Trump says Democrats are using disgusting rhetoric

On Monday, Donald Trump delivered his final speech to voters in Atlanta, leaning heavily on immigration and anti-trans rhetoric.

WASHINGTON – Former president Donald Trump — while attacking all manner of opponents of the Vice President Kamala Harris to former first lady Michelle Obama — claimed Monday that Democrats were using “disgusting” rhetoric to define his campaign as he tried to court all-too-important voters in Georgia just a week before the 2024 election.

The purpose of Trump’s rally at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta was to attract voters to the polls ahead of the ensuing November 5 election. “We love Georgia,” he told the audience to cheers at the beginning of his roughly 75-minute speech.

Georgia belongs to seven key swing states Trump and Harris believe they are key to their path to victory. Trump he narrowly lost Georgia in 2020 to President Joe Biden – neither the former president nor Harris showed a clear advantage in the state latest polls.

Trump’s latest address to voters included attacks on transgender people, tax cut proposals, a dose of nostalgia and plenty of talk about immigration.

Here are some key moments.

Anti-trans message

In the final days of the election, the Trump campaign questioned Harris’ position support for the transgender community and relied on anti-trans messages. Monday’s rally was no exception.

At the height of his speech, Trump called transgender issues a “big thing” and told supporters: “We don’t want transgender surgeries everywhere… We don’t want men playing women’s sports.”

He included similar lines throughout the speech, suggesting his campaign may see the issue as a rallying cry for Trump’s base. Pro-Trump ads argue that Harris is for “they/them” and claim that he is for “them/them”gender changes of prisoners”

However, polls have shown that transgender rights are not the most important issue for most voters. AND Gallup survey in early October showed that transgender rights are the least important issue in voters’ minds out of 22 thematic areas, including the economy, inflation, abortion, taxes and energy policy.

Criticism Harris’ rhetoric

Trump used the rally to push back against attacks from some Democrats who compared his past rallies, actions and comments to those of Nazis and Adolf Hitler.

Harris described Trump as “fascist“last week after John Kelly, Trump’s former White House chief of staff, used this term describe the former president in interviews with the New York Times. Kelly also said that Trump has made admiring comments about Hitler on more than one occasion.

“The way they talk is disgusting, just terrible,” Trump said at his Monday rally. “This is the type of outrageous rhetoric that has led to two assassination attempts in the last three months.”

Democrats pointed out that it was Trump who attacked Harris’ intelligence, ethnicity and competence. He described its policies as fascist in August, and on Monday he called her a fascist.

Condemning the rhetoric against him, Trump told the Atlanta crowd about Harris: “She’s a fascist, OK? She is a fascist.

Earlier, Harris said Trump “is focused on his grievances, on himself and on the division of our country,” citing Sunday’s rally at Madison Square Garden as the latest example.

“This is absolutely something that is designed to fuel attempts to divide our country,” Harris said.

Tax cuts for care

If elected, Trump has proposed it tax cuts for everything from overtime pay to Social Security benefits. Family carer tax relief can now be added to this list.

Trump announced a new policy proposal for family caregivers during a rally at Madison Square Garden and repeated it to Atlanta voters on Monday night.

“I will support tax relief, full tax relief, for family carers who care for a parent or loved one. They deserve it,” Trump said to cheers.

The proposal comes as Trump and Harris try to court two major voting blocs – seniors and women, who make up the majority unpaid family carers in the country.

Harris promised this earlier this year extend Medicare coverage if you win, include the costs of home care for seniors.

MAGA nostalgia

If Trump wins, he will not be eligible to run for re-election under the constitution. If he loses, it will give him a signal that he will not start another presidential campaign in 2028.

On Monday evening, the former president was reminded of the burden of the last eight years spent in the political spotlight and the end of the campaign.

“We’re almost done. We’ve been doing this together for nine years,” he said, adding that it would be “very difficult” for future Republican presidential candidates to match the size of his crowd.

Trump described his rise to political fame as a “unique situation” and “the greatest political move.”

Trump called Michelle Obama “nasty”

Trump called former first lady Michelle Obama “nasty” after comments she made about him at an event for Harris over the weekend.

While speech on Saturday in MichiganObama described Trump as “erratic” and said, among other things, that he was a convicted felon and was in “clear mental decline.”

Trump responded by saying she “made a big mistake.” He did not provide any details.

Trump criticizes Democrats’ immigration record

Immigration has been a central issue of Trump’s campaign since he announced his first presidential bid in 2016. He didn’t change his message throughout the final days of the race.

Trump criticized Biden and Harris’ immigration policies and cited the death of Laken Riley, a University of Georgia nursing student who was killed in February while jogging on campus. AND 26-year-old Venezuelan immigrant was arrested on murder and assault charges, and federal authorities said he entered the United States illegally in 2022 and had been arrested at least once before.

Trump used Reilly’s death as an example of violent crimes committed by immigrants in the US – even though they were found to have committed crimes in less than half the rate citizens born in the USA – according to a study by the National Institute of Justice.

A call to withdraw from the vote

With margins as close as those in Georgia, every vote counts. Trump pressed rally goers on the importance of voting, and at one point conducted a real-time voting poll to see how many people had already voted.

“We have a clear advantage, but go out and vote. We can’t take any chances,” Trump said.

Earlier in the day, at a religious summit near Atlanta, Trump encouraged Christian voters – a a key part of their electorate — go to the polls.

Contributor: Savannah Kuchar, USA TODAY