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Donald Trump defended his controversial Madison Square Garden rally as an “absolute lovefest” during a meandering hour-long address at his Mar-a-Lago resort on Tuesday, when he accused Kamala Harris of “trying to destroy our country”.
The Republican used the event at his country club in Palm Beach, Florida to rail against illegal immigration, lambast his Democratic opponent and reject criticism of his rally in New York on Sunday, when speakers made racist and misogynistic comments.
Standing in front of signs reading “Trump will fix it”, the former president hailed the event in Manhattan. “The love in that room, it was breathtaking,” he said. “There has never been an event so beautiful, it was like a lovefest, an absolute lovefest, and it was my honour to be involved.”
Trump’s comments contrasted with those from his campaign officials and other Republicans, who rushed to distance themselves from what was said at the rally, where one speaker called Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage” and another likened Harris to a prostitute with “pimp handlers”.
Several Republicans have expressed concerns that the comments could cost Trump support with Puerto Ricans and undecided voters in the seven crucial swing states that will determine who wins the White House. The Financial Times poll tracker shows Trump and Harris in a virtual tie in all seven battlegrounds.
Trump’s comments in Florida came with just seven days to run in the race, and as the candidates try to make their closing pitches to the country.
The former president’s freewheeling remarks on Tuesday ranged from violent depictions of illegal immigration to questions about why Germans do not drive more Chevrolet cars.
The event in Mar-a-Lago was billed as a press conference, although Trump took no questions from news media.
He was flanked on the stage by three supporters: a woman whose adult daughter was murdered by an undocumented immigrant; a man whose dry cleaning business has suffered a decline in revenues; and a woman whose daughter-in-law was a member of the US military killed in Afghanistan amid the hasty withdrawal in 2021.
Trump blamed Harris for their suffering. “Kamala is incompetent, a total train wreck who has destroyed everything in her path. She has destroyed everything.”
His attacks came hours before Harris is scheduled to deliver her own speech at a site near the White House where Trump addressed his supporters before they attacked the US Capitol on January 6 2021 to try to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s election as president.
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