Donald Trump said he “shouldn’t have left” the White House after losing the election in 2020 as he appeared to veer off-script at a rally in Pennsylvania.
Trump targeted the swing states of Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Georgia on Sunday and made the remarks at his first rally of three in the borough of Lititz.
Much of the speech was spent repeating unfounded claims of voter fraud and election interference, as he did in 2020. “I shouldn’t have left, I mean, honestly,” he told the rally.
He claimed, without evidence, that the vote was rigged against him. “Isn’t this better than my speech?” he said, appearing to suggest he had deviated from the messaging. “Because, honestly, somebody’s got to talk about it,” Trump added.
Trump allies have tried to warn the former president to stop claiming the 2020 election was stolen. Lindsey Graham, one of Trump’s top allies, advised Trump that if he moves on from the claims “then January 6 won’t be your obituary,” according to Bob Woodward’s book War.
At the rally in Pennsylvania on Sunday morning, Trump also said he “wouldn’t mind” if someone had to “shoot through the fake news” to get to him.
Noting the ballistic glass placed in front of him at events after a gunman nearly assassinated him at a July rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, Trump talked about places where he saw openings.
“I have this piece of glass here,” he said. “But all we have really over here is the fake news. And to get me, somebody would have to shoot through the fake news. And I don’t mind that so much.”
His campaign later sought to clarify his meaning, claiming Trump was “actually looking out for the welfare” of the press.
“President Trump was brilliantly talking about the two assassination attempts on his own life, including one that came within 1/4 of an inch from killing him, something that the media constantly talks and jokes about,” campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung said in a statement. “The President’s statement about protective glass placement has nothing to do with the media being harmed, or anything else.”
Trump also referred to John Bolton, his former national security adviser and now a strident critic, as a “dumb son of a b****.” And he repeated familiar and debunked theories about voter fraud, alleging that Democrats could only win by cheating.
“It’s a crooked country,” Trump said. “And we’re going to make it straight. We’re going to make it straight.”