United States: Former President Trump electrified a substantial assembly of conservative and religious voters on Saturday, just ahead of what promises to be a monumental clash with President Biden in the inaugural 2024 presidential debate.
A varied congregation of over a thousand attendees at the Faith & Freedom Coalition’s annual Road to Majority conference filled the grand ballroom of the Washington Hilton, eager to hear Trump, who wasted no time addressing the impending showdown, according to Fox News.
“Who’s tuning in to Thursday night’s debate, huh?” Trump quipped, eliciting laughter from the audience.
In his opening statements, he urged Christians to turn out and vote in November.
“Christians aren’t always the most active voters. You might sit out one election, but this time, you must cast your ballot,” he joked.
Trump addressed several issues crucial to faith-based voters, including late-term abortion and his administration’s decision to relocate the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, Fox News noted.
“Never again will the federal government be used to target Americans of religious conviction,” Trump asserted, referencing crackdowns on gatherings during the COVID-19 pandemic.
He also expressed concern over the diminishing significance of religion nationwide, attributing its decline to increased crime and other societal challenges.
Trump criticized the “radical left,” whom he accused of “rigging” the 2020 election, and pledged that they would not repeat their actions this year.
“They want to strip away my liberty, but I will never allow them to take away your freedom,” Trump declared, referring to the various legal proceedings against him.
Vetoing what seemed to have been the warmest cheer, Trump processed what could only be called enthusiastically as he vowed to carry out what he said would be the largest expulsion operation in American history on his first day in the White House.
The Road to Majority Conference is an annual event organized by the Faith & Freedom Coalition, country’s large grassroots organization with members of more than 3 millions, sank known by Fox News.
Though investigated as a ‘shadow’ convention, the conference is recognized as the largest public policy event for conservative Christians in the country, and it deals with key policy priorities and concerns for faith-based voters heading into the 2024 election.
Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin — who recently basked in the national spotlight for signing a bill to ban virtually all abortions in the state — took the stage right before Trump to incite support for the former president’s run at the White House again and to reelect GOP leadership, both in the House and Senate.
The pair have spoken for the first time before the start of the month when a survey showed that Trump has an equal chances as Biden in the blue state of Virginia, thus raising the prospect that Youngkin could be mulled for the position of VP.
Other spokepersons at the conference were the South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Dr. Ben Carson, Former Hawaii Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, and Tennessee Senator Bill Hagerty, according to Fox News.
Others who have also been mentioned as Trump’s potential running mates are South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, former HUD secretary Ben Carson, and former Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard. Most of [these instances] indicate there could be several rivals for the job who could court Trump’s blessings before the Republican National Convention slated for summer.
The two main contenders in the United States’ presidential election are set to go head to head this Thursday in Atlanta in a CNN debate where Trump will meet Biden in a debate which comes after the final pre-election debate was held in October earlier this year.
The two are scheduled to meet on stage only one more time before the November general election during a debate hosted by ABC News in September.