Germany tightens controls at all borders in immigration crackdown

A German federal police officer stops cars and trucks at a border crossing point between Germany and Czech Republic in Furth am Wald, Germany. (File/AP)
A German federal police officer stops cars and trucks at a border crossing point between Germany and Czech Republic in Furth am Wald, Germany. (File/AP)
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Updated 09 September 2024
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Germany tightens controls at all borders in immigration crackdown

A German federal police officer stops cars and trucks at a border crossing point between Germany and Czech Republic.
  • Recent deadly knife attacks in which the suspects were asylum seekers have stoked concerns over immigration
  • Backlash had been building in Germany ever since it took in more than a million people fleeing countries such as Syria during the 2015/2016 migrant crisis

BERLIN: Germany’s government announced plans to impose tighter controls at all of the country’s land borders in what it called an attempt to tackle irregular migration and protect the public from threats such as extremism.
The controls within what is normally a wide area of free movement — the European Schengen zone — will start on Sept. 16 and initially last for six months, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said on Monday.
The government has also designed a scheme enabling authorities to reject more migrants directly at German borders, Faeser said, without adding details on the controversial and legally fraught move.
The restrictions are part of a series of measures Germany has taken to toughen its stance on irregular migration in recent years following a surge in arrivals, in particular people fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government is seeking to seize back the initiative from the opposition far-right and conservatives, who have seen support rise as they tap into voter worries about stretched public services, integration and security.
“We are strengthening internal security and continuing our hard line against irregular migration,” Faeser said, noting the government had notified the European Commission and neighboring countries of the intended controls.
Recent deadly knife attacks in which the suspects were asylum seekers have stoked concerns over immigration. The Daesh group claimed responsibility for a knife attack in the western city of Solingen that killed three people in August.
The AfD earlier this month became the first far-right party since World War Two to win a state election, in Thuringia, after campaigning heavily on the issue of migration.
Polls show it is also voters’ top concern in the state of Brandenburg, which is set to hold elections in two weeks.
Scholz and Faeser’s center-left Social Democrats (SPD) are fighting to retain control of the government there, in a vote billed as a test of strength of the SPD ahead of next year’s federal election.
“The intention of the government seems to be to show symbolically to Germans and potential migrants that the latter are no longer wanted here,” said Marcus Engler at the German Center for Integration and Migration Research.
A test for Europe
A backlash had been building in Germany ever since it took in more than a million people mostly fleeing war-torn countries such as Syria during the 2015/2016 migrant crisis, migration experts say.
It reached a tipping point in the country of 84 million people after it automatically granted asylum to around a million Ukrainians fleeing Russia’s 2022 invasion even as Germany was struggling through an energy and economic crisis.
Since then, the German government has agreed tighter deportation rules and resumed flying convicted criminals of Afghan nationality to their home country, despite suspending deportations after the Taliban took power in 2021 due to human rights concerns.
Berlin last year also announced stricter controls on its land borders with Poland, the Czech Republic and Switzerland. Those and controls on the border with Austria had allowed it to return 30,000 migrants since October 2023, it said on Monday.
Faeser said a new model would enable the government to turn back many more — but it could not talk about the model before confidential negotiations with the conservatives.
The controls could test European unity if they lead to German authorities requesting other countries to take back substantial numbers of asylum seekers and migrants.
Under EU rules countries in the Schengen area, which encompasses all of the bloc bar Cyprus and Ireland, are only allowed to introduce border checks as a last resort to avert threats to internal security or public policy.
Germany shares its more than 3,700-km-long (2,300 miles) land border with Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Switzerland, Austria, the Czech Republic and Poland.
Austria’s Interior Minister Gerhard Karner told Bild newspaper on Monday that his country would not take in any migrants turned away by Germany at the border.
“There’s no room for maneuver there,” he said.
The measures may not immediately result in many more migrants being turned away at the border, but they could result in more returns to other European countries down the line, as well as acting as a deterrent, said Susan Fratzke at the Migration Policy Institute. The number of asylum applications in Germany already fell 21.7 percent in the first eight months of the year, according to government statistics.


