Trump: 'I was all set for Bernie'

President Trump in his first town hall of the 2020 Presidential race said he was “all set” to go one-on-one against Sen. Bernie Sanders “the communist” in the general election, until former Vice President Joe Biden resurgence to the lead for the Democratic nomination.

“I was all set for Bernie, because I thought it was going to happen,” Trump said in a Fox News Townhall held in Joe Biden’s hometown of Scranton, Pa., Thursday evening. “We get ready for things, mentally I’m all set for Bernie, the communist, I had everything down. I was all set.”

He added, “I don’t think I’m running against Bernie. I think it’s going to be very hard for Bernie to come back.”

Biden is widely considered now as the Democratic front-runner following his strong showing winning 10 of the 14 states on Super Tuesday.

“And then we have this crazy thing that happened on Tuesday, which [Biden] thought was Thursday,” Trump said. “It looks like he’s going to be a candidate. How did that happen?”

Trump on Thursday mocked Biden for his frequent gaffes, using examples of Biden pointing to the Democrat’s incorrect suggestion that 150 million Americans have been killed by gun violence since 2007 and that he was running for the U.S. Senate.

“There’s something going on there,” Trump said.

Trump went on to argue that Biden was the one to come out “damaged” from the impeachment process that implicated his son Hunter in apparent overseas corruption.

“They aimed at Trump and they took Biden down,” the president said. “That will be a major issue in the campaign. I will bring that up all the time, because I don’t see any way out. I don’t see any way for them, I don’t see how they can answer those questions.”

“Here’s a guy, who didn’t have a job, unfortunately sadly the military was a very sad experience for him — he goes out and gets $3 million plus $183,000 a month to be a board member of a company that a lot of people said was corrupt,” he continued. “Just as bad, China — I just made a great China deal … His son walks out a China for a billion-and-a-half dollars for a fund.”

The Democratic primary race, once a large field, narrowed down to two candidates — Biden and Sanders on Thursday once Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) officially dropped out. Trump criticized Warren decision to drop out after Super Tuesday, saying he cost Sanders votes that could have helped him win in states that Biden won.

“If she’s a true progressive which probably she is, she should have dropped out three days ago. It would’ve been a whole different race” Trump stated.
Bernie Sanders would have won five, six, seven states. Would have won Minnesota, would have won at least another two or three states. When you look at it, she did him no favors, that was not a good friendship. We started to see that during the debates, by the way. It became unhinged.”

Trump added: “She didn’t even have to endorse him, if she just dropped out of the race without an endorsement, he would’ve won a tremendous number of states that he lost, he lost states by not very much and she got enough votes that it would’ve made a big difference. I think he would be leading by a lot right now had she not been in the race.”

The town hall also covered an array of other topics, including the coronavirus and his administration’s response, as well as the stock market turbulence and deregulation.

During the first commercial break, the crowd of 600 people chanted at the Scranton Cultural Center “four more years, four more years” with one person yelling to President Trump: ‘Thank you Mr. President.’