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Here’s What Trump Said About PA Candidates

Official portrait of President Donald J. Trump, Friday, October 6, 2017. (Official White House photo by Shealah Craighead)

President Donald Trump spoke to a packed house at the Erie Insurance Arena last night to boost the campaigns of various Republican candidates in Pennsylvania, while dubbing the Democrats as the “party of crime.”

His visit to Pennsylvania’s newly drawn 16th Congressional District, in which he won by 20 points, included welcoming Rep. Mike Kelly (R-Butler) and U.S. Senate candidate, Rep. Lou Barletta on to the stage to champion the Trump agenda and speak out on the prospects of the Democrats regaining control of the House or Senate during his address.

Here are the Pennsylvania politicians Trump addressed during the rally.

Rep. Mike Kelly

Trump lauded Kelly for his work in Congress for being “strong on crime, tough as hell on borders, powerful on trade, and he is really great on jobs,” while adding they’ve been friends for a long time. He credited Kelly for leading the fight to cut taxes, to a level at which Trump said “has never been seen before.”

Tying the address into the needs of the district, Trump promised to provide assistance to Presque Isle.  

“We’re going to dredge the channel to Lake Erie and we’re going to replenish the sand to Presque Isle,” he said.

He recalled a conversation with Kelly, who was pleading for the federal government to help rectify the issue, and asked, “What the Hell is Presque Isle?”

“He wants sand and we’re going to get him the sand,” Trump said.  

Trump never mentioned Kelly’s Democratic challenger, Ron DiNicola by name during the rally, but stated after Kelly’s speech that the GOP incumbent was in good position to win.

“Look, he’s in good shape, you see that,” Trump said. “How would you like to be his opponent?”

“But still you never know. A vote for Mike is a vote to Make America Great Again.”

Rep. Lou Barletta

The GOP candidate for United States Senate was one of Trump’s first supporters in Pennsylvania and the President discussed his appreciation for his time as a Congressman, while explaining he was the reason he chose to challenge Sen. Bob Casey.

Trump detailed a conversation he had with Barletta talking him into entering the race for U.S. Senate and believes the candidate is a “total winner.”

“In other words, I got him into this,” Trump said. “He’s a special man and a total winner.”

Before welcoming him on stage Trump referenced that Barletta’s brother died the day before and showed support for him during this difficult time.

Sen. Bob Casey

At a previous rally this summer, Casey was dubbed “Sleeping Bob” by the President. Last night, Trump continued to deliver jabs at Casey by painting him as someone who protects “violent criminal aliens” and was living off of the reputation of his father.

“Bob Casey puts criminal aliens before American citizens, always has,” Trump said. “By the way, how do you have such a liberal guy in the state of Pennsylvania, I’m trying to figure that out.”

After a pause of a couple of seconds, Trump believes he arrived at the conclusion.  

“Oh, he’s banking on the name of his father, that’s no good.”

Trump also accused Casey of wanting to abolish ICE and painted him as an advocate for sanctuary cities.

Rep. G.T. Thompson

The first Pennsylvania elected official referenced by name from Trump during the rally was Thompson.

Leading into introducing a slate of Republican candidates present at the event, he credited Thompson as someone who “has helped me out so much in Washington” and cited tax cuts and regulations as examples.

Scott Wagner

Trump lauded Wagner’s background and was in shock of the amount of events the gubernatorial candidate said he has attended thus far.

“This guy is working hard, folks,” Trump said.

Trump raved about conservative pundit Judge Jeanine Pirro embracing Wagner as the highest compliment a candidate can earn.  

“Maybe the best thing I could say about Scott Wagner is that Judge Jeanine thinks he’s fantastic,” Trump said. “That might be the greatest endorsement and you have my full endorsement, that might be the greatest endorsement I can give you, Scott, Judge Jeanine.”

John Joyce

The candidate for Pennsylvania’s open 13th Congressional district was referenced by Trump as a heavy favorite, but pleaded with voters to not take the lead for granted.

“You have a man named John Joyce who’s running and he’s way up in the polls, but don’t let that fool you, get out and vote,” Trump said.

State Sens. Michele Brooks and  Dan Laughlin

Trump mentioned the two Republican state Senators by name during the rally for being a part of the Pennsylvania Republicans fighting for the Trump agenda.

What They Said About Trump

These statements were made while Trump was on stage at the rally.