Angry crowd hurl mud at Spanish royals, prime minister on visit to flood disaster town

Angry crowd hurl mud at Spanish royals, prime minister on visit to flood disaster town
Updated 56 sec ago
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Angry crowd hurl mud at Spanish royals, prime minister on visit to flood disaster town

Angry crowd hurl mud at Spanish royals, prime minister on visit to flood disaster town
  • Nasty protest underscored the fury over the response to the disaster that has now killed at least 217 people with many more still missing
  • Most of the fury seemed directed at Prime Minister Sanchez and Valencia regional government head
  • Spanish media later reported of the possible involvement of far-right groups during the incident

VALENCIA, Spain: Furious locals hurled mud and insults at Spain’s king, queen and prime minister on Sunday in a startling show of anger in the worst hit town in the flood disaster that has killed more than 210 people.
More heavy rain fell on the Valencia region after King Felipe VI, Queen Letizia and Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez were forced to leave Paiporta where more than 70 people died in floods last Tuesday.
Mud hit the monarchs in the face and clothes as they tried to calm the angry crowd in scenes that underscored the fury over the response to the disaster that has now killed at least 217 people with many more still missing.
The king and queen went to a crisis center in Paiporta. But extra security guards soon had to keep the angry crowd, shouting “murders,” away from the royals and prime minister. They put up umbrellas to stop mud hitting the royal couple.
The king said later that Spain had to “understand the anger and frustration” of people affected by the devastation to towns where cars have been left in muddy heaps in streets.

Queen Letizia of Spain (L) talks with a person as angry residents heckled during the Spanish royal couple's visit to Paiporta on Nov. 3, 2024. (AFP)

In a social media video, the king called on the public to give the victims “hope and their guarantee that the state in its entirety is present.”
Most of the fury seemed directed at Prime Minister Sanchez and Valencia regional government head Carlos Mazon.
“I understand the social anger and of course, I’m here to receive it. This is my political and moral obligation,” Mazon said in a post on X.
The rear window of Sanchez’s car was broken before he and the local politicians quickly left. The socialist leader said that while he empathized with the “anguish and suffering” of the victims, he condemned “all forms of violence.”
Spanish media later reported of the possible involvement of far-right groups during the incident. Sanchez’s deputy Maria Jesus Montero reacted to the allegations on X, saying “We will not allow radical groups to profit from people’s pain.”
Spain’s meteorological agency issued a “red alert” for new storms in the Valencia region on Sunday and heavy rain started falling in the night.
Police using megaphones urged Valencia residents to stay in their homes. While the alert was later downgraded, schools in Valencia were to remain closed Monday.

Authorities have come under fire over the lack of warnings before the floods and the slow reaction after.
“I am aware the response is not enough, there are problems and severe shortages ... towns buried by mud, desperate people searching for their relatives ... we have to improve,” Sanchez said.
With an extra 10,000 troops, police and civil guards sent to the Valencia region, Spain has now ordered its largest peacetime military and security force deployment, Sanchez said.
“Thank you to the people who have come to help us, to all of them, because from the authorities: nothing,” a furious Estrella Caceres, 66, told AFP in the town of Sedavi.
In Chiva, restaurant owner Danna Daniella said she was still in shock, haunted by memories of people trapped by the raging floods “asking for help and there was nothing we could do.”
“It drives you crazy. You look for answers and you don’t find them.”

Soldiers clean a street covered in mud in Massanassa, near Valencia, Spain, on Nov. 3, 2024. (REUTERS)

Transport Minister Oscar Puente told El Pais daily that certain places would probably remain inaccessible by land for weeks.
An army of volunteers with food, water and cleaning equipment have played a key role in the recovery, though authorities have urged people to stay home to avoid congestion.
On Sunday, the Valencia government limited the number of volunteers authorized to travel to the city’s southern suburbs to 2,000 and restricted access to 12 localities.
Despite this thousands made their way to stricken communes on foot, carrying brooms and shovels.

