Trump mocks Biden’s stutter during Georgia rally
Donald Trump displayed his usual level of class on Saturday when he began a rally in Rome, Georgia, by mocking Joe Biden’ stutter.
Mr Trump has previously impersonated Mr Biden by exaggerating his life-long stutter, usually to suggest that the president is incompetent.
"I'm gonna bring the country together," Mr Trump said, mocking the president by stammering over the words "together". "I'm gonna bring it together."
Mr Trump was predictably maligned on social media for his cruelty.
"Trump is on stage right now making fun of Biden’s stutter. The right shamed Hunter, a recovering addict. They attacked 83-yr-old Paul Pelosi whose brain was smashed in. They harassed the parents of 6-yr-old Sandy Hook murder victims. GOP has no bottom," political strategist Lindy Li wrote on Twitter. "They go right through hell."
A Biden campaign spokesman, TJ Ducklo, responded to Mr Trump's mockery in a statement issued on Sunday.
“Thursday night President Biden spoke about the kind of America he wants for our future — one based on the core values of honesty, decency, dignity, and respect for everyone — values that are unrecognizable to Donald Trump," he wrote. "Trump thinks mocking people and taking away their rights makes him look strong. But it just reveals how weak and insecure he is.”
Mr Trump spent much of his two hour rally speech attacking Mr Biden's physical and mental health, as well as revisiting his usual — and always growing — laundry list of grievances with his various enemies.
He told rally-goers that everything Mr Biden touches turns to "s***", and characterised the president's State of the Union speech as a "dark, angry rant."
“Joe Biden should not be shouting angrily at America,” Mr Trump said. “America should be shouting angrily at Joe Biden.”
He also criticised the press, calling reporters "criminals," and suggested that his followers were facing a "threat from within" the US.
His most extreme rhetoric was saved for immigrants. He vowed to crack down on immigration on his first day in office, if he is elected, and described immigration as “the agony of our people, the plunder of our cities, the sacking of our towns, the violation of our citizens and the conquest of our country.”
The "conquest of our country" line is an encapsulation of the white supremacist Great Replacement conspiracy theory, which argues that Democrats are intentionally ferrying migrants across the border in the hopes they will change the demographics of the US to favour their electoral prospects.
He further insisted that "migrants are hurting people" — likely a reference to Laken Riley, a 22-year-old nursing student who was allegedly killed by a Venezuelan migrant, and whose death the GOP has exploited for fear-mongering — and called those crossing the border "monsters."
“They talk about the beautiful dream of migrants. It sounds so nice, you know, like in a fairy-tale book. But some of these people are monsters," he said.