The two leading Democratic contenders to unseat President Trump in November 2020 reacted negatively to the launch of his re-election campaign.
Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont blasted the president for ‘an hour-and-a-half speech of life, distortions and total absolute nonsense’ while former Vice President Joe Biden said it was the ‘Obama-Biden administration’ that led the country to economic recovery.
‘It’s going to take me a little while to settle down because I just had the extremely unpleasant experience of watching Donald Trump in action for an hour and a half,’ Sanders said in a live-streamed response after the president’s rally in Orlando on Tuesday.
‘Wow, and that was certainly something.’
Senator Bernie Sanders (left) and former Vice President Joe Biden (right), the two leading contenders for the Democratic nomination, slammed President Trump on Tuesday
The president gave a 90-minute speech in Orlando during an event billed as the official start of his re-election effort
‘That is quite an experience… If you watched Trump’s speech, you’re already a little bit discombobulated, so I’m not going to keep you for a long period of time,’ the senator said.
Sanders added: ‘Listening to Trump made me feel very much that he is a man living in a parallel universe, a man way out of touch with the needs of ordinary people and a man who must be defeated.
‘And I can understand that he attacks me or other Democratic candidates because poll after poll is showing the country that Trump is falling further behind in terms of his ability to get reelected.’
Sanders assailed Trump for not addressing climate change, which the president has dismissed as a hoax.
The senator also slammed Trump for not mentioning income inequality as well as his attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act.
While Sanders reacted with a video, Biden’s campaign took to Twitter to lambast Trump.
‘Let’s be clear: President Trump inherited a growing economy from the Obama-Biden administration,’ Biden’s campaign said.
Biden’s campaign took to Twitter to lambast Trump
‘Let’s be clear: President Trump inherited a growing economy from the Obama-Biden administration,’ Biden’s campaign said
‘Our core values of inclusivity, diversity, respect for the rule of law, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and freedom of religion are under attack here at home and abroad,’ Biden’s campaign said
The campaign said that ‘this is truly the most important election of our lifetime’
‘And now, he’s in the process of squandering it.’
Biden’s campaign criticized Trump’s tax plan as only benefiting ‘the super wealthy.’
‘It’s time we reward work, not just wealth,’ his campaign tweeted.
‘Trump continues to undermine our standing in the world.
‘Our core values of inclusivity, diversity, respect for the rule of law, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and freedom of religion are under attack here at home and abroad.
‘Trump’s response to Charlottesville two years ago was abhorrent, but it’s not just that.
‘It’s happening every day.
‘Separating children from their parents at the border. Attacking women’s rights. Rolling back LGBTQ protections.
‘We’re better than this.’
The campaign said that ‘this is truly the most important election of our lifetime.’
Trump formally launched his 2020 re-election campaign on Tuesday by presenting himself as the same political insurgent who shook up the Washington establishment four years ago and who is now a victim of an attempted ouster by Democrats.
At a packed rally at an arena in Orlando, Florida, Trump made clear he would run for re-election as an outsider, just as he did in 2016.
Whether he can pull it off remains far from certain as Trump has been in office now for 2-1/2 years.
He revisited campaign themes from four years ago, decrying illegal immigration, the news media and his 2016 Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton.
‘Together we stared down a broken political establishment and we restored government by and for the people,’ Trump said.
‘As long as you keep this team in place, we have a tremendous way to go. Our future has never looked brighter or sharper.’
Trump said his Democratic challengers would radically change the United States and seek to legalize migrants coming across the southern border so they could vote and boost the Democratic political base.
Democrats ‘want to destroy our country as we know it’ and that it’s ‘not going to happen,’ Trump said.
‘We believe our country should be a sanctuary for law-abiding citizens, not for criminal aliens,’ he said.
Two dozen Democrats are competing for their party’s nomination to face off against Trump in the November 2020 election.
Many of the top Democrats lead Trump in opinion polls in battleground states.
Trump called his opponents a ‘radical left-wing mob’ who would bring socialism to the United States.
‘A vote for any Democrat in 2020 is a vote for the rise of radical socialism and the destruction of the American dream,’ he said.
Trump made his re-election launch official at what was his 60th political rally since he took office in January 2017.
