Trump asks supporters if they’ve had COVID during Pennsylvania rally

President Donald Trump asked audience members at his packed Pennsylvania rally if they’ve, too, had the coronavirus as he boasted of both his and their immunity to the disease Tuesday night. 

‘Who has had it? Who has had it here? Yeah, a lot of people. A lot of people. You’re the people I want to say hello to because you’re right now immune,’ Trump told the crowd.  

Later, however, he expanded who he’d greet, again telling supporters he’d kiss every one of them just days into his recovery from COVID-19. 

President Donald Trump asked a crowd of supporters in Johnstown, Pennsylvania which ones of them had the coronavirus and boasted that both they and he are ‘immune.’ He also complained that once he caught the virus experts shortened how long immunity would last 

Like he did in Florida on Monday,  President Donald Trump joked about kissing every member of the crowd just days after being hospitalized for the coronavirus. The White House doctor has said Trump is no longer contagious

Like he did in Florida on Monday,  President Donald Trump joked about kissing every member of the crowd just days after being hospitalized for the coronavirus. The White House doctor has said Trump is no longer contagious 

President Donald Trump arrives in Johnstown, Pennsylvania Tuesday night and hands out masks, which many members of his audience refused to wear despite the president coming down with the coronavirus himself

President Donald Trump arrives in Johnstown, Pennsylvania Tuesday night and hands out masks, which many members of his audience refused to wear despite the president coming down with the coronavirus himself 

While some Trump supporters sported Trump 2020 masks, many did not as they crammed together to watch the president Tuesday night in Johnstown, Pennsylvania

While some Trump supporters sported Trump 2020 masks, many did not as they crammed together to watch the president Tuesday night in Johnstown, Pennsylvania 

The president's large crowd in Pennsylvania can be seen surrounding him at all sides as he spoke at the John Murtha Johnstown-Cambria County Airport Tuesday night

The president’s large crowd in Pennsylvania can be seen surrounding him at all sides as he spoke at the John Murtha Johnstown-Cambria County Airport Tuesday night 

‘I’m immune,’ the president said. ‘I could come down and start kissing everybody. I’ll kiss every guy. Man and woman. Look at that guy, how handsome he is. I’ll kiss him. Not with a lot enjoyment, but that’s OK,’ Trump said.  

The president also scoffed at the changing science over immunity, pointing out that scientists at one point thought people infected with the coronavirus who recovered were then immune for life. 

‘Once I got it, they give you four months,’ Trump complained. ‘Anybody else but me, you’re immune for life.’ 

Doctors still don’t have a clear answer about COVID-19 immunity, especially in light of a Nevada case in which a man was infected twice. An elderly woman in the Netherlands became the world’s first death of an individual to catch the coronavirus twice. 

The Tuesday night rally in Johnstown, Pennsylvania marked the second time the president was back on the campaign trail since falling ill from COVID-19.  

‘I feel your pain because I felt your pain,’ he said to the crowd, aiming the message at those who’ve been impacted by the virus.    

Trump’s rally was being held at the John Murtha Johnstown-Cambria County Airport, named after the late Democratic lawmaker who represented the area in Congress for 36 years.      

It’s since become Trump country, but Democratic rival Joe Biden has made a point to earn it back. 

‘You damn well better vote for me Pennsylvania,’ Trump said. 

At Trump’s Tuesday rally, he had a number of nasty things to say about Biden, calling the former vice president not nice and a ‘dummy.’ 

‘And you know Biden he can’t stand up to the lunatics running his party, he can’t even find his way off the stage without them,’ Trump said. 

A Trump supporter holds up a little boy dressed like the president at President Donald Trump's Johnstown, Pennsylvania rally Tuesday night

A Trump supporter holds up a little boy dressed like the president at President Donald Trump’s Johnstown, Pennsylvania rally Tuesday night 

The president's supporters await his arrival Tuesday night in Johnstown, Pennsylvania as a giant American flag hangs overhead

The president’s supporters await his arrival Tuesday night in Johnstown, Pennsylvania as a giant American flag hangs overhead 

The president's supporters can be seen reacting to his arrival Tuesday night in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, the second night he returns to the trail after contracting the coronavirus

The president’s supporters can be seen reacting to his arrival Tuesday night in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, the second night he returns to the trail after contracting the coronavirus 

He mocked Biden for forgetting Utah Sen. Mitt Romney’s name when talking to reporters Monday. 

