At huge Ohio rally, Trump knocks Biden on border, hints at 2024 plans
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[June 28, 2021]
By Nathan Layne
WELLINGTON, Ohio (Reuters) -At his second
rally since leaving the White House, former President Donald Trump on
Saturday lambasted the Biden administration's immigration policies and
sought to energize Republicans to take back majorities in Congress next
year.
Appearing to relish being back in front of thousands of supporters,
Trump repeated his false claim that his defeat in the November 2020
election was marred by fraud.
Trump left office in the aftermath of the deadly Jan. 6 attack on the
U.S. Capitol by his supporters, shortly after a speech in which he urged
a crowd to "fight" when then President-elect Joe Biden's victory was
about to be certified by lawmakers.
Trump survived a second impeachment on a charge linked to the violence
and has kept broad influence over the Republican Party, in part by
leaving open the question of whether he will run for office again in
2024.
He dangled that possibility on Saturday to the crowd.
"We won the election twice and it's possible we'll have to win it a
third time. It's possible," he said.
Trump won the 2016 election against former Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton. He lost in 2020.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2021/Jun/21/images/062121PIX/graue_21ENCORE_062121.png)
Whether he runs again could be influenced by the outcome of various
legal troubles. The Manhattan district attorney’s office has told
Trump's lawyers it is considering filing criminal charges against his
family business, the New York Times reported on Friday.
The former president highlighted parts of his regular grievance list at
the rally, with particular focus on the rising number of immigrants
crossing over the U.S. southern border, an issue Republicans have zeroed
in on to rally their voters.
"You have millions of people coming into our country. We have no idea
who they are. Joe Biden is doing the exact opposite as we did," Trump
said.
Biden's White House has called Trump's immigration policies inhumane.
While keeping his political plans vague, the former president spoke
forcefully in favor of getting his party back in control of the U.S.
House of Representatives and Senate.
"We will take back the House, we will take back the Senate, and we will
take back America, and we will do it soon," he said.
Democrats' razor-thin majorities in both chambers of Congress will be on
the line in the 2022 midterm elections and history favors Republicans'
chances of gaining seats in those contests.
REVENGE ENDORSEMENTS
While Trump has made speeches at Republican events since his defeat, the
rally in Ohio, a state he won in 2020, marked a return to the
freewheeling mass gatherings that have been critical to retaining the
support of his enthusiastic base.
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At his second rally since leaving the White House, former President
Donald Trump on Saturday lambasted the Biden administration's
immigration policies and sought to energize Republicans to take back
majorities in Congress next year.
![](../images/ads/current/centraldirect_lda_SPONSOR_2021.png)
He campaigned for former White House aide Max Miller,
who has launched a primary challenge against Representative Anthony
Gonzalez, one of the 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach
Trump on a charge of inciting the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol that
left five dead, including a Capitol Police officer.
Trump has vowed to campaign against all 10. He endorsed a challenger
to Senator Lisa Murkowski, the only one of the seven Senate
Republicans who voted to convict him in his January
impeachment trial who is up for re-election in 2022.
The Ohio event in Wellington, about 40 miles (64 km) southwest of
Cleveland, was the first of three expected public appearances,
followed by a trip to the U.S.-Mexico border with Texas Governor
Greg Abbott on June 30 and a rally in Sarasota, Florida, on July 3.
Supporters said they hoped Trump would use such events to help unify
the party behind like-minded candidates for Congress.
Trump repeatedly attacked what he called "woke generals," following
an exchange this week in which the top U.S. military officer hit
back against a growing conservative movement opposed to
teaching certain theories about racism.
"Our generals and our admirals are now focused more on this nonsense
than they are on our enemies," Trump said.
He criticized the media, a regular foil, and tried to co-opt the
phrase "Big Lie," which critics have used to describe his efforts to
discredit the 2020 results.
Trump's repeated false claims of election fraud have taken hold of
Republican voters. Some 53% of Republicans believe Trump won the
2020 election and blame his loss on illegal voting, and one quarter
of the overall public agreed that Trump won, a Reuters/Ipsos poll
found.
Rally attendee Tyler Voyik, 64, said he came to the rally to show
his support for Trump, who he voted for in 2016 and 2020.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2021/Jun/28/images/ads/current/christianvillage_sda_SPONSOR_042720.png)
Voyik lives in Ohio but spends a lot of time in Florida. He would
support Trump if he got the nomination in 2024 but would prefer
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
"I think he could do better by supporting somebody else, but if he
runs I’ll support him," Voyik said. "If he wins the nomination I’ll
support him all the way."
(Reporting by Nathan Layne; additional reporting by Jeff Mason and
Mike Stone; Writing by Jeff Mason and Nathan Layne; Editing by Scott
Malone, Chris Reese and Simon Cameron-Moore)
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