LITITZ — In one of his final rallies in the presidential election’s most critical battleground state, former President Donald Trump made off-script remarks about unproven election fraud in the state, calling the Democratic Party “evil” and repeatedly calling the party “cheaters.” ”

Trump’s closing speech to supporters in Lancaster County included a brief mention of his promise to “fix” what Democrats “broke” but otherwise amounted to an hour of stream-of-consciousness musings.

“When they say he gave a long rambling speech, say ‘it was great,'” Trump told the crowd as he reached the 90th minute of his speech.

Trump opposed his own party’s push for Republican voting by mail, saying “we should have one-day voting and paper voting.”

in what appears It’s a close race in the state.Trump spent his 22nd visit of the year here, ignoring the teleprompter and vamping with a loyal crowd gathered on a cool, sunny Sunday morning. The visit came during voting, three days before Election Day predicts a photo finish in Pennsylvania.

If there was a theme to Trump’s remarks, it was the intense focus on false claims of election fraud in Pennsylvania and elsewhere. On stage, he again inaccurately described the situation in Lancaster County, where county officials were investigating a batch of 2,500 registration applications that included some potentially fraudulent applications. Trump said all 2,500 ballots were “written in the same hand.”

When his own party successfully sued to extend the window for voters to apply for mail-in ballots in Bucks County, he railed against county officials who were “extending the hours” for voting.

“There’s a lot going on in Pennsylvania. “We are always in court,” Trump said.

He has repeatedly criticized the country’s election management system Although there is no widespread evidence of election fraud. He said voting machines should “never be used” and claimed it was unknown how many votes he received in 2020 but falsely claimed he won Pennsylvania.

“If nothing comes of all this, you better get a new system,” he said.

The stage was set for Trump to compare Vice President Kamala Harris’s record within the Biden administration to his own. But while the podium chanted “Trump will fix it” and attendees held signs reading “Kamala broke it, Trump will fix it,” his speech focused little on economic or policy differences.

Instead, Trump has offered a list of grievances that, at times, are a nostalgic reflection of his nine years in office.

“I will not be a part of this in the next election,” Trump said. At one point he seemed to accept that he might be defeated. “It’s going bad. “And that can never be fixed because we will never get the right people in because of what they did in the election.”

The day kicked off with a lineup of female speakers, including race car driver Danica Patrick, Tulsi Gabbard and Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders. The former president is trailing by nearly nine points among women in the state, according to one report. Philadelphia Inquirer/New York Times/Siena College poll released Sunday.

1 hour and 15 minutes before his speech (and he was an hour late) people were starting to leave Lancaster Airport. Trump praised the crowds at his rally, called the polls fake and hurled insults at his political enemies. He called U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff (D., Calif.) “ugly,” former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi “crazy,” and, going back to 2016, called Hillary Clinton a “crook.” He called Chinese President Xi Jingping “smart” (but also “not a very good person”).

For nearly a decade, Trump has mistreated the press, but on Sunday he took his criticism a step further when assessing the bulletproof glass around him.

“Someone would have to look into fake news to catch me, and I don’t care that much,” he said, gesturing to a group of about 100 media reporters and photographers standing right in front of him.

This led Trump campaign communications director Steven Cheung to issue a statement saying the former president’s comment “had nothing to do with harm to the media” but rather “threats to him spurred by dangerous rhetoric from Democrats.”

“Essentially,” Cheung continued, “President Trump was stating that the Media were in danger because they were protecting him, and therefore they were also in great danger and should also have a glass protective shield.”

Jeff Bartos, a former GOP Senate candidate from Lower Merion who supports Trump, said Trump’s off-script style is often what people come to see.

“Thousands of people who go out in cold weather take it seriously, but not literally,” Bartos said. “I think a lot of people in the media may be taking that literally.”

Robert Chirico, 56, who lives near Stroudsburg and works in the IT industry, said the election risk is too great. “I feel like everything is at stake.”

“You know, you go to the market, everything is much more expensive. People are really suffering. You know, border, immigration, security, things are really bad. I’ve never seen it this bad. “I’m worried about my children and grandchildren.”

Jen Coppello, 50, of Morgantown, voted for Trump in the last two presidential elections.

She said she didn’t know why Trump lost the state’s women’s votes because he thought his policies were policies that helped women.

“He cares about all genders,” she said. “Or both sexes – not each.”