‘He said he’s a Mormon, he was talking about Mitt Romney. He forgot Mitt Romney’s name. Can you imagine that? Then he didn’t know where he was,’ Trump went on. ‘He’s shot folks, he’s shot.’ 

The comment came minutes after Trump referred to the ‘mayor of Russia’ as he tried to make a dig about Biden’s son, Hunter. 

Trump labeled a recent town hall Biden participated in child’s play. 

‘That was a town hall for a child, a young child, Barron Trump – actually Barron’s far too advanced for that town hall,’ the president joked. 

And he said he ‘probably spent more time’ in Pennsylvania – because he went to Penn in Philadelphia – than Biden, who grew up in Scranton.  

‘I’m running against the single worst candidate in the history of presidential politics, and you know what that does, that puts more pressure on me,’ Trump told his raucous crowd – who weren’t practicing social distancing. 

Many didn’t wear masks. 

‘Can you imagine if you lose to a guy like this?’ Trump asked. ‘It’s unbelievable, it’s disgusting, it’s disgraceful.’     

Trump started to insult Sen. Kamala Harris too, Biden’s running mate, but didn’t deploy a zinger.  

‘I just watched her on television coming in. That’s the great thing about Air Force One, we have more televisions –  they’re in closets, they’re all over the place. They’re on the floors, they’re on the ceilings,’ Trump said to laughs. ‘And I watched her and I compared her to Amy, great future Supreme Court Justice.’ 

‘And I will tell you Amy’s made a great impression,’ Trump said. 

While Trump was in flight between Joint Base Andrews and Johnstown, Harris was questioning Trump’s Supreme Court pick, Amy Coney Barrett, as part of the day’s Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing. 

Trump knocked another member of the Judiciary Committee too, calling New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker a ‘loser,’ while suggesting he would run a program withing a Biden administration to ruin the suburbs.    

‘Suburban women, will you please like me,’ Trump pled. ‘I saved your damn neighborhood, OK?’  

The president explained that more than a quarter of suburban dwellers are minorities,  so when he says he doesn’t want low-income housing in those neighborhoods, he’s denying that it’s racially charged. 

Booker, however, is one of just three black U.S. senators.  

Suburban women are one voting bloc that could hurt Trump’s chances for re-election.  

In Pennsylvania, Biden has been trying to chip away at some of Trump’s support, as the president won the state in 2016.   

The day after his first – and, so far, only – presidential debate with Trump, Biden took a train trip through Ohio and Southwestern Pennsylvania with Johnstown marking his last stop. 

Johnstown, the largest city in Cambria County, and known for its historic flood, was a Democratic area that’s gotten dramatically more red. 

In 2008, the Obama-Biden ticket won Cambria county by two points – 50 per cent to 48 per cent. 

In 2012, there was a 10-point swing to Republican Mitt Romney. 

He won the county 58 per cent to 40.2 per cent. 

Then in 2016, is swung another 10 points when Trump led the ballot. 

He received 67.3 per cent of Cambria County’s vote, compared to 29.6 per cent who chose Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.   

Joe Biden appeared in Johnstown, Pennsylvania on September 30 at the end of his Amtrak train trip through Ohio and Western Pennsylvania

Joe Biden appeared in Johnstown, Pennsylvania on September 30 at the end of his Amtrak train trip through Ohio and Western Pennsylvania 

As he boarded his plane after leaving his event at the Johnstown Amtrak station in late September, Biden told reporters he believed he could win some of these former Democratic-turned-Trump voters back. 

‘They’re coming back home,’ Biden said. ‘I think some we can win back. Others it’s about cutting the margins. Even if we just cut the margins it makes a gigantic difference. A gigantic difference.’  

Biden’s train journey also went through Latrobe and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, places where Trump held rallies before having to get off the campaign trail because he had contracted COVID-19. 

Tuesday night’s Trump rally in Johnstown marks the president’s second time back on the road since recovering from the coronavirus. 

Trump spent Monday in Florida, a state that’s even more of a must-win than Pennsylvania by Electoral College math. 

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