Trump claims Harris did not pick Shapiro as her running mate 'because he’s Jewish'
WILKES-BARRE— For the first time in 2024, former President Donald Trump rallied supporters in Northeast Pennsylvania on Saturday, telling an audience at the Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza that Vice President Kamala Harris did not choose Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro as her running mate “because he’s Jewish.”
Shapiro was under consideration to be Harris’ vice presidential pick, but she ultimately chose Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
“She turned down your governor, by the way, just so you understand, I know some of you probably like him. I don’t think he’s a good person. I don’t think he’s good, I don’t think he’s good, but they turned him down because he’s Jewish,” Trump said Saturday. “OK, that’s why they turned him down. Now we can be politically correct and not say that. I could say, ‘well, they turned him down for various reasons.’ No, no, they turned him down because he’s Jewish. That’s why they turned him down. And I’ll tell you this, any Jewish person that votes for her or a Democrat has to go out and have their head examined.”
Charles Lutvak, a spokesperson for the Harris-Walz campaign flatly rejected Trump’s comment in an email to the Capital-Star.
“Vice President Harris and Gov. Walz have decisively called out antisemitism in any form their entire careers, and our campaign will always be clear: Antisemitism and hate have no place in the Democratic Party or in our country,” Lutvak said. “Gov. Shapiro is a tireless and extremely effective champion for the people of Pennsylvania, and our campaign strongly rejects the attacks, rooted in his faith, that he has endured.”
“But let’s be clear: There is one candidate in this race who consistently denigrates American Jews, elevates Neo-Nazis, and trafficks in antisemitic tropes, and it is Donald Trump. And our campaign is uniting voters who reject his rhetoric of hate and will defeat him at the ballot box in November,” he added.
The rally marked Trump’s seventh visit to Pennsylvania this year. Wilkes-Barre is not far from President Joe Biden’s boyhood home of Scranton, in the northeastern region of Pennsylvania that was key to Trump’s victory in 2016.
“Inflation has been devastating under this group of people that have no idea what the hell they’re doing,” Trump said at the opening of his remarks. “Are you better off with Kamala and Biden than you were under President Donald J. Trump? I don’t think so.”
The annual inflation rate was 2.9% in July, the lowest rate since 2021 although both campaigns are putting the issue front and center as it remains top of mind for voters.
Democrats criticized Trump ahead of Saturday’s rally, with Scranton Mayor Paige Cognetti calling him the “most anti-labor President in recent memory.”
In his usual meandering style, Trump went “off teleprompter” as he put it, straying from his prepared remarks in a speech that was just over 100 minutes long to make various observations, including:
“I am much better looking than her. I’m a better looking person than Kamala,” a reference to a comment he said someone made about Harris having an advantage as an attractive woman.“Nobody knows about Casey. Nobody knows about him, even though he’s been there for years. His father was there for years.”We will build a missile defense shield over the top of our country, an Iron Dome. It will be a great Iron Dome, and much of it will be made right here in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania,” something he said former President Ronald Reagan had wanted but didn’t have the technology for.
While Trump repeated false claims that the election was stolen during his rally on Saturday, Linda Kerns, a Republican National Committee lawyer, spoke on stage a few hours prior to Trump’s speech, encouraging those to vote by mail.
“I understand that as patriots and conservatives, we may be suspicious of mail ballots, but if we want to change the system, we need to win elections,” Kerns said. “Part of the game is mail ballots. And we cannot give Democrats the advantage in this election.”
“When the Dallas Cowboys come to town, we do not give them a two touchdown lead, right,” she asked the crowd, mentioning being an Eagles fan from Philadelphia. “Same goes for this election. Let’s not give Democrats the lead.”
Democrats had a significant mail-in ballot advantage in recent elections. Although Trump railed against mail-in ballots during the 2020 presidential election, his 2024 campaign has pivoted to embracing them as needed to help win back the White House.
“I know that sometimes people are suspicious of our elections here in Pennsylvania,” Kerns said. “But the only way your vote will not count is if you do not cast it.”
Before Trump took the stage, U.S. Senate candidate Dave McCormick, who is challenging U.S. Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) made his familiar comment about Casey being “Punxsutawney Bob,” and told the audience Trump was needed to get the country back on track.
“We need Trump and a new senator from Pennsylvania to secure our border,” McCormick said. “We need to unlock our energy sector and make America energy dominant. We need to strengthen our military, because the only way to have peace is through strength, and we don’t have it right now.”
Former Pennsylvania U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum praised McCormick as a “dynamic leader,” and someone who is “the real deal.” He then harkened back to some of the rhetoric of his failed 2006 campaign against Casey, claiming the three-term incumbent isn’t the “real Bob Casey,” referring to Casey’s late father Bob Casey, Sr., who was governor of Pennsylvania from 1987 to 1995.
“The real Bob Casey was the guy who was so popular because he stood up to his party because he fought for what he believed was right, not for what the left wing of his party was pushing,” Santorum said, arguing the current senator “got elected simply because his name was Bob Casey.”