Locals and volunteers remove muddy water on Nov. 1, 2024, after a flooding devastated the town of Paiporta, in the region of Valencia, eastern Spain. (AFP)

Storms coming off the Mediterranean are common this time of year. But scientists have warned that climate change is increasing the ferocity, length and frequency of extreme weather events.
Emergency services on Sunday listed 213 dead in the Valencia region, one in Andalusia in the south and three in Castilla-La Mancha neighboring Valencia.
Authorities have warned the toll could rise as vehicles trapped in tunnels and underground car parks are cleared.
 


Trudeau condemns violence at Hindu temple near Toronto

Trudeau condemns violence at Hindu temple near Toronto
Updated 18 min 30 sec ago
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Trudeau condemns violence at Hindu temple near Toronto

Trudeau condemns violence at Hindu temple near Toronto
  • “The acts of violence at the Hindu Sabha Mandir in Brampton today are unacceptable. Every Canadian has the right to practice their faith freely and safely,” Trudeau wrote on X

TORONTO, Canada: Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau condemned as “unacceptable” violence at a Hindu temple near Toronto on Sunday, following skirmishes blamed by some leaders on Sikh activists.
Local police in the city of Brampton, roughly 50 kilometers (30 miles) northwest of Toronto, said they had deployed heavily outside the Hindu Sabha Mandir in order to maintain calm during a protest.
A spokesman for the Peel Regional Police told AFP that no arrests had been made. Police have also declined to assign blame for the reported violence.
“The acts of violence at the Hindu Sabha Mandir in Brampton today are unacceptable. Every Canadian has the right to practice their faith freely and safely,” Trudeau wrote on X.
A federal lawmaker and member of Trudeau’s Liberal Party, Chandra Arya, blamed the incident on “Khalistanis,” a reference to supporters of the fringe separatist movement for an independent Sikh homeland in India’s Punjab state.
Relations between Canada and India have nosedived after Ottawa accused the Indian government of orchestrating the 2023 killing in Vancouver of 45-year-old naturalized Canadian citizen Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a prominent Khalistan activist.
Beyond Nijjar’s killing, Canada has accused India of directing a broad campaign targeting Sikh activists on Canadian soil, which Ottawa says has included intimidation, threats and violence.
“A red line has been crossed by Canadian Khalistani extremists today,” Arya, who is Hindu, posted on X.
“The attack by Khalistanis on the Hindu-Canadian devotees inside the premises of the Hindu Sabha temple in Brampton shows how deep and brazen has Khalistani violent extremism has become in Canada,” he said.
Video circulating on social media appears to show individuals carrying yellow Khalistan flags clashing with a rival group, including people holding Indian flags. There were also isolated fist fights, videos show.
Trudeau charged the government of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi with violating Canadian sovereignty.
India has rejected the allegations.
Delhi and Ottawa earlier this month each expelled the other’s ambassador and other senior diplomats.


UK leader Starmer tells Interpol he will treat people-smuggling gangs like terrorists

UK leader Starmer tells Interpol he will treat people-smuggling gangs like terrorists
Updated 30 min 23 sec ago
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UK leader Starmer tells Interpol he will treat people-smuggling gangs like terrorists

UK leader Starmer tells Interpol he will treat people-smuggling gangs like terrorists
  • Starmer plans to increase the UK Border Security Command’s two-year budget from 75 million pounds ($97 million) to 150 million pounds ($194 million)

