Boos for Harris, cheers for Biden: Rally crowd chooses preferred Trump opponent
The day before President Joe Biden dropped out of the presidential race, former President Donald Trump posed a question to a rally audience: Who would they most like to run against in the 2024 presidential election?
Trump appeared at the rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan Saturday evening, his first appearance alongside his running mate Sen. JD Vance and his first public rally since surviving an assassination attempt at a Pennsylvania rally the week prior.
Trump posed the "poll" to rally goers, asking them to weigh in on which candidate they would prefer to run against: Biden or Harris.
At the first mention of Harris, the crowd booed, but cheered for running against "crooked Joe Biden."
Less than 24 hours later, Biden announced he was dropping out of the presidential race and endorsed Harris as his replacement.
Election 2024 live updates: Endorsements rush in for Harris; Trump attacks begin
Video shows crowd prefers Biden for a win against Trump
"Let's do a poll on candidates, ready?" Trump says at the rally.
"Let's do it - who would you most like to run against...if you're us, if we wanna win."
"Ready: Kamala Harris," Trump said with a pause, and the crowd booed.
A moment later, Trump poses, "crooked Joe Biden," and was met with a chorus of cheers.
"Alright, I don't think we have to go too much further," Trump said.
After the news about Biden's candidacy broke, Trump said Biden was the worst president in history and predicted he would win against Harris.
Trump recounts shooting, bashes Biden at Michigan rally
During Trump's acceptance speech Thursday at the Republican National Convention, he said he would only recount the shooting at his rally in Butler, Pennsylvania once. But at Saturday's rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan, he told the story again.
"I took a bullet for democracy," Trump told the crowd.
Trump also bashed Biden and touted some false claims about Michigan during his speech, the Detroit Free Press, part of the Paste BN Network, reported.
Michigan is a critical battleground state for the 2024 election, and Trump has both won and lost there. In 2016, Trump beat Hillary Clinton by a narrow margin, just over 10,000 votes, taking 47.6% of the vote compared to Clinton's 47.4%. In 2020, President Biden beat Trump by a few percentage points, taking 50.6% of the vote compared to Trump's 47.8%.
Contributing: Dave Boucher, Todd Spangler, Detroit Free Press; David Jackson, Paste BN