Former President Donald Trump joined Fox News’ Sean Hannity in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, where he fielded top policy questions weighing on voters in the key battleground state, just days ahead of his first debate against Vice President Kamala Harris.
Trump spoke before a crowd of voters during the Hannity-moderated town hall at the New Holland Arena in the Keystone State, which has again emerged as a crucial state this election cycle that will likely help determine the outcome on Nov. 5. Trump won the state in 2016 when he earned 44,292 more votes than the Democratic nominee, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The state then elected President Biden in his match-up against Trump in 2020 at a 1.17% margin.
Both Harris and Trump have repeatedly visited Pennsylvania in recent weeks, with Harris most recently joining the state on Monday with Biden in the president’s first campaign event for the Harris-Walz ticket since he bowed out of the race in July.
Ahead of the Fox News town hall, Trump was most recently in PA last Friday at a rally in Johnstown, in the western part of the state. Trump was also attending a Pennsylvania campaign rally in July when a shooter attempted to assassinate the 45th president, injuring him, two others and killing a local father and fireman, Corey Comperatore.
Former President Donald Trump speaks from Harrisburg during a Fox News town hall. (Fox News )
Trump and Harris will take the same stage next week on Tuesday, when the election foes will again travel to Pennsylvania, for their first, and perhaps only, debate, which will be held in Philadelphia.
Fox News Digital compiled the top five moments of Trump’s town hall as he gears up for his debate against Harris.
Trump addresses tragic Georgia school shooting
Trump vowed to “heal our world” if he’s re-elected after Hannity cited the mass shooting in Georgia that left at least four people dead and Trump’s heightened security following the assassination attempt on his life in July.
“It’s a sick and angry world for a lot of reasons and we’re going to make it better. We’re going to heal our world. We’re going to get rid of all these wars that are starting all over the place because of incompetence,” Trump said Wednesday from the New Holland Arena in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
“We’re going to hopefully do very well. We have an election coming up … We’re going to be, I think, we’re going to be very well set up to do a great job,” Trump added.
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At least four people were killed Wednesday at Apalachee High School, when 14-year-old suspect Colt Gray allegedly opened fire around the 10 a.m. hour. Officials said the four victims killed were two students and two teachers. An additional nine others were injured in the shooting.
People leave Apalachee High School, Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2024, in Winder, Ga. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
Trump slams Biden and Harris as ‘clowns’ leading US to ‘World War III’
Trump warned the U.S. is heading towards “World War III territory” as wars abroad rage under the Biden-Harris administration, whom he slammed as “clowns.”
“We’re heading into World War III territory, and because of the power of weapons, nuclear weapons in particular, but other weapons also, and I know the weapons better than anybody because I’m the one that bought them,” Trump said from the New Holland Arena in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
“We won’t have World War III when I’m elected. But with these clowns that you have in there now, you’re going to end up having World War III, and it’s going to be a war … like no other.”
War broke out in Ukraine in 2022, when Russia invaded the nation. Another war broke out in the Middle East last October, when Hamas terrorists launched attacks on Israel.
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Trump argued that if he were in the Oval Office over the last three and a half years, wars would not have sparked in Ukraine or Israel.
“We have things going on in the world right now with Israel and with the Middle East. … It’s blowing up. We have Ukraine and Russia. That would never happen. That would have never happened. October 7th would have never happened if I were the president. It would have never happened. And everybody knows it. Iran was broke. They didn’t have the money for Hamas and for Hezbollah. They didn’t have the money for anybody. They wanted to get by, and we would have made a fair deal with them,” he said.
Trump slams ‘border czar’ Harris
Trump slammed Harris for spiraling illegal immigration that has plagued the U.S. since 2021, citing that “she was in charge of the border” as illegal immigration surged to record levels.
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“They want open borders,” Trump told Hannity. “She wants open borders. Now she’s all of a sudden said, oh, I think we’re closing the borders. She was the border czar, whether you like it or not, but even if you don’t want to use that term. She was in charge of the border.”
“It’s the worst border in the history of the world, not just here. There’s never been a country that allowed 21 million people to come in over a three-year period. There’s never been. And 21 million people, many of whom are from prisons, many of whom are murderers and drug dealers and child traffickers.”
Immigration is the second most important issue to voters, behind the economy, heading into the 2024 election, according to recent Fox News polling.
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“And, by the way, women traffickers, you know, women trafficking is the biggest, and they’re traffickers in women. And they’re coming in now and they’re putting them in our Social Security accounts, and they’re putting them in Medicare. And just one thing, if you take a look, take a look. Over the last week, I said this was going to happen,” Trump continued. “And it’s happening because these people are tougher than our criminals are, our criminals are nice people by comparison.”
Trump says US will face ‘1929-style depression’ if Harris wins
Trump predicted that the U.S. will fall into an economic depression if Harris wins the general election on Nov. 5.
“This country will end up in a depression if she becomes president. Like 1929, this will be a 1929 depression. She has no idea what the hell she’s doing,” Trump said from the New Holland Arena in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
“I gave you the biggest tax cuts in the history of our country. If you let them. If you let the Trump tax cuts expire, which she wants to do, she wants to terminate them. If you do that, you will suffer the biggest tax increase in history. There’s never been a tax increase like it, on top of which she wants to add a lot of tax,” Trump argued of Harris’ economic agenda.
Trump cited Harris’ proposals on capital gains taxes and her plan to install price controls on companies to combat “price gouging” as evidence the U.S. would hit further financial woes similar to the Great Depression if Harris is elected to the Oval Office.
RALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA – AUGUST 16: Democratic U.S. presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris speaks on her policy platform, including improving the cost of living for all Americans, at the Hendrick Center For Automotive Excellence on August 16, 2024 in Raleigh, North Carolina. This is the candidate’s first major policy speech since accepting the democratic party nomination. (Grant Baldwin/Getty Images)
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Amid the conversation, Trump said that Harris’ own father is a “Marxist” economist.
“Her father’s a Marxist teacher of economics. Can you believe this? But if that happened, this country and I think forgetting about that … shes got a lot of things that are just as bad. If she gets in, I think we will have a depression, 1929-style depression. That’s what I think will happen to our country already. They’ve set us on a path,” he said.
Harris’ father, Donald J. Harris is a retired Stanford University professor of economics, whose economics background is steeped in Marxist theory, which earned him the description from the Economist this year as a “combative Marxist economist.”
Trump touts ‘toughest’ stance against Russia
Trump declared that he was the “toughest” on Russia when he served as president, while again arguing wars in foreign nations would not have sparked if he were in the Oval Office.
“I was the toughest on Russia. Putin would even say, you know, if you’re not the toughest guy, you are, you’re killing us,” Trump said while discussing his opposition to the Nord Stream pipeline.
“This was the biggest job they’ve ever had and I stopped it.”
The 45th president continued that the “whole world” was a safer place when he was in office, while touting that wars would have not broken out in Ukraine and Israel if he had won re-election in 2020.
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“[Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban] said, you bring back Trump, everybody. Now I’m not saying it, but he said it because I’d rather say respect. But he said everybody is afraid of Trump. You bring him back, you’re not going to have any problems. It’s all going to go away,” he said.
Fox News Digital’s Andrew Mark Miller contributed to this report.