LONDON: Prime Minister Keir Starmer says he will double funding for Britain’s border security agency and treat people-smuggling gangs like terror networks in an attempt to stop migrants crossing the English Channel in small boats.
In a speech Monday to a meeting of the international police organization Interpol, Starmer will say the gangs behind irregular migration are a serious threat to global security.
Arguing that “the world needs to wake up to the severity of this challenge,” Starmer will say that “we’re taking our approach to counterterrorism, which we know works, and applying it to the gangs,” according to extracts released by his office.
He’ll call for more cooperation between law-enforcement agencies, closer coordination with other countries and unspecified “enhanced” powers for law-enforcement.
Starmer plans to increase the UK Border Security Command’s two-year budget from 75 million pounds ($97 million) to 150 million pounds ($194 million). The money will be used to fund high-tech surveillance equipment and 100 specialist investigators.
Like previous Conservative British governments, Starmer’s Labour Party administration is struggling to stop thousands of people fleeing war and poverty from trying reach the UK from France in flimsy, overcrowded boats.
More than 31,000 migrants have made the perilous crossing of one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes so far this year, more than in all of 2023, though fewer than in 2022. At least 56 people have perished in the attempts this year, according to French officials, making 2024 the deadliest since the number of channel crossings began surging in 2018.
Starmer leads a center-left government, and has raised some eyebrows in September when he visited Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni and praised her nationalist conservative government’s “remarkable” progress in reducing the number of migrants reaching Italy’s shores by boat.
Starmer will argue on Monday that “there’s nothing progressive about turning a blind eye as men, women and children die in the channel.”
The opposition Conservative Party argues that Starmer should not have scrapped the previous government’s plan to send some asylum-seekers who reach Britain by boat on one-way trips to Rwanda. Supporters of the proposal say it would act as a deterrent. Human rights groups and many lawyers say it is unethical and unlawful to send migrants thousands of miles to a country they don’t want to live in.
Starmer called the plan a “gimmick” and canceled it soon after he was elected in July. Britain paid Rwanda hundreds of millions of pounds for the plan under a deal signed by the two countries in 2022, without any deportations taking place.
Senior police and government officials from the 196 Interpol member states are attending the global police body’s four-day congress in Glasgow, Scotland.
On Tuesday, Brazilian police official Valdecy Urquiza is expected to be named the new general secretary of the Lyon, France-based organization, replacing Jürgen Stock of Germany.


Moldova’s pro-Western president wins 2nd term in runoff overshadowed by Russian meddling claims

Moldova’s pro-Western president wins 2nd term in runoff overshadowed by Russian meddling claims
Updated 04 November 2024
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Moldova’s pro-Western president wins 2nd term in runoff overshadowed by Russian meddling claims

Moldova’s pro-Western president wins 2nd term in runoff overshadowed by Russian meddling claims
  • Sandu had 54.7 percent of the vote, compared to 45.3 percent for Alexandr Stoianoglo, a former prosecutor general who was backed by the pro-Russia Party of Socialists
  • Turnout stood at more than 1.68 million people, with Moldova’s large diaspora casting ballots in record numbers of more than 325,000 voted, heavily in favor of Sandu in the runoff

