Former President Donald Trump claimed that he – not President Joe Biden – would protect Social Security, warning that he would lose his bid to senate candidate Bernie Moreno in Ohio in November. There will be a “massacre”.
Speaking at a windswept airport outside Dayton on Saturday, Trump praised the candidate he selected during the campaign as “America’s No. 1 champion” and “a political outsider who has dedicated his life to building up communities in Ohio.”
“He’s going to be a warrior in Washington,” Trump said days after securing enough delegates to win the 2024 Republican nomination.
Moreno faces Secretary of State Frank LaRose and state Sen. Matt Dolan in Tuesday’s Republican primary. LaRose and Moreno are aligned with the pro-Trump faction of the party, while Dolan has the backing of more establishment Republicans, including Gov. Mike DeWine and former Sen. Rob Portman.
Saturday’s rally was hosted by Buckeye Values PAC, which supports Moreno’s candidacy. But Trump used the stage to deliver a profanity-laden version of his usual rally speech, once again painting an apocalyptic picture of the country if Biden wins a second term.
“If I’m not elected, it’s going to be a bloodbath… it’s going to be a bloodbath for the entire country,” he said of the impact of offshoring on the country’s auto industry and his increase in auto tariffs. warning when planning. Foreign-made cars.
Later, Trump claimed, “If we don’t win this election, I’m not sure there will be another election in this country.”
Trump repeatedly noted that he had difficulty reading through the teleprompter, which could be seen visibly swaying in wind gusts of 35 mph.
Moreno, a wealthy Cleveland businessman and former critic of Trump who supported Marco Rubio for president in the 2016 Republican primary, once said on Twitter that listening to Trump speak was “like watching a car accident. You feel sick, but you can stop watching.” In 2021, NBC News reported on an email from around the time Trump first ran for president in which Moreno called Trump “crazy” and “crazy.”
On Saturday, however, Moreno praised Trump as a “great American” and rebuked those in his party who criticized the former president, who this week became the party’s presumptive nominee for a third straight election. .
“I’m tired of Republicans saying, ‘I support President Trump’s policies, but I don’t like the man,'” he said as he took the stage with Trump.
Trump also dismissed recent accusations against Moreno, comparing them to the attacks he has faced over the years, including his criminal prosecution. Trump is charged in four separate cases covering his handling of classified documents and efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
“He’s receiving some very harsh fake treatment from the Democrats right now,” Trump said. “We’re not going to tolerate that.”
The Associated Press reported Thursday that in 2008, someone with access to Moreno’s work email account created a profile on an adult website seeking “men for one-on-one sex.” The AP could not definitively confirm that it was created by Moreno himself. Moreno’s attorneys said the account was created by a former intern and provided a statement from intern Dan Ricci, who said he created the account “as part of a teenage prank.”
Questions about the profile have circulated in Republican circles over the past month, sparking frustration among senior Republican officials about Moreno’s potential vulnerability in the general election, according to seven people directly familiar with conversations about how to resolve the issue. They spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid conflict with Trump and his allies.
In his speech, Trump also accused Biden of posing a threat to Social Security as he continued to clean up remarks from an interview earlier this week in which he appeared open to policy cuts.
“Your Social Security is going to disappear,” he warned of a second Biden term, despite Biden’s pledge to protect and strengthen Social Security as it faces projected budget shortfalls. “You’re not going to have Social Security while this guy is in office because he’s destroying our country’s economy. And that includes Medicare, by the way, and senior Americans are going to be in big trouble.”
“I promise I will always keep Social Security and Medicare. We will always keep it. We will never cut it,” he said.
“There’s a lot you can do about benefits, cuts and theft,” Trump said in an interview with CNBC in response to questions about Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. “And the mismanagement of entitlements, the mismanagement of entitlements. It’s extremely poorly managed. The amount of things you can do is huge.”
Trump also continued to criticize Biden’s handling of the border and immigration crisis. He also attacked Dolan, calling him a “weak greenhorn” (a Republican in name only) and accusing him of “trying to be the next Mitt Romney.” He also criticized the Dolan family, which owns the Cleveland baseball team, for changing its name from the Cleveland Indians to the Cleveland Guardians.
Trump’s rally was also attended by Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance and South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, both of whom have campaigned with Moreno and are considered potential vice presidential candidates.
Trump’s decision to endorse Moreno is a major blow to LaRose, who has taken several steps to win Trump’s favor. Days into the Senate race, LaRose endorsed Trump for president, reversing his previous stance that the state’s election chief should remain politically neutral. The next month, he fired a longtime trusted aide after old tweets critical of Trump surfaced.
The winner of Tuesday’s primary will face third-term Sen. Sherrod Brown in November, seen as one of the most vulnerable Democrats in the country.
Brown, first elected in 2006, ran uncontested in the primary this year and managed to hold on to his seat even as the state shifted to the right. In his most recent re-election in 2018, he defeated then-Rep. Jim Renacci was almost 7 points higher. Two years later, Ohio voted for then-President Trump by 8 percentage points.
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