Trump attacks vulnerable Sen. Jon Tester, Harris, Walz in Montana

Bozeman, Montana CNN —

Former President Donald Trump returned to the campaign trail Friday in Montana, where he lashed out at vulnerable Sen. Jon Tester, briefly talked up the GOP's Democratic challenger and then unleashed another round of dizzying attacks on the Democratic presidential ticket.

The Bozeman rally was Trump's first since Vice President Kamala Harris officially clinched the Democratic nomination and picked Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate, two decisions that energized Democrats and, if only for a few days, pushed the former president out of the headlines.

Big Sky Country is expected to swing overwhelmingly in favor of Trump in November, but the Senate race is poised to be much closer and could tip the balance of power in the chamber.

“We need the Senate,” Trump told the crowd Friday, emphasizing the crucial nature of the White House race. “We need the Senate.”

As president in 2018, Trump campaigned hard for then-state Auditor Matt Rosendale, visiting the state four times during that midterm cycle. Rosendale, now a congressman, lost to Tester by about 3 points.

This year, Republican Tim Sheehy, a former Navy SEAL and aerospace CEO, was at Trump’s side at the event but wasn’t exactly the guest of honor. Trump has been at odds for years with Tester, the top Democrat on the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, over the senator’s role in the failed nomination of former White House physician Ronny Jackson to head the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Jackson, now a Texas congressman, traveled to Bozeman to present his own indictment against Tester, who in 2018 helped draft a report detailing a series of allegations, including abusive behavior, mishandling of prescription drugs and workplace drunkenness, that ultimately led Jackson to withdraw from the race.

“He decided it was in his political interest and would help his reelection campaign if he could show up and be the guy who took down one of Donald Trump’s cabinet nominees,” an agitated Jackson told the crowd. “He tried to destroy me.”

Trump’s visit to Montana follows a busy week for Harris, who officially selected Walz as her running mate on Tuesday before the two embarked on a campaign tour of key swing states including Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin and Arizona. In addition to his usual attack lines, Trump also brought audiovisual aids to the occasion, twice interrupting his speech to play videos of Harris misspeaking or espousing a liberal cause.

Trump's running mate, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, has closely mirrored Harris-Walz's campaign schedule in recent days, visiting many of the same states in what he said was an attempt to sharpen the contrast between the two dueling candidates.

On Friday, Trump acknowledged the challenges Vance has faced in his first weeks as the Republican vice presidential nominee. Calling his new running mate truly special, Trump recalled telling Vance, “You got your bearings after you took a few shots at the beginning.”

The former president was less complimentary about Walz, calling him “very strange” while foreshadowing other lines of attack.

If Harris and Walz win the election, Trump said, those cheering will be pink-haired Marxists, looters, perverts, flag burners, Hamas supporters, drug dealers, gun thieves and human traffickers.

This riff, and others like it, were part of a larger, if scattered, attempt to portray the Democratic ticket as too liberal.

“But I'm not talking about him, I'm talking about her,” Trump added, referring to Harris. “That's her ideology. That's why she chose him.”

Trump made only brief reference to his campaign's recent attacks on Walz's military service, which have been largely deployed by Vance, who served in the Marine Corps.

“That’s real bravery,” Trump said of Sheehy, who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, among other deployments. “That’s a bravery award for heroism, you know. The other one talks about bravery. He’s got a different kind of bravery. It’s the opposite.”

Vance accused Walz of stealing courage for remarks he made in a 2018 speech advocating an assault weapons ban, which Harris’ campaign included in a social media video. Walz said at the time that he wanted to make sure that these weapons of war, which I carried in the war, are the only place these weapons are. Walz has never deployed to Afghanistan or Iraq or a combat zone as part of his service.

The Bozeman rally also marked Trump's first foray outside Florida this week. On Thursday, he held a roughly hour-long news conference with reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, during which he tried to take back the spotlight from his Democratic rival.

Trump used the attention to launch a long list of attacks on Harris, Walz and Democrats in general. The former president repeatedly insulted Harris’ intelligence community and teased her for not yet holding her own press conference, described Walz as a left-wing radical in disguise and, once again, insisted that Jewish voters who support Democrats should get their heads examined.

On Friday, Trump again attacked the vice president's intelligence community and mocked her for not giving an interview or holding a news conference since becoming the presumptive Democratic nominee.

He falsely claimed that Harris refused to debate him. Harris and Trump both agreed to participate in an ABC debate on September 10, and Harris told reporters she would be happy to discuss another debate.

Trump also said Friday that he didn't care about mispronouncing Harris' name and claimed, without elaborating, that no one really knew her last name.

“Kamala, sometimes called Kamala, you know, she has about nine different ways to pronounce her name,” Trump said. “And because the press is so dishonest, no matter how you say it, they’re going to say you were wrong. You were wrong. I don’t care how well I do it. In fact, I don’t care at all.”

The past week has propelled the 2024 campaign into a new phase, with the major party lists now, finally, firmly in place ahead of the election and candidates stepping up their rhetoric.