CHISINAU, Moldova: Moldova’s pro-Western President Maia Sandu has won a second term in a pivotal presidential runoff against a Russia-friendly opponent, in a race that was overshadowed by claims of Russian interference, voter fraud, and intimidation in the European Union candidate country.
With nearly 99 percent of votes counted in the second round of the presidential election held Sunday, Sandu had 54.7 percent of the vote, according to the Central Electoral Commission, or CEC, compared to 45.3 percent for Alexandr Stoianoglo, a former prosecutor general who was backed by the pro-Russia Party of Socialists.
The result will be a major relief for the pro-Western government, which strongly backed Sandu’s candidacy, and her push for closer Western ties on Moldova’s path toward the EU.
“Moldova, you are victorious! Today, dear Moldovans, you have given a lesson in democracy, worthy of being written in history books. Today, you have saved Moldova! In our choice for a dignified future, no one lost,” Sandu said after claiming victory after midnight.
But she went on to claim that her country’s vote had faced an “unprecedented attack” through alleged schemes including dirty money, vote-buying, and electoral interference “by hostile forces from outside the country” and criminal groups.
“You have shown that nothing can stand in the way of the people’s power when they choose to speak through their vote,” she added.
When polls closed locally at 9 p.m. (1900 GMT), turnout stood at more than 1.68 million people — about 54 percent of eligible voters, according to the CEC. Moldova’s large diaspora, which cast ballots in record numbers of more than 325,000 voted, heavily in favor of Sandu in the runoff.
In the first round held Oct. 20, Sandu obtained 42 percent of the ballot but failed to win an outright majority over the second place Stoianoglo. The presidential role carries significant powers in areas such as foreign policy and national security and has a four-year term.
Allegations of vote-buying and Russian interference
Moldova’s diaspora played a key role in the presidential vote and in a nationwide referendum held on Oct. 20, when a narrow majority of 50.35 percent voted to secure Moldova’s path toward EU membership. But the results of the ballots including Sunday’s vote have been overshadowed by allegations of a major vote-buying scheme and voter intimidation.
Instead of winning the overwhelming support that Sandu had hoped, the results in both races exposed Moldova’s judiciary as unable to adequately protect the democratic process.
On Sunday, Moldovan police said they had “reasonable evidence” of organized transportation of voters — illegal under the country’s electoral code — to polling stations from within the country and from overseas, and are “investigating and registering evidence in connection with air transport activities from Russia to Belarus, Azerbaijan and Turkiye.”
“Such measures are taken to protect the integrity of the electoral process and to ensure that every citizen’s vote is cast freely without undue pressure or influence,” police said.
Moldova’s foreign ministry said on Sunday afternoon that polling stations in Frankfurt, Germany, and Liverpool and Northampton in the UK had been targeted by false bomb threats, which “intended only to stop the voting process.”
Stanislav Secrieru, the president’s national security adviser, wrote on X: “We are seeing massive interference by Russia in our electoral process,” which he warned had a “high potential to distort the outcome” of the vote.
Secrieru later added that the national voter record systems were being targeted by “ongoing coordinated cyberattacks” to disrupt links between domestic polling stations and those abroad, and that cybersecurity teams were “working to counter these threats and ensure system continuity.”
Moldova’s Prime Minister Dorin Recean said that people throughout the country had received “anonymous death threats via phone calls” in what he called “an extreme attack” to scare voters in the former Soviet republic, which has a population of about 2.5 million people.
