Trump doubts election integrity while Harris champions reproductive rights on election eve in Pittsburgh

(Photos by Anastasia Busby and Stephanie Strasburg/PublicSource)

Pittsburgh hosts Trump rally and nearby Harris event ahead of Tuesday polls.

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by Charlie Wolfson, Jamie Wiggan and Venuri Siriwardane, PublicSource
November 4, 2024

Pittsburgh and Allegheny County saw on Monday the election-eve convergence of presidential candidates in the most unusual election in more than half a century.

Republican nominee Donald Trump began to speak at PPG Paints Arena, in Uptown, before 8 p.m.

Democratic nominee Kamala Harris took the stage at the Carrie Blast Furnaces National Historic Landmark, in Swissvale, shortly after 9 p.m.

Harris spotlights reproductive rights push in short speech

Without once mentioning Trump’s name, Harris cast herself as a practical and effective alternative to an opponent consumed by division during her 10-minute stump in Swissvale.

“Instead of stewing over an enemies list, I will spend every day working on my to-do list, full of priorities for your life,” she said.

Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at her rally on Monday, Nov. 4, 2024, at Carrie Blast Furnaces National Historic Landmark in Swissvale. (Photos by Anastasia Busby/PublicSource)

Harris pledged to work for “common ground and common solutions,” and to make space in her administration for dissenting voices.

“I will listen to people who disagree with me because I do not believe people who disagree with me are the enemy. In fact, I will give them a seat at the table,” she said.

The vice president seized on the energizing issue of women’s rights, pledging to sign into law a bill “to restore reproductive rights nationwide,” should it emerge from Congress under her watch.

“Ours is not a fight against something, it is a fight for something,” she added, without outlining other specific priorities. It is a fight for “the fundamental freedom for a woman to make her choices.”

Trump revives disproven allegations of rigging

Trump began casting doubt on election administration in Pennsylvania less than 20 minutes into his speech, which began around 7:40 p.m., more than 90 minutes after its scheduled start.

“I do believe it is too big to rig,” Trump said of this year’s election. “They will try. And they are trying.”

(Photos by Stephanie Strasburg/PublicSource)

He said he did “much better” in Pennsylvania in 2020 compared to 2016, which is false. 

Trump had 81,660 fewer votes than Biden in 2020, losing by just over 1 percentage point. He had 44,292 more votes than Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in 2016, winning by less than 1 percentage point.

An Associated Press investigation of every potential case of voter fraud in 2020 in the six battleground states disputed by Trump found fewer than 500 instances, almost all perpetrated by individuals acting alone, and far too few to have any impact on the result.

Trump said falsely that a wait of several days to determine who wins the presidential race would be evidence of fraud. “Bad things happen when you do that,” he said.

Election officials in numerous states have said that vote-counting routinely takes multiple days, and extra time is not an indication of a problem. Some states, including Pennsylvania, bar election officials from beginning to count mail-in ballots until Election Day, contributing to lengthy counting times.

Pennsylvania and Wisconsin are swing states that could take longer than one night to determine a winner.

Trump also railed against migrants for several minutes to the Pittsburgh crowd, alleging an “invasion of criminals” entering the country, claiming migrants are “taking over” American cities and pledging to invoke 18th century laws to expedite deportations.

“We will put the vicious and bloodthirsty criminals in jail and kick them the hell out of our country,” Trump said.

There is no national data on crimes committed specifically by undocumented immigrants, but a range of studies by academics and think tanks have found that immigrants don’t commit crime at a higher rate than native-born Americans. A 2020 study by researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison found considerably lower arrest rates in Texas among undocumented immigrants, compared to legal immigrants and native-born citizens.  

“The day I take office, the migrant invasion ends,” Trump said during his 1-hour, 43-minute speech.

Gainey touts Harris, McCormick lauds Trump

In a short address before Harris’ touchdown, Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey fired up the crowd by casting tomorrow’s election as a choice between “two vastly different visions of America.”

“A second Trump term would mean unprecedented power to someone who doesn’t respect power, to someone who was OK with an insurrection on our own Capitol,” Gainey said.

The mayor cast Trump as a harm to Pennsylvania during his last term, claiming he presided over 275,000 job losses in the state.

Pennsylvania boasted 6.15 million employed persons the month Trump became president, and 6 million the month he left. That decline totals around 150,000, and the January 2021 tally came during the COVID emergency.

Gainey also, recalling his role as a father, challenged Trump’s stance on abortion rights. The former president nominated Supreme Court justices who overturned the Roe v. Wade decision that had, for 50 years, enshrined the right to abortion nationwide.

“My daughters will have less rights than their mother and their grandmother. We can’t go back,” the mayor said.

“We’re all here in my back yard,” added U.S. Sen. John Fetterman, a Braddock Democrat. “We’re all going to show up tomorrow — and we are going to make sure we deliver Pennsylvania for Harris and [Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim] Walz.”

At PPG Paints Arena, strength and the southern border were recurring themes among speakers who warmed up the stage before Trump’s arrival.

Dave McCormick, the former hedge fund manager and candidate for U.S. Senate challenging Sen. Bob Casey, said the choice in the presidential race is between “strength, the guy you saw in Butler saying, ‘Fight, fight, fight,’ and the weakness, the disgraceful weakness of Biden, Harris and I’ll throw in Bob Casey.”

Uptown: The wait for one more Trump rally

Trump supporters lined up along Centre Avenue hours before the former president’s election-eve rally. Some saw it as a unique and historic opportunity, despite having been to Trump rallies before.

“On the eve of the election, with both candidates here in Pittsburgh, it felt like a can’t-miss event,” said Benson Fechter, a recent college graduate from South Park.

“This is history,” said Allison Ambrose, a wedding planner from Bradford, a small city about 150 miles northeast of Pittsburgh. “Whether he wins or loses, how many more Trump rallies do you think there will be?”

(Photos by Stephanie Strasburg/PublicSource)

Her husband, Lloyd Ambrose, said he would have rather gone hunting but Allison persuaded him to attend. He said he supports Trump because of the cost of gas and because of the southern border. 

The national average for a gallon of gas for the week of Oct. 28 is $3.10 per gallon, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The national average price of a gallon of gasoline for the week of Jan. 18, 2021 — when Trump left office — was $2.38, which means it has risen by 30%. Experts told the Washington Post that the idea that Trump could slash gas prices if he’s reelected “underscores how candidates can overstate their ability to shape the economy.”   

Experts say that along with supply and demand, wars and refinery maintenance needs are among the driving forces behind rising gas prices.

Trump has repeatedly said the southern border is not secure under the Biden administration, often citing false border crossing numbers. Since Biden’s executive order limiting asylum claims by border crossers, the number of those migrants plummeted to about 54,000 in September — down from 249,000 in December, and the lowest number since Biden took office. In 2020, Trump’s final year in office, the number of people crossing the border climbed to a high of nearly 55,000 people in September, though numbers were lower during previous months that year.  

https://twitter.com/StephStrasburg/status/1853569227564908552

Renee Bann, a social service worker from Green Tree, said Monday’s event was the first time she ever attended a political rally. 

“It’s going to be so incredible to hear him speak in person,” Bann said. “I just love everything he stands for.”

Trump has begun fanning doubts about the integrity of Pennsylvania’s election administration, in an echo of his false claims that there was substantial cheating in the 2020 election. 

Bann said she is “a little” concerned about cheating in tomorrow’s vote. Fechter said he has not followed Trump’s recent statements about election fraud but echoed Trump’s unfounded claims that the 2020 election was improper.

“At the end of the day, I have faith in our country and in our systems,” Fechter said.

On top of excitement to see their candidate, attendees were anxious and worried about what could happen if Trump loses.

Fechter said his top issue is the economy and he is worried about four more years of Democrats setting the agenda. Lloyd Ambrose said the country “can’t survive another four years of chaos.”

Bann said, “It’s very important that [Trump] wins it. It has to be.” She predicted the middle class would disappear and the stock market would suffer if Trump loses.

Swissvale: Holding out for a historic result

Harris supporters were trickling into the Carrie Furnace shortly after 5 p.m. Monday as early aughts pop bits boomed from an empty stage, soon to be graced by Katy Perry. 

Kiyuana Strong and Zaimah Tutler of Pittsburgh said they feel confident of a Harris win despite polls showing a neck-and-neck race. They suspect some of those polled feel pressure to eschew Harris publicly but will break for the Democratic nominee behind the privacy of the voting booth.

(Photo by Anastasia Busby/PublicSource)

Mary Selvaggio and James Spille were excited to be at their first campaign rally. Threats posed by a second Trump administration to women’s rights and the Education Department are what motivated them to drive from Johnstown for tonight’s stump.

Sharon Hodgson of Medina, Ohio, said she hoped to see history made on Wednesday. “Two hundred forty-eight years without a woman president, that’s crap,” Hodgson said. “We can give birth to all of them, but we can’t be one.”

