Trump Says Biden Would Destroy U.S. in Rebuttal of Nomination

(Bloomberg) -- Donald Trump traveled to a town in Pennsylvania near where Joe Biden was born and warned that the former vice president will destroy the country, hours before he accepts the Democratic nomination to challenge the president’s re-election.

“At stake in this election is the survival of our nation because we’re dealing with crazy people on the other side,” Trump said Thursday in Old Forge, Pennsylvania, just outside Biden’s birthplace of Scranton. “Joe Biden is a puppet of the radical left movement that seeks to destroy the American way of life.”

Biden will deliver a prime-time speech Thursday evening to close the four-day Democratic National Convention. Trump plans to call into Fox News host Sean Hannity’s show during the convention, about an hour before Biden speaks.

Winning support in smaller Pennsylvania localities like Old Forge and Scranton will be key to carrying the crucial swing state, a longtime Democratic stronghold that Trump narrowly won in 2016 but where Biden now leads.

Trump repeated his warning that a victory by Democrats will lead to crime and the destruction of suburbs. “If you want mobs and criminals you’ve got to vote Democrat,” Trump said.

Biden was born in Scranton before his family moved to Delaware for work when Biden was a child. Trump has attacked Biden in the past for “deserting” the state, with Biden responding by saying Trump will never understand why working people would need to move.

Trump said again Thursday that Biden “abandoned Pennsylvania.”

“He spent the last half century in Washington selling out our country,” the president said.

The Republican National Convention begins Monday. During their convention, Democrats have sought to unify the liberal and centrist wings of their party, while appealing to independents and even disaffected Republicans to break from Trump, whom speakers have blamed for the disastrous U.S. response to the coronavirus outbreak.

Biden leads Trump by 6.4 percentage points in Pennsylvania, according to an average of polls compiled by Real Clear Politics.

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