Gov. Josh Shapiro is not laying out the welcome mat for former President Donald Trump, who will campaign in Pennsylvania on Saturday.
The presumptive GOP nominee for president, Trump will make his third stop of 2024 in the Keystone State tomorrow for a rally at the Schnecksville Fire Hall in North Whitehall Township, and a $2,500-per-ticket fundraiser in Bucks County.
“This weekend, Donald Trump is coming to our Commonwealth to continue pushing his extreme agenda to control women’s bodies and take away Pennsylvanians’ freedoms,” Shapiro said Friday. “From overturning Roe v. Wade and unleashing extreme abortion bans all across the country, to trying to overturn the last election and destroy our democracy, to promising to kick 1.2 million Pennsylvanians off of their health care, Donald Trump’s record and agenda are too dangerous and extreme for Pennsylvania.”
Trump said earlier this week that he supported exceptions to abortion bans to allow pregnancy terminations in cases of rape, incest and the life of the pregnant patient and that abortion policy should be left to the states. But on the campaign trail, Trump has said that he would support a 16-week nationwide abortion ban. He said Wednesday he would not sign such a ban.
The former president also has boasted about appointing three Supreme Court justices who were instrumental in the court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022, saying during a Fox News town hall in January “[for] 54 years, they were trying to get Roe v. Wade terminated, and I did it. And I’m proud to have done it.”
Shapiro has been a prominent Biden surrogate, appearing on national television speaking in support of the president’s policies and joining him during some campaign visits to the state in 2024.
“Pennsylvanians want a president who will fight for us and protect our freedom – not the chaos and extremism Donald Trump wants to bring to our communities,” Shapiro said Friday. “President Biden has had Pennsylvania’s back – and we will work to once again reject Trump’s extremism, defend real freedom, and send President Joe Biden back to the White House this November.”
This will be Trump’s third visit of 2024 to Pennsylvania, after an appearance at a National Rifle Association gathering in Harrisburg in February where he promised supporters “no one will lay a finger on your firearms,” followed by a surprise appearance at Sneaker Con in Philadelphia, where he unveiled a new line of Trump-branded shoes.
The White House on Friday announced that President Joe Biden will visit Pennsylvania next week, part of a major campaign push to talk about economic issues. The visit comes the week before Pennsylvanians head to the polls for the April 23 primary election.
Biden will visit Scranton on Tuesday, the day after Tax Day, for “a major address,” and will travel to the Pittsburgh area on Wednesday, then return to Washington D.C., according to the White House. He’ll be back to the Keystone State on Thursday for a visit to Philadelphia.
Biden flipped Pennsylvania blue in 2020, beating Trump by just over 80,000 votes.