Donald Trump held his first campaign rally on Saturday since narrowly escaping an assassination attempt a week ago, mocking Democrats and at one point comparing former Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to a “dog.”
Trump called for national unity in his speech accepting his party’s presidential nomination at the Republican National Convention on Thursday, but he made no mention of it in his speech to a crowd of supporters in Grand Rapids.
He has frequently mocked Democratic President Joe Biden as weak. He has ridiculed senior Democrats, including Pelosi, for trying to persuade Biden not to run for re-election.
“She’s turned against them like a dog. She’s as crazy as a bedbug,” Trump said, referring to Pelosi.
The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment about Trump’s comparison of Pelosi to a dog.
Trump, who just returned from his nominating convention where his hold on the Republican Party was confirmed, appeared in Grand Rapids with his new vice presidential candidate, Ohio Senator J.D. Vance. They took the stage to unite the Republican Party in their first campaign event.
In contrast, it is no longer certain that President Joe Biden will be the Democratic Party’s nominee to face Trump in the November 5 election.
Biden faced calls from some senior Democrats to end his re-election campaign after a poor performance in a debate last month, raising concerns about whether he would be able to beat Trump or serve another four-year term.
Trump attacked Democrats, saying they wanted to remove Biden from the ticket after he won the presidential race.
“They’ve got a couple of problems. No. 1, they have no idea who their candidate is,” Trump said to laughter and jeers. “This guy goes and gets votes and now they want to take him away.”
“As you see, the Democrat Party is not the party of democracy. They are actually the enemies of democracy.”
He added: “And they keep saying, ‘He’s a threat to democracy.’ I say, ‘What did I do to democracy?’
I took a bullet for democracy last week.”
Trump mentioned the assassination attempt several times on Saturday. “I hope I don’t have to do that again. It was horrible,” Trump said.
Opinion polls show a close contest between Trump and Biden nationally, but Biden is trailing Trump in states that will likely determine the winner.
Many Democrats fear he has no realistic path to victory and that the party needs a new nominee to take on Trump.
There was a heavy police presence at Trump’s rally in Grand Rapids on Saturday, with police posted on every street corner for several blocks.
US Secret Service officers were stationed on the top balconies of Van Andel Arena, giving them a clear view of the crowd inside.
The bag searches of those entering the indoor area earlier in the day were lengthy and thorough, and it took the Secret Service about an hour longer than usual to search the building.
The rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, last weekend was held outdoors. At that event, the gunman managed to climb to the roof of a building outside the Secret Service perimeter and then shot at Trump, severing his ear, killing one rally attendee and wounding several others.
The Secret Service, which is responsible for protecting Trump, declined to comment on security at the Grand Rapids event. Security lapses at the Butler rally are under investigation.
Trump detailed his near-death experience in his convention speech Thursday, telling listeners he was only speaking to them “by the grace of Almighty God.”
Trump’s former physician Ronny Jackson said Saturday that the former president was recovering as expected from a gunshot wound to his right ear but was bleeding intermittently and said Trump may need hearing tests.
Jackson, a Republican congressman from Texas who has served as physician to Presidents Trump and Barack Obama, said the bullet fired by the would-be assassin at the July 13 rally in Pennsylvania “missed less than a quarter-inch from entering his head.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
