Eric Trump on election: 'Pennsylvania is everything’

Eric Trump told a crowd of raucous supporters in Erie on Monday night that his father, President Donald J. Trump, has worked tirelessly for the American people and that he will save the country from the “radical left” if reelected.

Trump said his father and the entire Trump family are doing all they can to defeat former Vice President Joe Biden and Democrats in the Nov. 3 election. Meanwhile, he said, Biden is holed up in his basement.

"Literally the only person who is not campaigning is my one-year-old daughter and she's probably still doing more than Joe Biden," he joked, as a crowd of more than 250 people at the Bayfront Convention Center’s Sunset Terrace cheered.

Eric Trump, the president’s second son, hit Democrats on a range of topics, from foreign policy failures and the handling of the military to trade deals that sent jobs overseas.

He called the signature legislation of President Barack Obama’s tenure, the Affordable Care Act, a “horrible lie,” because not all Americans were able to keep their own doctors or stay on the same insurance plans.

He claimed the Obama-Biden administration “gave” Iran, a country that he noted “chants ’death to America,’” $150 billion as part of the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement.

“You cannot make up this incompetence,” he said.

The deal, approved by six countries, did not “give” the country $150 billion of U.S. funds; it unfroze $150 billion of Iranian assets.

He also riffed on “holiday trees” and said Democrats have waged a “war on faith.” He accused the party of omitting “under God” from the Pledge of Allegiance during the party convention, which happened during two caucus meetings but not during the main nightly program of the DNC.

“Everywhere I go,” he said, “I'm getting Democrats who come up to me and say ’I've been Democrat my entire life and I can't vote for this party anymore. This party is fricking crazy. And they’re unrecognizable.’”

He took swipes at Hunter Biden, Joe Biden’s son, the Democratic Party and the news media. And he asked for the crowd’s approval of several Fox News personalities, from Tucker Carlson to Jeanine Pirro.

When he wasn’t attacking Biden and the Democrats, the 36-year-old Trump was lauding his father for his accomplishments, including “creating the greatest economy this country has ever seen.”

“He's gotten punched in the face, he's taken more arrows. And the guy's gone to work every single day and worked tirelessly for the American people,” he said.

Among his father’s accomplishments, he said, was the creation of Opportunity Zones in the 2017 tax reform law. He said Erie has been one of the cities to benefit from Opportunity Zones, which encourage private investments in distressed zip codes.

Trump carried Erie County and Pennsylvania in 2016 by a slim margin, 44,000 votes, and the state expects to be pivotal again this year.

“We will fight every second of every single day and we will win this thing,” he said.

Shauna Jackson, 40, of Erie said the speech helped “build excitement” for the election.

“It was great,” she said. “I was excited that he came here and took time to come to Erie County, which I think was a really big win for President Trump in 2016.”

Erie County Democratic Party chairman Jim Wertz, however, said Eric Trump “followed in his father's footsteps tonight, peddling lies and falsehoods while projecting the failures of this administration on others.”

He added, “It should be no surprise that the Trump campaign has chosen this path. It's mounting failures make a difficult case for another term in office."

Trip to Presque Isle State Park

Before his speech, Trump toured Presque Isle State Park, the 3,200-acre peninsula on Lake Erie.

The state park, a popular attraction for wildlife enthusiasts and beach-goers that draws some nearly 5 million visitors this year, received $3.17 million this summer for its sand replenishment program, more than it got the year prior. The program has helped control erosion and maintain the peninsula’s beaches at a time of record-high water levels.

U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly, of Butler, R-16th Dist., who represents Erie County in Congress, credited President Trump earlier this year for helping secure surplus funding for the sand replenishment program.

"This is amazing, guys," Trump told park Manager Matt Greene and Tim Butler, Kelly's district director, while overlooking Misery Bay at the Perry Monument. “... You come out here and see this, or you go to Arches (National Park) or Yosemite or Yellowstone, the diversity of the park system in this country is awesome.”

Eric Trump, the executive vice president of the Trump Organization, answered other questions about the campaign in an exclusive interview with the Erie Times-News during the tour.

"There's 44 days left and Pennsylvania is a key state," he said. "I've been to Pittsburgh, Washington County, Williamsport. I've been just about everywhere in the state and it's been tremendous.

"Pennsylvania is everything," he said about the importance of the state to his father's reelection prospects. "Pennsylvania is an incredibly important state. I spent a lot of time here in 2016 and I truly think the support is greater here than in 2016, by a wide margin.“

He also commented on the president’s plan to nominate a Supreme Court justice later this week to fill the vacancy created by the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg Friday.

"He's looking for a solid person and every woman on that list is incredible and any one of them would do an incredible job,“ he said. ”In fact, I was reading about all of them over the last couple of days, but I mean, they're absolutely incredible. I think any of them would do a phenomenal job.“

The Republican National Committee on Monday released a new ad made up entirely of the comments of Democrats, including Biden, in 2016 urging the Senate to fill the vacancy of conservative Justice Antonin Scalia, who died in February 2016.

Then-President Barack Obama nominated Merrick Garland to fill the seat, but Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell refused to hold hearings on the nomination because, he said, it should be decided by the voters through the presidential election and that the Senate has the right to withhold consent.

Then, as now, Republicans are using past statements against Democrats in justifying the confirmation of a Supreme Court justice before Election Day.

The 2-minute RNC ad ends with the words “2020 Democrats should listen to 2016 Democrats.”

Asked if both Democrats and Republicans were contradicting statements they made four years ago, Eric Trump said, "They may be, but first of all, times have changed. Look at the way they tried to impeach my father this year, look at how they've savagely attacked (him). And I think the rules of the game have changed.“

Before the speech, Erie Republican Tim Kuzma, a member of Erie County Right to Life, anticipated that Eric Trump would "reaffirm that the president is pro-life and that he will defend the unborn."

But Kuzma said he does not think the Senate will be able to confirm a nominee before Nov. 3.

"It would be nice if he would be able to pick the nominee before the election," he said. "I don't think that's going to happen because of last time. Obama, he didn't get to pick his person, so I don't think it's going to happen this time. There will be too much backlash. We're too close to the election and they (Democrats) will just drag it on."

Kuzma, who was volunteering for Monday's event, said it is an honor for Erie to have people like the president's son visit.

"Any time a leader comes and recognizes Erie as an important place, that's a great thing," he said.

Contact Matthew Rink at mrink@timesnews.com. Follow him on Twitter at @ETNrink.