screens behind him eventually said "TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES" and "COMPLICATED BUSINESS."
"If it goes off again, I'll sue their a** off," Trump half-joked about the production company.
Trump has another rally Sunday night in Pennsylvania and a full week of events in key states coming up. More than 13 million people have already voted in the presidential election, with a little over two more weeks of voting left.
Copyright 2024, NPR