Republican nominee delivers fiery two-hour speech in which he mocks Democrats and repeats false claims about election fraud. Former United States President Donald Trump has held his first campaign rally since surviving last week’s assassination attempt, delivering a fiery and rambling two-hour speech in which he lashed out at Democrats and repeated a string of false claims about immigration and election fraud. The rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan, took place on Saturday amid heightened security as Trump’s speech marked a return to his usual campaign tactics of insults, false claims and offensive language.
Keep reading The Republican nominee, who had called for national unity in the aftermath of the shooting, mocked Democratic President Joe Biden as feeble and compared former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi with a “dog”. The crowd of thousands laughed and cheered as he called on them to “fight, fight, fight”, evoking the moment after his attempted assassination on July 13, when, bloodied and surrounded by Secret Service agents, he raised a fist in the air and shouted, “fight”. Al Jazeera’s Phil Lavelle, reporting from Grand Rapids, said Trump’s supporters had come out in force to show their support for their candidate in Michigan, a crucial battleground state in the November election.
“For hours before this rally began, there were queues. People were lining up for miles,” Lavelle said. “Everybody I spoke to said we want to be here, we want to support Donald.