Hodgson voted for Hillary Clinton eight years ago, only to see her lose to Trump, but hopes her party will have more success electing a woman tomorrow.

“I want my granddaughter to see that she can be president one day.”

Many among the Harris crowd said, more than any single issue, this election is about the tone set from the Oval Office — and how that trickles down to communities across the country.

“The continued divisiveness” threatened by a second Trump term is a big motivator for Paul and Stefanie Ebeling, who split their time between Pittsburgh and the Bay Area.

They said the former president acts as if he’s above laws and norms. “I don’t think he cares about every American. He cares about himself,” said Stefanie Ebeling. “It’s about winning and not going to jail.”

The Ebelings said the Biden administration has presided over a strong economy, despite criticism from Trump and his supporters who peg him for high inflation. The couple say they’ve seen gas prices drop meaningfully in recent months, and are muddled by Trump’s ability to use it against Harris.

“We have a lot of inflation, and it’s painful,” Paul Ebeling said. “It’s going to take time.”

Under Biden, year-over-year inflation — the pace of price increases — jumped by 9.1% over a 12-month period ending in June 2022. It was the largest increase in more than 40 years, though inflation has eased considerably since then. And the cost of gas has fallen in recent months, dropping from a national average of $3.65 per gallon at the end of April to $3.10 at the end of October — an example of prices declining after a period of rapid inflation. The Harris campaign took credit for the good economic news, while the Biden administration said its energy production initiatives helped lower gas prices. 

Pittsburgh police report no known threats

Chris Ragland, acting chief of police for Pittsburgh, said in a morning press conference that he was unaware of any recent election-related threats. “At this time, there are no election-related threats registered by our intel unit, which continues to monitor the situation,” he said.

The bureau is prepared to respond to “First Amendment activity,” Ragland said, but doesn’t have reason to believe it needs to deploy extra officers to any specific parts of the city.

Harris was initially expected to speak at Point State Park, but plans shifted over the weekend. Ragland denied any involvement in the change of venue, or knowledge of the reasons behind it, but said it would “probably” make things easier for his bureau.

Pittsburgh police will respond to any reports of crimes at polling places within the city on Election Day, Ragland said; incidents that are election-related but are not crimes will be handled by the county sheriffs.

Police will work their usual 10-hour shifts, but all days off in the coming days have been canceled. Campaigns won’t be billed for overtime paid to officers related to today’s events, but the Trump campaign will be billed for extra medic staffing this evening.

If any post-election protest emerges, the bureau is ready to coordinate with county, state and campus police forces, Ragland said. “We will not tolerate violence, and we will intervene when we see such.”

Spending the last evening here

Coming so late in an election in which more than 200,000 Allegheny County residents have already voted by mail and most minds appear to have been made up, the dueling rallies reflect desperation on both sides to get as many people to turn out tomorrow as possible.

“If you can get 100, 200, 500 people to turn out who would not have voted in a state like Pennsylvania, that’s a good use of your time,” said Christopher Beem, managing director of Penn State’s McCourtney Institute for Democracy. “Given that Pittsburgh and its surrounding areas have this tradition of going both ways, Democratic and Republican, it wouldn’t surprise me a bit if both campaigns have a similar read on that situation.”

Though Allegheny County’s 526,000 registered Democrats nearly double the Republican ranks, the GOP last year came within 10,000 votes of winning the election for county executive.

In 2020, Democrat Joe Biden won Pennsylvania, besting Trump by around 80,000 votes. This year, the seven swing states are polling as neck-and-neck contests, and Pennsylvania is the largest.

“It’s conceivable for both of them to come up with a winning ticket that excludes Pennsylvania, but it’s much, much harder,” said Beem. “You basically have to get all the other big states. You have to get Michigan and Georgia and North Carolina.”

The polls in Pennsylvania, Beem said, are “so close that this kind of event, they’re not expecting to make a huge impact, but it’s worth it.”

Charlie Wolfson is PublicSource’s local government reporter and a Report for America corps member. He can be reached at [email protected] or at @chwolfson on Twitter.

Jamie Wiggan is deputy editor at PublicSource. He can be reached at [email protected].

Venuri Siriwardane is PublicSource’s health and mental health reporter. She can be reached at [email protected] or on X, formerly known as Twitter, @venuris.

Rich Lord, PublicSource’s managing editor, contributed reporting to this story. He can be reached at [email protected].

This article first appeared on PublicSource and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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