NORTH CAROLINA — President Donald Trump made a speech in Gastonia Wednesday night as Kamala Harris campaigned not far away in Charlotte.
Trump and Joe Biden are locked in a tight race for North Carolina, which could help swing the election for either candidate. Recent polls show Biden with a slim lead for the state's 15 Electoral College votes.
“We’re going to win this great state and we’re going to win four more years in the White House,” Trump said to thousands of cheering supporters. People packed into the field, with some wearing masks but not all, for the president's speech.
He ticked off familiar lines on securing borders, protecting the Second Amendment, and lowering drug prices.
“That pandemic is rounding the corner. They hate it when I say it,” he said, despite the fact that North Carolina is seeing high coronavirus numbers similar to the pandemic spike in the summer.
Talking about his own cornavirus diagnosis, Trump said, "It’s risky and I got it. I didn’t feel too great." He credited an experimental antibody treatment with curing him.
On opening schools, Trump told his supporters that his son had the coronavirus and was fine. “Baron had it,” he said. “Let’s face it, they have stronger immune systems."
In a speech that bounced from topic to topic, he said Biden would “confiscate your guns” and “destroy the suburbs,” bringing boos from the crowd.
“I’m saving your suburbs. I’m stopping low-income housing, I’m stopping crime from coming in,” he said.
“The first thing Washington Democrats will do if Biden gets elected is pack the Supreme Court with leftist judges.”
He mocked Biden’s choice of combining chocolate and vanilla milkshake from a Durham Cook Out during the Democratic candidate's own trip to North Carolina last weekend.
“If Biden wins, the flag-burning demonstrators in the street will be running your federal government,” Trump said.
Trump also repeated unsubstantiated reports about emails allegedly from Biden's son Hunter Biden.
The crowds alternated chants of "we love you" and “four more years.” And at one point, after Trump mentioned Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff, they chanted "lock him up."
“I’ve been all over your state. You better let me win,” he said, reminding voters that he has a granddaughter named “Carolina.”