Democratic vice-presidential nominee Tim Walz warned Friday in Scranton that re-electing President Donald Trump would mean turning the country into a dictatorship.
The Minnesota governor reminded the crowd that former Trump chief of staff John Kelly said Trump met the definition of a fascist and preferred generals loyal to him the way Adolf Hitler’s were to the Nazi dictator.
“Imagine, at any time in American history, a president saying, he would like to use the military against those who don't support him, the enemy from within,” Walz said during his 39-minute speech. “Look, I know where I'm at on that list, clear up near the top. But don't kid yourself, eventually you'll be on that list too. That's how dictators work.”
Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, denies Kelly's statement.
The stop at the Scranton Cultural Center at The Masonic Temple marked the first visit to Lackawanna County by either Walz or Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee. Harris spoke Sept. 13 in Wilkes-Barre. Walz appeared earlier Friday in the Philadelphia and Allentown areas. Read more about what attendees had to say here.
Several times, protesters supporting a free Palestine tried to interrupt Walz. The Minnesota governor ignored them, and the crowd drowned out the shouts as police escorted the protesters out of the ballroom.
“Coach! Coach!, Coach! Coach!” supporters chanted each time.
Walz reminded them Trump already kept some promises.
“He promised he was going to … put Supreme Court justices on who would overturn (the 1973) Roe versus Wade (ruling that legalized abortion nationwide). And he did that,” Walz said.
A Republican Congress won’t stand up to Trump, he said.
“I don't know how they stand up at all. They have no spine,” he said.
The crowd laughed and applauded.
He predicted Trump would surround himself with staff loyal only to him such as "lunatics" like former Gen. Michael Flynn and adviser Laura Loomer.
“The guard rails, I said, are almost all gone. There is still one left,” he said. “Us! Us! Us! The American people.”
He rejected Trump’s frequent contention that Harris is a socialist.
“Look, we believe in the free market, and for the market to work, it needs to be a fair market,” he said.
For fairness, he said, Harris favors a $6,000 child tax credit, a $50,000 small business tax credit, free school breakfasts and lunches, more aid for daycare, universal pre-kindergarten, Medicare coverage for vision and hearing aids and a $35 cap on insulin for everyone.
“When she talks about stopping price gouging, let's be clear what that means,” he said. “So, you saw it in Florida. We (had) a hurricane coming … Airline prices went through the roof as people are trying to fly to safety … That's not capitalism, that's price gouging, and it's immoral.”
He reminded the crowd Trump tried to eliminate Obamacare and its protections for people with pre-existing conditions, promised the wealthy more tax cuts and paid no federal taxes for 10 to 15 years.
“When you balance and make the tax system fair, they can pay their fair share. They're doing just fine. They'll do fine,” he said.
He ripped Republican vice-presidential nominee JD Vance for claiming immigrants drive up home prices.
“I’m like, where the hell are they getting the money from?” Walz said. “But what was so cynical about that was, as a venture capitalist, he knows why this is so hard. They're (venture capitalists are) buying up the houses for profit, reselling them, and making profit off that. They don't see houses as homes. They see houses as a commodity, like a stock to be traded on Wall Street to make money. That's why the housing prices are going up.”
Republicans used to talk about freedom and mean it, he said.
“When Donald Trump talks about freedom, it's freedom to be in your bedroom, freedom to be in your exam room, freedom to be in your library telling you what you should read,” he said.
Walz also pointed out he and Harris own guns and favor gun rights.
“The Republican nominee can't pass a background check to buy one,” he said. “Imagine him going into Bass Pro Shop, filling out the form, and the form comes back that you got 34 felony convictions … They kick you out of the store.”
Noting his presence in Scranton, Walz also paid tribute to President Joe Biden, a city native.
“This is a place with a long tradition of people who know something about hard work, and people who know what it is to serve, what it means to serve this nation, and even have somebody who knows what it means to be President of the United States from here,” he said. “I want you to know this country owes a huge debt to you and a huge debt to Joe Biden.”
He urged the crowd to finish the campaign the way a football team seeking for victory in the fourth quarter does.
“Where else but this great country could you have a middle-class kid from Oakland and a middle-class kid from rural Nebraska be running for president and vice president of the United States?” he said. “We are running like everything's on the line. Because everything's on the line. It is. We feel it. You know it.”
Trump campaign responds
In response, Pennsylvania Trump campaign spokesman Kush Desai said Trump would win re-election and mocked Walz.
“Since Kamala Harris still can’t answer how she would be different from Joe Biden without resorting to meaningless word salads, Tim Walz is effectively campaigning for another four years of unlimited illegal immigration, rising prices and war abroad,” Desai said. “Pennsylvanians are going to resoundingly reject Tim Walz’s arm-flailing sales pitch for more incompetence and chaos.”