Harris and Walz used their key swing state this week to frame the election as a choice between a prosecutor and a convicted felon, as well as a regular ticket, theirs, and the odd duo of Trump and Vance.

Meanwhile, Trump's running mate has used his travels to attack Harris' record on crime, inflation and the border, while doubling down on the former president's false claims about his legacy, calling her a chameleon who pretends to be something different depending on the audience she's speaking to.

Vance also stepped up his attacks on Walz, accusing the Minnesota governor of forgoing service in Iraq when he left the National Guard in 2005 to run for Congress. Walz retired two months before his unit was ordered to deploy to Iraq.

Those clashes took a back seat Friday night to what is expected to be a hotly contested Senate race. Tester, first elected in 2006, is the last Democrat to hold a nonjudicial statewide office in Montana.

Sheehy, meanwhile, has won the support of Trump and his allies as well as the Republican establishment, which sees the seat as critical to securing a Senate majority by 2025.

Montana Sen. Steve Daines, head of the National Republican Senatorial Committee and the first member of his party's leadership to endorse Trump in the 2024 election, was an early supporter of Sheehy and helped convince the former president to back him.

Speaking to reporters before the rally, Daines said he personally encouraged Trump to visit his home state, even though it is not a presidential battleground, because he believes Montana will be the state that gives Republicans a Senate majority in November.

“You could imagine President Trump would have called Chuck Schumer and tried to figure out how to get his nominees through,” Daines said. That’s why Montana becomes very important, because it becomes the 51st seat.

The Montana campaign is one of only two Senate races in which a sitting Democratic senator is seeking reelection in a state that Trump won twice. Sen. Sherrod Brown’s campaign in Ohio is the other. But unlike in Ohio, Montana Republicans quickly rallied around Sheehy, avoiding a tumultuous primary.

Recognizing the stakes, both parties have invested astronomical sums in this race, spending tens of millions of dollars on pre-election advertising and booking airtime in the coming fall months, making it the second-most expensive Senate race of the cycle so far.

CNN's David Wright contributed to this report.

Sources 1/ https://Google.com/ 2/ https://www.cnn.com/2024/08/09/politics/donald-trump-montana-rally-senate/index.html The mention sources can contact us to remove/changing this article

What Are The Main Benefits Of Comparing Car Insurance Quotes Online

LOS ANGELES, CA / ACCESSWIRE / June 24, 2020, / Compare-autoinsurance.Org has launched a new blog post that presents the main benefits of comparing multiple car insurance quotes. For more info and free online quotes, please visit https://compare-autoinsurance.Org/the-advantages-of-comparing-prices-with-car-insurance-quotes-online/ The modern society has numerous technological advantages. One important advantage is the speed at which information is sent and received. With the help of the internet, the shopping habits of many persons have drastically changed. The car insurance industry hasn't remained untouched by these changes. On the internet, drivers can compare insurance prices and find out which sellers have the best offers. View photos The advantages of comparing online car insurance quotes are the following: Online quotes can be obtained from anywhere and at any time. Unlike physical insurance agencies, websites don't have a specific schedule and they are available at any time. Drivers that have busy working schedules, can compare quotes from anywhere and at any time, even at midnight. Multiple choices. Almost all insurance providers, no matter if they are well-known brands or just local insurers, have an online presence. Online quotes will allow policyholders the chance to discover multiple insurance companies and check their prices. Drivers are no longer required to get quotes from just a few known insurance companies. Also, local and regional insurers can provide lower insurance rates for the same services. Accurate insurance estimates. Online quotes can only be accurate if the customers provide accurate and real info about their car models and driving history. Lying about past driving incidents can make the price estimates to be lower, but when dealing with an insurance company lying to them is useless. Usually, insurance companies will do research about a potential customer before granting him coverage. Online quotes can be sorted easily. Although drivers are recommended to not choose a policy just based on its price, drivers can easily sort quotes by insurance price. Using brokerage websites will allow drivers to get quotes from multiple insurers, thus making the comparison faster and easier. For additional info, money-saving tips, and free car insurance quotes, visit https://compare-autoinsurance.Org/ Compare-autoinsurance.Org is an online provider of life, home, health, and auto insurance quotes. This website is unique because it does not simply stick to one kind of insurance provider, but brings the clients the best deals from many different online insurance carriers. In this way, clients have access to offers from multiple carriers all in one place: this website. On this site, customers have access to quotes for insurance plans from various agencies, such as local or nationwide agencies, brand names insurance companies, etc. "Online quotes can easily help drivers obtain better car insurance deals. All they have to do is to complete an online form with accurate and real info, then compare prices", said Russell Rabichev, Marketing Director of Internet Marketing Company. CONTACT: Company Name: Internet Marketing CompanyPerson for contact Name: Gurgu CPhone Number: (818) 359-3898Email: [email protected]: https://compare-autoinsurance.Org/ SOURCE: Compare-autoinsurance.Org View source version on accesswire.Com:https://www.Accesswire.Com/595055/What-Are-The-Main-Benefits-Of-Comparing-Car-Insurance-Quotes-Online View photos