Former president condemns Kamala Harris and accuses Democrats of election fraud at North Carolina event
Appearing in a bulletproof glass pen, Donald Trump took the stage in Asheboro, North Carolina, for his first outdoor event since he was injured in a shooting at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, last month.
In the wake of the shooting, which left Trump with a bloodied ear, injured two rallygoers and killed one man, the Secret Service issued a temporary recommendation that the former president hold indoor rallies only. Then, last week, the Secret Service said it would use bulletproof glass to protect him at outdoor rallies.
Trump’s event in North Carolina formed part of the campaign’s counter-programming to the week of the star-studded Democratic national convention in Chicago, which has so far featured a lineup of Democratic politicians and celebrity cameos.
The rally opened with brief remarks from JD Vance, the embattled Republican vice-presidential candidate, who was granted less than a minute on stage. Trump went on to invite to the stage a parade of sheriffs, plus the North Carolina Republican gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson, who, Trump remarked in an aside, had “lost a lot of weight over the last couple of months”.
The group shuffled in and out of the bulletproof pen quickly before Trump launched into his speech focused on national security, featuring a series of well-established Maga talking points on Nato, Afghanistan and Russia, and attacks on his Democratic opponent, Kamala Harris.
