Trump appeals to voters in Wisconsin GOP stronghold ahead of debate with Harris

With just days to go before his first and likely only debate against Vice President Kamala Harris former President Donald Trump leaned into his familiar grievances about everything from his indictments and efforts to keep him off the ballot as he campaigned in one of the most deeply Republican swaths of battleground WisconsinThe HarrisBiden DOJ is trying to throw me in jail they want me in jail for the crime of exposing their corruption Trump claimed at an outdoor rally at Central Wisconsin Airport where he spoke behind a wall of bulletproof glass following his July assassination attempt Theres no evidence that either Biden or Harris have had any influence over decisions by the Justice Department or local jurisdictions to indict TrumpThe former president was speaking a day after appearing in court for an appeal of a decision that found him liable for sexual abuse returning attention to his many indictments and criminal conviction After his appearance he delivered a lengthy statement to news cameras in which he brought up a string of past allegations of other acts of sexual misconduct at times in graphic language potentially reminding voters of incidents that were littleknown or forgottenHours later a Manhattan judge announced that the sentencing in his hush money case had been postponed until after the November election granting him a hardwon reprieve The sentencing had previously been scheduled for September 18 about seven weeks before Election DayAt the rally Trump again criticised Harris in dark and ominous language claiming that if the woman he calls Comrade Kamala Harris gets four more years we will be living in a fullblown Banana Republic ruled by anarchy He also railed against the Biden administrations border policies calling the Democrats approach suicidalBoth Harris and Trump have been frequent visitors to Wisconsin this year a state where four of the past six presidential elections have been decided by less than a percentage point Several polls of Wisconsin voters conducted after President Joe Biden withdrew showed Harris and Trump in a close race The crowd in Mosinee was greeted by a big screen video of Trump urging attendees to check their voter registration and make a plan for votingIf we swamp them they cant cheat Trump said continuing to raise unfounded concerns about voter fraud which is extremely rare Democrats consider Wisconsin to be one of the mustwin blue wall states Biden who was in Wisconsin on Thursday won the state in 2020 by just under 21000 votes Trump carried it by a slightly larger margin nearly 23000 votes in 2016As Trump was campaigning Harris took a short break from debate prep on Saturday to stop at Penzeys Spices in Pittsburghs Strip District where she bought a number of seasoning mixes One customer saw the Democratic nominee and began openly weeping as Harris hugged her and said Were going to be fine Were all in this togetherHarris said she was honoured to have endorsements from two major Republicans former Vice President Dick Cheney and his daughter Liz Cheney the former Wyoming congresswoman People are exhausted about the division and the attempts to kind of divide us as Americans she said adding that her main message at the debate would be that the country wants to be united Its time to turn the page on the divisiveness she said Its time to bring our country together to chart a new way forwardTrump held his rally in the central Wisconsin city of Mosinee with a population of about 4500 people It is within Wisconsins mostly rural 7th Congressional District a reliably Republican area in a purple state Trump carried the county where Mosinee is located by 18 percentage points in both 2016 and 2020Among those in the crowd was Dale Osuldsen who was celebrating his 68th birthday Saturday at his first ever Trump rally He hopes a second Trump administration will take on cancel culture and bring the country back to its foundational past Weve had past administrations say they want to fundamentally change America Osulden said Fundamentally changing America is a bad thingDemocrats have relied on massive turnout in the states two largest cities Milwaukee and Madison to counter Republican strength in rural areas like Mosinee and the Milwaukee suburbs Trump must win the votes in places like Mosinee to have any chance of cutting into the Democrats advantage in urban areas Republicans held their national convention in Milwaukee in July and Trump has made four previous stops to the state most recently just last week in the western Wisconsin city of La CrosseHarris and her running mate Minnesota Gov Tim Walz last month filled the same Milwaukee arena where Republicans held their national convention for a rally that coincided with the Democratic National Convention just 90 miles away in Chicago Walz returned Monday to Milwaukee where he spoke at a Labour Day rally organised by unionsThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever