Donald Trump tried to keep Michigan in his column Thursday night with dark warnings to suburban voters in battleground Michigan, telling a raucous rally crowd that “looters” and “anarchists” soon will be their neighbors if former Vice President Joe Biden is elected in November.
“Does anybody want to have somebody from Antifa as a member and as as a resident of your suburb?” he said of the sometimes-violent black rights group that his general election foe also has condemned. “‘Say 'Darling, who moved in next door?'”
“'Oh, it's a resident of Antifa.' 'No thank you. … Let's get the hell out of here, darling. Ahh, I wish Trump were president,’” Mr Trump said of a conversation he said couples would be forced to have if he loses in November, predicting flight from those areas if Mr Biden wins the White House.
“No city, town or suburb will be safe,” he warned, later falsely saying Mr Biden plans to “destroy” federal entitlement programs like Social Security that are coveted by voters, especially older ones he will need in November.
The dark rhetoric was apparently aimed especially at suburban female voters, especially mothers.
He carried that group in the 2016 election, but quickly offended many with his antics and policies. Many fled to Democratic congressional candidates in the 2018 midterm elections, and are telling pollsters they intend to support Mr Biden.
Mr Biden leads among suburban women by double digits, according to polls conducted over the summer by CNN and Fox News. One by the former gave the longtime Delaware senator a 14-point advantage with the group.
What’s more, a recent Marist College survey found over 60 per cent of suburban women disapprove of Mr Trump’s performance as president.