After casting her ballot in Chisinau, Sandu said “today, more than ever, we must be united, keep our peace, keep our vote, keep our independence.”
“Thieves want to buy our vote, thieves want to buy our country, but the power of the people is infinitely greater,” she told reporters.
Outside a polling station in Romania’s capital, Bucharest, 20-year-old medical student Silviana Zestrea said the runoff would be a “definitive step” toward Moldova’s future.
“People need to understand that we have to choose a true candidate that will fulfill our expectations,” she said. “Because I think even if we are a diaspora now, none of us actually wanted to leave.”
Moldovan police expose a scheme allegedly plotted by a convicted oligarch
In the wake of the two October votes, Moldovan law enforcement said that a vote-buying scheme was orchestrated by Ilan Shor, an exiled oligarch who lives in Russia and was convicted in absentia last year of fraud and money laundering. Shor denies any wrongdoing.
Prosecutors say $39 million was paid to more than 130,000 recipients through an internationally sanctioned Russian bank to voters between September and October. Anti-corruption authorities have conducted hundreds of searches and seized over $2.7 million (2.5 million euros) in cash as they attempt to crack down.
In one case in Gagauzia, an autonomous part of Moldova where only 5 percent voted in favor of the EU, a physician was detained after allegedly coercing 25 residents of a home for older adults to vote for a candidate they did not choose. Police said they obtained “conclusive evidence,” including financial transfers from the same Russian bank.
On Saturday, at a church in Comrat, the capital of Gagauzia, Father Vasilii told The Associated Press that he’s urged people to go and vote because it’s a “civic obligation” and that they do not name any candidates.
“We use the goods the country offers us — light, gas,” he said. “Whether we like what the government does or not, we must go and vote. ... The church always prays for peace.”
On Thursday, prosecutors raided a political party headquarters and said 12 people were suspected of paying voters to select a candidate in the presidential race. A criminal case was also opened in which 40 state agency employees were suspected of taking electoral bribes.
Moldova’s EU future at stake
Cristian Cantir, a Moldovan associate professor of international relations at Oakland University, told AP that whatever the outcome of the second round, it “will not deflate” geopolitical tensions. “On the contrary, I expect geopolitical polarization to be amplified by the campaign for the 2025 legislative elections.”
Moldovan law enforcement needs more resources and better-trained staff working at a faster pace to tackle voter fraud, he added, to “create an environment in which anyone tempted to either buy or sell votes knows there will be clear and fast consequences.”
Savlina Adasan, a 21-year-old economics student in Bucharest, said she voted for Sandu and cited concerns about corruption and voters uninformed about the two candidates.
“We want a European future for our country,” she said, adding that it offers “many opportunities, development for our country … and I feel like if the other candidate wins, then it means that we are going 10 steps back as a country.”
A pro-Western government has been in power in Moldova since 2021, and a parliamentary election will be held in 2025. Moldova watchers warn that next year’s vote could be Moscow’s main target.
In the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Moldova applied to join the EU. It was granted candidate status in June of that year, and in summer 2024, Brussels agreed to start membership negotiations. The sharp westward shift irked Moscow and significantly soured relations with Chisinau.
Since then, Moldovan authorities have repeatedly accused Russia of waging a vast “hybrid war,” from sprawling disinformation campaigns to protests by pro-Russia parties to vote-buying schemes that undermine countrywide elections. Russia has denied it is meddling.
 