Rep. Mike Kelly

The Republican Congressman spoke glowingly about Trump and his agenda while he was on stage with the Commander in Chief.

“Listen, I gotta tell you the last 21 months of my life I have seen something happen in America that I have never seen before,” Kelly said. “I have seen the resurrection of the greatest nation the world has ever known.”

In an attempt to echo how important the midterms are, the former Notre Dame football scholarship recipient, used a football analogy to express the importance of November’s election.

“There’s an old saying, you got to play it through the whistle, right,” Kelly said. “You know what this man’s saying is? You got to play in through the echo of the whistle.”

In closing after praising the President for the current state of the country, he expressed gratitude for Trump entering the political arena to “reform” the nation.

“You are the best…” Kelly said of Trump. “I am so grateful and so thankful that an American citizen came out of nowhere to take the reigns and reform and recommit this country to the greatest nation the world has ever known.”

Rep. Lou Barletta

He referenced the President’s affinity to the state by visiting multiple times for rallies and credited the President for leading the “greatest economy in American history.”

“There are more jobs than people who are unemployed,” Barletta said. “This economy is so good that even Colin Kaepernick found a job.”

Barletta also rallied around building the wall and blaming the Democrats for “mistreating” Kavanaugh.

16 Responses

  1. Unfortunately, Scott Wagner is not working hard at all to expand his base ro moderates he needs to win. His poor efforts are going to throw the race to Wolf ….. and Fetterman. Wagner is a Strike 2 …. one more and I’ll just vote the libertarian. The rate Wagner’s going, I am starting to think voting for him would be more a wasted vote!

    1. He is a joke candidate. A few months ago, I thought he would only lose by 10 to 12. Now, that seems like I was being wildly optimistic for Wagner. The guy is a class A jerk.

  2. Snooze. More of the same from Trump. However, I do sense an overconfidence in the Dems. I don’t think the House is a guarantee and still think they could lose seats in the Senate. Not a prediction. Just think the Dems need to work harder.

  3. Unfortunately for Scott Wagner, his political bad luck continues. Imagine the President of the United States comes to your state to campaign and the best he can say is that a Fox News pundit likes you so you must be good. Talk about lukewarm endorsements! Scott Wagner has had the worst luck any politician has ever had running for Governor and can’t catch a break. If it weren’t for political bad luck Scott Wagner wouldn’t have any political luck in this general election campaign since May.

    1. It is NOT bad luck. He is a horrible person who has run a horrible campaign. Only the amongst us will vote for him. Most of the R’s I know who won’t vote for a Dem ever have told me they aren’t voting at all – for him or “Lou”. The R House reps are in bigger trouble than I imagined (and I already thought they were in trouble). These 2 represent a huge drag to the entire GOP in PA. They literally could cause the GOP to lose and additional 15 to 20 state seats.

      Hillary isn’t running. Many R’s voted against her. That isn’t in play this time.

  4. If Trump is coming to Erie just to save Mike Kelly from Ron DiNicola in a district he won by 20 points in 2016, PA GOP needs to get ready fo a shellacking next month.

    1. He was present to link with multiple candidates, per his pledge in Wilkes Barre.

  5. Mike Kelly is 70 years old. In his lifetime, he has seen the Brown v Board decision, MLK’s March on Washington, the passing of the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts, the creation of Medicare, Neil Armstrong walking on the moon, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the explosion of the Internet, legal marriage equality…

    He has seen all of these things, but the most important thing to happen to American in his 70 years had been the Trump presidency?

    1. The epochal impact of The Donald’s accomplishments are beyond historic, as evidenced by [corrupting the dynamics-law of sir isaac newton] the intensity of the “equal and opposite” reaction by the Resistance-Dems.

      1. I would say the Allied resistance to the Kaiser was pretty stiff as well, but it wasn’t because he was accomplishing a bunch of wonderful tasks. If you are judging the merits of DJT’s accomplishments solely on those forces working to curtail them, I think your logic may be a little off base. There is a feverish resistance because he is a crazy person, and there is still at least one party of officials in Washington who didn’t sell their souls for cheap wins.

      2. Your absurd observation is a statement looking for a point. If this is the best you can do to defend Trump, then politically he is tanking.

        1. the restoration process [for constitutional conservatism] continues apace; apparently, The Donald has appointed 1/6 of all federal judges … in less than 2 years

  6. There’s a reason that even Fox News is not showing his rallies anymore… His schtick is growing old.

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