President Trump greeted several hundred supporters gathered on the South Lawn of the White House from a balcony on Saturday as he is trying to recover forward movement in his campaign for re-election with just three weeks to go.
Calling it a “peaceful protest” in honor of “law and order,” Mr. Trump made his first significant public appearance since he was hospitalized after testing positive for the coronavirus.
“I’m feeling great!” Mr. Trump told the crowd, which was organized by his supporter Candace Owens, who has led a “Blexit” movement to prompt Black voters to leave the Democratic Party.
Mr. Trump looked and sounded healthier than he had earlier in the week. But in a departure from his typical speaking engagements, Mr. Trump appeared for a shorter time than the nearly 30 minutes that officials advertised: He spoke for just about 15 minutes.
“I know you’ve been praying, and I was in that hospital, I was watching down over so many people,” Mr. Trump said. He mentioned the coronavirus pandemic, which is flaring up in several states and around the globe, and once again insisted, “It’s going to disappear. It is disappearing.”
Attendees were supposed to fill out a screening questionnaire and also have their temperature taken before they could join the crowd. Masks were required, although it wasn’t clear if everyone in the crowd was wearing one.
The event was described by White House aides as an official event. But it had some of the hallmarks of his campaign events, including attendees wearing red caps with his campaign slogan, “Make America Great Again.” In late August, Mr. Trump held the final night of the Republican National Convention on the South Lawn and delivered his acceptance speech for the nomination in front of the balcony he spoke from on Saturday.
A federal judge in Pennsylvania on Saturday emphatically rejected the Trump campaign’s attempt to limit the use of drop boxes and other efforts to expand voter access, saying that Republicans failed to even make a “speculative” case that such procedures will lead to fraud.
In a 138-page decision, U.S. District Court Judge J. Nicholas Ranjan, who was appointed to bench by President Trump, also rejected the Trump…
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