Trump talks about reporters being shot and says he shouldn’t have left White House after 2020 loss

Trump talks about reporters being shot and says he shouldn’t have left White House after 2020 loss
Updated 04 November 2024
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Trump talks about reporters being shot and says he shouldn’t have left White House after 2020 loss

Trump talks about reporters being shot and says he shouldn’t have left White House after 2020 loss
  • With Election Day fast approaching, Trump continues to promote falsehoods about elections and argue that he can only lose to Democrat Kamala Harris if he is cheated
  • That’s what he did four years ago, kicking off a process of fighting the election results that culminated in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the US Capitol

LITITZ, Pennsylvania: Donald Trump gave a profane and conspiracy-laden speech two days before the presidential election, talking about reporters being shot and suggesting he “shouldn’t have left” the White House after his 2020 loss to Democrat Joe Biden.
In remarks Sunday that bore no resemblance to his standard speech in the campaign’s closing stretch, the former president repeatedly cast doubt on the integrity of the vote and resurrected old grievances about being prosecuted after trying to overturn his defeat four years ago. Trump intensified his verbal attacks against a “grossly incompetent” national leadership and the American media, steering his rally in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, at one point on to the topic of violence against members of the press.
The GOP nominee for the White House noted the ballistic glass placed in front of him at events after a gunman’s assassination attempt in July at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Trump talked about places where he saw openings in that protection.
“I have this piece of glass here,” he said. “But all we have really over here is the fake news. And to get me, somebody would have to shoot through the fake news. And I don’t mind that so much.”
It was the second time in recent days that Trump has talked about guns being pointed at people he considers enemies. He suggested former Rep. Liz Cheney, a prominent Republican critic, wouldn’t be willing to support foreign wars if she had “nine barrels shooting at her.”
With less than 48 hours before Election Day, Trump continues to promote falsehoods about elections and argue that he can only lose to Democrat Kamala Harris if he is cheated, even though polls suggest a tight race.
Some of his allies, notably former chief strategist Steve Bannon, have encouraged him to prematurely declare victory on Tuesday even if the race is too early to call. That’s what Trump did four years ago, kicking off a process of fighting the election results that culminated in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the US Capitol.
For much of this year, Trump has run a relatively disciplined campaign that emphasized the issues and voters his aides believe could deliver him victory, even as he clung to false theories about voter fraud and went on frequent digressions stirring controversy. But that discipline is increasingly collapsing.
Trump in recent weeks has joked about golfer Arnold Palmer’s genitalia, continued using gendered or sexist language in his efforts to win over women and staged a rally at New York’s Madison Square Garden that included crude and racist insults that dominated headlines.
Trump co-campaign manager Susie Wiles, long credited with bringing order to his often-chaotic political operation, watched the former president silently from off stage Sunday.
His campaign later sought to clarify his meaning in talking about the media.
“President Trump was brilliantly talking about the two assassination attempts on his own life, including one that came within 1/4 of an inch from killing him, something that the Media constantly talks and jokes about,” campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung said in a statement. “The President’s statement about protective glass placement has nothing to do with the Media being harmed, or anything else.”
Harris was campaigning Sunday in Michigan, where she told a predominately Black church congregation in Detroit that God offers America a “divine plan strong enough to heal division.”
The two major candidates offered starkly different tones with the campaign almost at an end, as Harris said voters can reject “chaos, fear and hate.”
Trump usually veers from subject to subject, a discursive style he has labeled “the weave.” But outside the Lancaster airport, he went on long tangents and hardly mentioned his usual points on the economy, immigration and rote criticisms of Harris.
Trump referred to John Bolton, his former national security adviser and now a strident critic, as a “dumb son of a b— .” And he repeated familiar and debunked theories about voter fraud, alleging that Democrats could only win by cheating. Public polls indicate a tight and competitive race across the battleground states that will determine the Electoral College outcome.
“It’s a crooked country,” Trump said. “And we’re going to make it straight. We’re going to make it straight.”
Harris pushed back at Trump’s characterizations of US elections, telling reporters after the church service that Trump’s comments are “meant to distract from the fact that we have and support free and fair elections in our country.” Those “good systems” were in place in 2020, Harris said, and “he lost.”
The vice president said she trusts the upcoming vote tally and urged voters, “in particular people who have not yet voted to not fall for this tactic, which I think includes, suggesting to people that if they vote, their vote won’t matter.”
“Trump’s unhinged ramblings and dangerous rhetoric confirm what those closest to him have already told us: he is completely unfit to lead and would put our democracy and the rule of law at risk if given a chance,” Alex Floyd, a spokesperson for the Democratic National Committee, said in a statement, referring to former Trump aides who have warned against returning him to the White House, including retired military officers who said he’s a fascist.
Trump, for his part, acknowledged that he was sidestepping his usual approach with his conspiratorial speech. He repeatedly talked about disregarding the advice of his aides, repeating their feedback in a mocking voice and insisting that he had to talk about election fraud despite their objections.
Trump at one point suggested that he wouldn’t deliver this version of his speech again: “I hope you’ve enjoyed this,” he said, “because I’m only doing this one time.”
Indeed, his next speech a few hours later at an airport in Kinston, North Carolina, drifted between prepared remarks and familiar stories. Trump praised David McCormick, the businessman running for Senate in Pennsylvania, appearing to briefly lose track of his location but quickly recovering.
“Where’s David? Is he around some place?” Trump said. “You know we just left him. He’s a great guy.”
Some rallygoers began leaving almost immediately. One of them was Whitney Riley, 60, who said she desperately wanted to stay but had another event. She noted Trump started late.
“I got to see him land. I got to see him open,” said Riley, wearing Trump’s signature “Make America Great Again” hat and an American flag scarf. “And that’ll have to be enough.”