“Bob Casey Jr is not the real Bob Casey. He is the fake Bob Casey. He is a guy that has not only not stood up to his party, he’s voted with Harris and Biden 98% at the time,” Santorum continued.
Casey beat Santorum 59% to 41% in the 2006 election.
Pennsylvania Treasurer Stacy Garrity, who is seeking re-election, delivered jabs at Walz.
“[GOP vice presidential nomineee] J.D. Vance is a proven leader, a veteran who served this country with honor and distinction while deployed to the Middle East,” Garrity, a U.S. Army Reserve veteran who was also deployed to the Middle East, said to applause. “The only combat zone that Tim Walz ever saw was on the streets of Minneapolis in 2020.”
Walz served in the Army National Guard for 24 years.
Northeast Pennsylvania key for Trump in past elections
Trump’s 2016 victory over Hillary Clinton made him the first Republican candidate for president to win Pennsylvania since 1988. He flipped Luzerne County, where Saturday’s rally is being held, beating Clinton by 20 points. And even though Clinton eked out a 3.5-point victory in neighboring Lackawanna County that year, that was a much narrower margin than President Barack Obama’s 2012 victory over Republican Mitt Romney.
Obama won Luzerne County by 5 points and took Lackawanna County by 27 points in 2012.
When Biden won Pennsylvania in 2020, the numbers he put up in his native region played a key role, with an 8-point victory in Lackawanna County.
Biden made one appearance in Northeast Pennsylvania in April, calling the race between him and Trump “Scranton values or Mar-A-Lago values.” Biden announced his withdrawal from the presidential race in July following a poor debate performance against Trump in late June.
Randy Bloem, Pastor of Revival Baptist Church in Scranton, delivered the opening prayer for the rally at 2 PM.
He said that he was praying that Lackawanna County “can turn for Donald Trump,” and shared an anecdote about how he thinks local voters feel about the race.
“Our church is in Lackawanna County and I, in 2020, saw signs for Biden and Trump, about even,” Bloem said. “I can’t find a Biden sign or Harris.”
“I think they’re ashamed of him, but we’re not ashamed of the great opportunity for our country,” he added.
Norb Dotzel, who runs a nearby family trucking and topsoil company, discussed the economic hardships businesses have faced under the Biden administration and claimed that Trump’s business background will benefit the economy.
“Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have put in charge a crew of smug, incompetent, DEI hires who are trying to destroy our country,” Dotzel said. “America needs a great businessman and leader like Donald Trump who is serious about saving our country and our businesses, both large and small, like my own.”
Mohegan Sun Arena in Wilkes-Barre is located in the state’s 8th Congressional District, which has the distinction of being the only U.S. House seat in the state that Trump won that is held by a Democrat, U.S. Rep. Matt Cartwright (D-Lackawanna).
Republican Rob Bresnahan, Cartwright’s challenger, delivered brief remarks on stage on Saturday, linking Cartwright to the Biden-Harris administration, former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY).
“We need an economy that works, we need a border that is secure and we need communities that are safe,” Bresnahan said. “I’m going to fight like the absolute dickens to bring this back to Northeastern Pennsylvania.”
The densely populated southeast region of the commonwealth has seen a majority of the visits from both presidential campaigns in 2024.
Trump’s appearance in Pennsylvania on Saturday was the beginning of a hectic swing through the Keystone State for both campaigns.
On Sunday, Harris and Walz will embark on a bus tour in western Pennsylvania, ahead of the opening of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on Monday.
Harris and Walz to kick off Pennsylvania bus tour in Pittsburgh
Trump and his running mate, U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), will deliver speeches revolving around the economy in separate appearances in York and Philadelphia on Monday.
Before Biden exited the race, polling consistently showed Trump with a narrow advantage in the Keystone State. However, Democrats have experienced a bump since Harris became the candidate at the top of the ticket.
An Emerson College poll released on Friday showed Trump and Harris tied at 47% each in the race that includes third party candidates, while other recent polls have shown Harris with a narrow edge in the race.
A Franklin and Marshall College Poll released on Thursday, showed Harris leading Trump by 3 points in Pennsylvania, offered some details on how voters perceived the candidates.
The main reasons that Harris voters supported her candidacy in that poll included anti-Trumpism (18%), women’s rights (17%), character (15%), partisanship (13%) and democracy (13%). The top reasons voters support Trump include economic policy (29%), immigration (20%) and partisanship (19%).
Pennsylvania is the biggest prize among battleground states this election, with 19 electoral votes, and both parties are going all-in to court voters.
The Cook Political Report rates the presidential race in the state as a “toss-up” as of August 8.
This article was updated throughout the day Aug. 17, 2024, with a final update at 7:45 p.m.
Pennsylvania Capital-Star is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Pennsylvania Capital-Star maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Kim Lyons for questions: info@penncapital-star.com. Follow Pennsylvania Capital-Star on Facebook and X.