U.S. President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump arrive on stage to formally kick off his re-election bid with a campaign rally in Orlando. He kicked off first official 2020 rally by claiming 120,000 people submitted requests to attend
First Lady Melania Trump speaks as Trump looks on. Trump’s first official campaign rally of 2020 opened much the way his 2016 candidacy ended – with his audience chanting ‘Lock her Up!’ in a slam on former Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton
Trump’s campaign turned the area outside the arena that can seat 20,000 people into a festival-like atmosphere with music and food trucks to help supporters pass the time
Michael Boulos, Tiffany Trump, Lara Trump, Eric Trump, Jared Kushner, Ivanka Trump, Kimberly Guilfoyle, and Donald Trump Jr. arrive at a rally for US President Donald Trump
He brought his wife, Melania, and a large contingent of senior White House staff.
‘Tonight I stand before you to officially launch my campaign for a second term as president of the United States,’ Trump said.
‘I promise you I will never ever let you down.’
Over the course of a speech that lasted an hour and 20 minutes, Trump blasted the news media as ‘fake news,’ took credit for a strong economy, said he was putting the heat on China on trade, promoted his proposal for a ‘space force,’ vowed to protect Americans’ rights to own guns and said he wanted to launch a space mission to Mars.
Trump also declared himself a victim and aired his grievances.
He made an issue of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
The probe found insufficient evidence to establish that the Trump campaign engaged in a criminal conspiracy with Moscow.
It also described numerous attempts by Trump to impede Mueller’s probe, but stopped short of declaring that he committed a crime.
‘We went through the biggest witch hunt in political history,’ said Trump.
‘It was all an illegal attempt to overturn the results of the election.’
Two-and-a-half years into his tenure, Trump sees plenty of positive factors, led by a growing economy with low unemployment.
‘If the economy stays strong, he is very likely to get re-elected,’ said Trump confidant Newt Gingrich, a former Republican speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.
But the lingering aftermath of the Russia probe, coupled with a presidential style marked by name-calling and eye-popping tweets, has undermined some Americans’ confidence in Trump.
He also has stirred division with his hard-line policies on immigration and unsettled business and farm groups with his use of tariffs in trade disputes with China and some allies.
Trump outlined his vision tweeting: ‘Don’t ever forget – this election is about YOU. It is about YOUR family, YOUR future, & the fate of YOUR COUNTRY. We begin our campaign with the best record, the best results, the best agenda, & the only positive VISION for our Country’s future! #Trump2020’
The Trumps said their family has been under attack since the family patriarch declared his candidacy for president in 2015. Jared Kushner, left, Ivanka Trump arrive for the official launch of the Trump 2020 campaign
Donald Trump Jr. channeled his attacks to his father’s current opponents, mocking leading Democratic candidate Joe Biden before the rowdy crowd that waited in the heat and rain for hours, and days in some cases, to see the sitting president. Kimberly Guilfoyle, left, and Donald Trump Jr. pictured
Senior adviser Jared Kushner, Ivanka Trump and Kimberly Guilfoyle, watch as President Donald Trump speaks at his re-election kickoff rally at the Amway Center
Democrats cite a string of broken promises in Trump’s first term, from lowering drug prices to closing corporate tax loopholes and stopping plant closures.
‘Donald Trump is launching his campaign for re-election tonight and the American people face a choice – we can make Trump an aberration or let him fundamentally and forever alter the character of this nation,’ said Kate Bedingfield, deputy campaign manager for Biden.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll on June 11 gave Trump a 40% job approval rating, compared with 57% who disapproved. Other opinion polls have shown him running consistently behind his main Democratic challengers, such as Biden, in key battleground states.
Republican strategists say the fundamentals favor Trump as he heads into his election but that he faces challenges given his bare-knuckled approach, which he refuses to temper.
The Orlando Sentinel welcomed the president’s visit with an editorial titled: ‘Our endorsement for president in 2020: Not Donald Trump.’
Trump supporters with tents and sleeping bags started camping out at the rally venue on Monday and thousands had gathered by Tuesday afternoon in a torrential downpour.
‘It was like a big Trump party,’ said Maureen Bailey, who slept in a tent with her twin sister, Laureen Vartanian.