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Luzerne County Dems gather for socially distant watch party on last night of DNC

OLD FORGE &mdash; After being greeted by about 300 supporters at the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport Thursday afternoon, President Donald Trump then rode through Old Forge where the streets were lined with thousands of sign-holding, MAGA hat-wearing, chanting Trump fans.
				It was a throw back to 2016 &mdash; and then some.
				If anyone thought Trump&rsquo;s popularity had waned in the last three-and-a-half years, the welcome he received en route to Mariotti Building Products dispelled any such notion.
				&ldquo;Did you see what&rsquo;s going on outside,&rdquo; was Trump&rsquo;s opening line when he took to the podium at Mariotti, where another 300-plus supporters stood and cheered, &ldquo;Four more years.&rdquo;
				&ldquo;In 75 days, we are going to win Pennsylvania and we&rsquo;re going to win the election.&rdquo;
				And from that point on it was all vintage Trump.
				&ldquo;No president should ever have to go through what we&rsquo;ve gone through,&rdquo; Trump said. &ldquo;In three years, no administration has accomplished what we&rsquo;ve accomplished. In fact, we&rsquo;ve accomplished more than I said we would.&rdquo;
				Trump continued to rail against the &ldquo;liberal left Democrats&rdquo; and talked about how he has taken the nation&rsquo;s economy to never-before reached heights, re-built the military and eliminated ISIS.
				&ldquo;We all know what&rsquo;s at stake in this election &mdash; the fate of our country,&rdquo; Trump said.
				Trump criticized the &ldquo;radical left Democratic&rdquo; cities that have riots and &ldquo;blood in the streets.&rdquo; He said if cities like Portland, Chicago and Minneapolis asked for help, he would have seen that the problems were resolved and law and order restored.
				Trump then called his Democratic opponent, former Vice President Joe Biden &ldquo;a puppet.&rdquo; He told the crowd that Biden, if elected, will &ldquo;raise taxes by the billions, take away your guns and open the borders to criminals.&rdquo;
				&ldquo;And he will give free health care to the illegals,&rdquo; Trump said of Biden. &ldquo;You don&rsquo;t get free health care, do you?&rdquo;
				Speaking on the same day Biden was to deliver his acceptance speech at the virtual Democratic National Convention and at a site just a few miles from Biden&rsquo;s Scranton childhood home, Trump took his shots.
				&ldquo;Joe Biden is no friend of Pennsylvania,&rdquo; Trump said, then blamed his opponent for supporting trade policies that Trump claimed resulted in the loss of thousands of manufacturing jobs.
				&ldquo;There&rsquo;s only one thing standing between your family and the radical left-wing mob,&rdquo; Trump said. &ldquo;And that&rsquo;s your vote this November.&rdquo;
				Trump also took aim at Biden&rsquo;s frequent references to his Scranton roots.
				&ldquo;He&rsquo;ll remind us that he was born in Scranton, but you know he left like 70 years ago, right?&rdquo; Trump said.
				Biden was born in the city in 1942, but his family relocated to Delaware when the future politician was just 10, as his father sought work there.
				Coronavirus
				Trump said his administration and private sector partners have shipped more than 7 million N95 masks, 2.6 million surgical and procedural masks, 1.1 million eye and face shields, 7.8 million isolation and surgical gowns, and 2.3 million medical gloves to Pennsylvania.
				&ldquo;Thanks to our revolutionary testing efforts, Pennsylvania has completed more than 1.4 million coronavirus tests,&rdquo; he said.
				He then offered that Pennsylvania is seeing progress in the fight against COVID-19, with the 7-day moving average of cases in the state having decreased by 9% compared to two weeks ago.
				And then Trump criticized Gov. Tom Wolf, calling him &ldquo;shut down Wolf,&rdquo; accusing the Democrat of using pandemic restrictions to hurt the economy in an effort to hurt the president&rsquo;s reelection chances.
				&ldquo;Your governor will open up the state again &mdash; on Nov. 4,&rdquo; Trump said. The general election is on Nov. 3.
				&ldquo;The shutdown will destroy your souls,&rdquo; Trump said, as the crowd loudly booed the mention of Wolf&rsquo;s name.
				Trump then played to the Pennsylvania crowd. He said his Paycheck Protection Program has delivered over $20.7 billion in loans supporting more than 170,000 local small businesses in Pennsylvania.
				&ldquo;PPP has helped save nearly 2 million jobs in Pennsylvania,&rdquo; Trump said.
				The 45th U.S. president then said that Pennsylvania and its local governments have received more than $4.9 billion from the Coronavirus Relief Fund to date and nearly 440,000 jobs have been added in Pennsylvania since April, with over 230,000 added in June alone.
				&ldquo;Over 124,000 manufacturing and construction jobs combined have been gained back,&rdquo; he said.
				And Trump didn&rsquo;t forget to criticize the national media, again calling them &ldquo;fake news.&rdquo; To make his point he cited a recent Rasmussen poll that showed him with a slight lead over Biden.
				&ldquo;But they (media) won&rsquo;t report that,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Just like in 2016.&rdquo;
				Law and order
				Trump said he has the support of law enforcement across the country.
				&ldquo;Why would they endorse anybody else?&rdquo; he asked.
				Trump said he expects the Democrats to &ldquo;rig the election.&rdquo; He said the crowd that greeted him along the motorcade route is indicative of how the people feel.
				Trump said Biden wants to lock everything down, He told the crowd to wear protective masks, saying, &ldquo;It can&rsquo;t hurt.&rdquo;
				Trump said he closed the borders and &ldquo;caught the criminals.&rdquo;
				He said Biden has &ldquo;joined the manifesto of Sen. Bernie Sanders, taking Biden further to the left.
				As far as Biden&rsquo;s runningmate, Sen. Kamala Harris, Trump said, &ldquo;She&rsquo;s another beauty.&rdquo;
				Trump then said, &ldquo;Our country should be for law abiding citizens. We are respected again throughout the world.&rdquo;
				Trump ended his hour-long speech, which failed to mention Luzerne County, by stating: &ldquo;I&rsquo;m fighting for you. I&rsquo;m fighting for Pennsylvania.&rdquo;
				Trump won Luzerne County in 2016, but did not take Lackawanna County, where he spoke Thursday.
				The president was met at the airport by former U.S. Rep. Lou Barletta of Hazleton; and Republican nominee for Pennsylvania&rsquo;s 8th Congressional District Jim Bognet.
				After the rally, Trump made a brief stop at one of Old Forge&rsquo;s signature pizza shops, Arcaro and Genell, where he was photographed holding a tray of pizza before departing for the airport.

‘Joe Biden is no friend of Pennsylvania,’ president says in Old Forge rally