The president made three campaign rally-like appearances at airports in Minnesota and Wisconsin in an attempt to counterprogram the first night of the Democratic National Convention.
President Trump questioned former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s mental capabilities and mocked Senator Kamala Harris of California as an extreme liberal in three campaign rally-like appearances on Monday as Democrats began their four-day national political convention nominally in Milwaukee but largely online. Standing in front of Air Force One in Wisconsin, a state that delivered 10 critical electoral votes for the president’s 2016 victory over Hillary Clinton, Mr. Trump warned that the 2020 election was a “fight for the survival of our nation and civilization itself” and condemned Mr. Biden as a puppet of the “radical left” in the Democratic Party. “You want to crush our economy,” Mr. Trump asked the crowd at the Oshkosh airport, “under the crazy socialist policies of Sleepy Joe Biden and his boss, Kamala Harris — Kamala — and his other boss, Nancy Pelosi — she’s a beauty — and his ruler, Bernie Sanders, Crazy Bernie, or do you want to quickly rebuild the strongest economy in the history of the world?” Mr. Trump’s re-election campaign has struggled to get traction amid the coronavirus pandemic that has devastated the nation’s economy and forced cancellations and shutdowns across vast swaths of American life. The president’s early dismissals of the threat from the virus, and his administration’s chaotic response, have helped drive some of his poll numbers down to double-digit deficits against Mr. Biden. Mr. Trump pointedly chose Oshkosh, not far from Milwaukee, in an attempt to counterprogram four days of speeches from Democratic Party stars and some Republicans who have soured on Mr. Trump. At a stop earlier on Monday in Mankato, Minn., Mr. Trump delivered an hourlong speech to a small crowd at the airport, accusing Mr. Biden of wanting to raise taxes, weaken police departments, open borders, increase the cost of energy and lock people in their homes because of the pandemic.
