Former President Donald Trump took aim at Democratic Senate hopeful Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH) while holding a campaign rally in Ohio over the weekend for his preferred candidate, J.D. Vance.
The former president traveled to Youngstown, Ohio, on Saturday, where he spoke to supporters from the Covelli Centre. There, he delivered a nearly two-hour speech describing the United States under President Joe Biden as a crime-ridden, socialist wasteland facing out-of-control immigration and a recession. Ohio is still considered a swing state of sorts, though it has trended more red in recent election cycles. The must-win state is a top battleground that will decide which party controls the House and Senate.
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In the state’s top race this November, venture capitalist and bestselling author J.D. Vance is going up against Ryan in the race to fill retiring Sen. Rob Portman’s (R-OH) vacant seat. Ryan, who has distanced himself from Biden and presented himself as a moderate, faced the brunt of Trump’s ire on Saturday evening.
“You have to defeat the far left Democrat phony running for the United States Senate. His name is Tim Ryan,” Trump said, prompting boos from the crowd. He added that Ryan is running his campaign “on an ‘I love Donald Trump’ policy.”
“Didn’t he vote with Biden, Pelosi, and Schumer 100% of the time?” he then asked, adding that he gets calls from people who innocently say they think Ryan may like him.
“He doesn’t like me, he doesn’t like me, and I don’t like him. He’s been terrible. Tim Ryan is a militant left-winger who is lying to your faces, acting as though he’s my friend on policy, pretending to be a moderate so he can get elected, and betraying everything that you believe in,” Trump continued.
“He is not a moderate. He is radical Left. One hundred percent [of the time] voted for these Biden disaster policies. Tim Ryan pretends to be for Trump. But when I was president, he only voted with me 16% of the time, and these are great policies for Ohio. And over the last two years, he has voted with Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi, and the rest every single time.”
After remarking on Ryan’s efforts to separate himself from the Democratic establishment, Trump joked about recent suggestions that Vance was also trying to appear more moderate.
“J.D. is kissing my a**, he wants my support,” Trump said of Vance, prompting laughs from the crowd.
Trump’s comments about Ryan prompted him to discuss the abortion debate taking place nationwide in the aftermath of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, the landmark case guaranteeing abortion access. The 45th president has been vocally supportive of the court’s decision, though he has been reported to have privately expressed his concern that the move could backfire on the GOP in November.
The issue of abortion, Trump said, “should be in the state, and the Republicans have to get smart with that issue. I’m a person, like Ronald Reagan, with three exceptions. You have a certain term, you have a lot of things, but the fact that it was turned over to the states is going to prove to be a very, very positive event.”
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While he didn’t specify, the three exceptions in the abortion access debate are typically rape, incest, and concerns for the life of the mother.
Appearing to reference the recent red-state abortion referendums in which huge female turnout prevented restrictive bills from going through, Trump then said: “And they can’t let people vote the wrong way, it’s an issue that a lot of people don’t understand. It’s turned over to the states, and it’s working out.”
