Former President Donald Trump opened his rally in Chesapeake, Virginia, on Friday afternoon by taking some post-debate pot shots at President Joe Biden.
“We had a big victory against a man who is looking to destroy our country,” Trump told the crowd, while mocking Biden’s well-documented debate prep with his former Chief-of-Staff, Ron Klain at Camp David. “He studied so hard that he didn’t know what the hell he was doing.”
Later in the rally, Trump further mocked Biden’s debate prep, trying his hand at an impersonation of the president.
“Leave me alone, I’m studying for debate. I wanna sleep and study that’s all I’m going to do for 10 days while the world is going to hell,” Trump said.
“He got the debate rules that he wanted. He got the date that he wanted. He got the network that he wanted with the moderates (sic) he wanted. No amount of rest or rigging could help him defend his atrocious record,” Trump continued.
The former president also reiterated some of his newer lines from the Thursday’s debate, lamenting that “millions of people pouring into our country” are taking “Black” and “Hispanic” jobs, adding that they have had these racially specific jobs for “a long time.”
Black lawmakers took offense to Trump’s comment on “Black jobs” following the debate.
“As one of less than 60 black women to swear into Congress, I’m assuming Trump doesn’t think my job is a ‘black job,’ but MY BLACK TAIL will be up early to do the work of my amazing & beautiful coalition of people that make up TX-30!” Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) wrote in an X post.
Rep. Stacey Plaskett (R-VI) also wrote in an X post, “Another day in Congress doing our “Black jobs.”
Trump allies, however, claim Trump was sending a different message altogether.
“He meant the jobs of Black people. And we’ve been using that term for a while,” said Diante Johnson, president of the Black Conservative Federation, according to the Associated Press. “It’s any job. Instead of Black people having unlimited accessibility to all types of jobs, illegal immigrants are taking their jobs from them.”
Trump, who during the debate who called Biden “a very bad Palestinian,” because he won’t “finish the job” on the Israeli-Hamas war, pejoratively referred to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who is Jewish, as “a Palestinian” at the Friday rally as well.
“He’s become a Palestinian,” Trump said of Schumer. “Congratulations, he was very loyal to Israel and the Jewish people, he’s Jewish, but he’s become a Palestinian.”
Trump then insinuated that Schumer reversed his position on Israel because Palestinians “have a few more votes or something.”