A day after President Biden’s emotional outburst during Thursday’s primetime debate, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin was overcome with emotion and cried as he stood next to former President Donald J. Trump at a farm in Chesapeake.
“This is the best Trump rally ever!”
Until now, Youngkin has distanced himself from Trump and his unpredictable behavior when it suits him.
Not now. Not with the winning streak going on.
“Hello, Virginia,” Trump said kindly as he took the stage before thousands of supporters in a state that Republicans increasingly see as winnable. “Did anybody see the debate?” he shouted. “That was a big One.”
On the surface, the Chesapeake rally was a quick victory speech after the debate and before the 2024 campaign gets underway.
“I’m feeling pretty good today because the Democrats are in such a tough spot,” said Jason Alter, 35, a dentist in Miami.
But beneath the jubilation there was a mild sense of panic — the kind of panic you sometimes feel in life when everything seems to be going well.
Throughout Trump’s comeback campaign, his supporters have told anyone who will listen that Biden is merely a tool of the powers that be, nudging Trump to field a stronger candidate when the time is right. Now, in their view, that very conspiracy is unfolding before the nation’s very eyes.
“We all suspected it,” said Phil Capron, 40, a Virginia Beach resident and real estate investor, “and now that’s the official story being reported by all the major media outlets.”
The allegations came to light Friday. “They did this to get rid of him,” said Tara Silvassy, 55, a FEMA contractor.
But who is “they”? “The political parties,” she answers simply.
Trump, who is never one to turn a blind eye to conspiracy theories, seems just as frightened as the rest of his supporters about what is likely happening now.
“A lot of people are saying that after last night’s performance, Joe Biden is out of the race,” he said from the stage, followed by sporadic, confused applause. “Actually, I don’t really think so,” he continued, “because Biden is doing better in the polls than any of the Democrats that are being talked about. Glenn, have you seen that?”
Trump spent the next few minutes telling his supporters why the alternatives to Biden were weak. The crowd booed when he said Governor Gavin Newsom “can’t govern California.” The crowd booed even more when he mentioned Vice President Kamala Harris. “It may have been the best decision Joe Biden ever made to make her his vice president, because nobody wants that. And I’m more than happy about that,” he said.
And he said, “Have they polled Michelle Obama? She’s polling very badly. Terrible.” The crowd was oddly quiet. No one seemed to believe a word of it, least of all Trump, coming out of his own mouth. “That’s hard to believe,” he said, pausing. “But crook Joe Biden is polling better than those guys.”
But that claim was somewhat weakened by another part of the same speech in which Trump said pollsters can never be trusted.
“Michelle Obama is an interesting choice,” mused Capron, wearing an “Alex Jones Was Right” T-shirt. “I actually think she’d get a lot of support. There were a lot of people who really liked the Obama years.”
“Unfortunately, I think it’s going to be Gavin Newsom,” Silvassy said.
Alter, the Miami dentist, has the same concerns: “Yeah, it makes me very uneasy. I hope Joe is so stubborn that he just keeps going and thinks he can win.”
On Friday, Trump’s biggest round of applause had nothing to do with the debate or Biden’s gaffe, but for referring to the Supreme Court ruling that same day that found prosecutors had overreach in their prosecution of some of the pro-Trump rioters who stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021. “They were treated badly,” Trump said, adding, “The J6 hostages should be released immediately.”
The next morning, Trump attempted a bit of damage control for his opponent, posting to Truth Social on Saturday that Biden’s “speech on Friday was better and he seems to be coming out of his trance.”
But in Chesapeake, he was finally honest with his supporters about the battle ahead. “I don’t know what’s going to happen,” he finally admitted. “I have no idea.”
