SCHNECKSVILLE, Pa. \u2014 Former President Donald Trump backed former hedge fund CEO Dave McCormick on Saturday in Pennsylvania\u2019s U.S. Senate race, after excoriating him two years earlier.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am officially giving my endorsement to David McCormick tonight,\u201d Trump told the crowd. \u201cHe wants to run a good ship. He\u2019s a smart guy who was a very successful guy. He\u2019s given up a lot to do this. And I\u2019ll tell you what, he\u2019s the nominee of the Republican Party.\u201d<\/p>\n
McCormick, who is running unopposed in the April 23 GOP primary, is expected to take on Democratic Sen. Bob Casey in the general election. The swing state race could determine which party controls the Senate next year.<\/p>\n
McCormick also ran in 2022 to replace retiring Sen. Patrick J. Toomey (R-Pa.). In that GOP primary, however, Trump endorsed celebrity doctor Mehmet Oz, who lost to Democratic Sen. John Fetterman.<\/p>\n
During the 2022 race, Trump blasted McCormick, calling him \u201cthe candidate of special interests and globalists and the Washington establishment.\u201d According to McCormick, Trump refused to endorse him when he wouldn\u2019t say the 2020 election was stolen.<\/p>\n
McCormick, who has endorsed Trump, did not attend the Schnecksville rally but thanked Trump on social media for the endorsement. One of several self-funding Republicans running for U.S. Senate this year, he\u2019s less in need of fundraising help from the former president than others.<\/p>\n
Casey, who is seeking a fourth term, has won each of his previous bids by a comfortable margin. But the race is expected to be one of the closest and most expensive Senate contests this year.<\/p>\n
At his Saturday night rally, Trump also seized the opportunity to address the strike Iran launched against Israel few hours earlier, claiming it \u201cwould not have happened\u201d if he were president.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to say God bless the people of Israel. They\u2019re under attack right now,\u201d he said. \u201cWe show great weakness.\u201d<\/p>\n
As Trump pledged U.S. support for Israel, the crowd chanted \u201cgenocide Joe\u201d \u2014 a term used by pro-Palestinian demonstrators as a way of criticizing President Biden\u2019s support for Israel in its war in Gaza.<\/p>\n
Trump paused before saying: \u201cThey\u2019re not wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n
But in the final days of his presidency, Trump downplayed an attack by Iran on U.S. bases in Iraq. Dozens of soldiers suffered traumatic brain injuries as a result.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
SCHNECKSVILLE, Pa. \u2014 Former President Donald Trump backed former hedge fund CEO Dave McCormick on Saturday in Pennsylvania\u2019s U.S. Senate race, after excoriating him two years earlier. \u201cI am officially giving my endorsement to David McCormick tonight,\u201d Trump told the crowd. \u201cHe wants to run a good ship. He\u2019s a smart guy who was a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":3137,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3136"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3136\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}