Trump to attack Biden near Pennsylvania childhood home hours before his DNC speech

He's making a speech just miles from Biden's childhood home.

August 20, 2020, 6:23 PM

9 min read

President Donald Trump headed to the 2020 battleground state of Pennsylvania Thursday afternoon to make a campaign speech in the town of Old Forge, just a few miles from former Vice President Joe Biden's childhood home in Scranton -- and just hours before Biden makes his own speech accepting his party's nomination for president in his adopted home state of Delaware.

According to remarks provided to ABC News, Trump intends to paint Biden as "no friend of Pennsylvania -- he is your worst nightmare."

"Tonight, Joe Biden will speak at the Democrat Convention -- and I am sure he will remind us that he was born in Scranton. But here's what Joe Biden WON'T tell you: he left Scranton 70 years ago and he has spent the last half century in Washington selling you out and ripping you off!" Trump's prepared remarks read.

President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhemi in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, Aug. 20, 2020.

Trump's campaign said he would also attack Kamala Harris' record as a prosecutor in San Francisco.

"As District Attorney of San Francisco, Kamala Harris put a drug dealing illegal alien into a jobs program instead of prison. Four months later, the illegal alien robbed a 29-year old woman, mowed her down with an SUV and fractured her skull," read another excerpt.

In addition to trying to steal the spotlight from Biden's acceptance speech, Trump is scheduled to do a live interview with Fox News' Sean Hannity at the same time the DNC's program is set to begin Thursday night.

As the DNC comes to a close, Trump continues to blast his critics including former President Barack Obama and even the late Republican Sen. John McCain, knocking him in a tweet Thursday morning.

Sen. John McCain receives the Liberty Medal from Chair of the National Constitution Center's Board of Trustees, former Vice President Joe Biden, Oct. 16, 2017, in Philadelphia.

"McCain was a lousy candidate with lots of bad policy, but the 'deadheads' sabotaged his campaign from the inside, and never gave him a chance to win. Hope they were happy with OBiden, who gave you me!" Trump tweeted, responding to a Fox News interview with McCain's running mate, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

McCain's widow, Cindy McCain, appeared at the DNC Tuesday to discuss the friendship between her late husband and Biden.

On Wednesday night, Trump fired back at Obama as the former president cast his successor as a looming threat to American democracy and said there's no indication Trump's behavior will change.

"For close to four years now, he's shown no interest in putting in the work, no interest in finding common ground, no interest in using the awesome power of his office to help anyone but himself and his friends, no interest in treating the presidency as anything but one more reality show that he can use to get the attention he craves," Obama said in a forceful rebuke from Philadelphia. "This administration has shown it will tear our democracy down if that's what it takes to win."

Former President Barack Obama speaks by video feed on the third night of the 2020 Democratic National Convention, Aug. 19. 2020.

Less than 10 minutes into Obama's speech, Trump aired his grievances in real time -- in all caps -- on Twitter. It's not lost on some that in doing so he may have reinforced Obama's argument.

"HE SPIED ON MY CAMPAIGN, AND GOT CAUGHT!" Trump said of Obama, repeating a baseless conspiracy theory stemming from the FBI's surveillance of 2016 Trump campaign associates.

Trump then attempted to sow doubt in Obama's faith in Biden, questioning why the former president didn't endorse his vice president sooner -- though it's customary for former presidents not to endorse candidates during competitive primaries.

He weighed in again in real time as Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., formally accepted the vice presidential nomination, making her the first Black woman and first Asian American to run for national office of a major party.

After Harris said, "I know a predator when I see one," alluding to Trump and her prosecutorial background, Trump attempted to revive tensions between Harris and Biden from the primary trail.

Notably, Harris specifically said when she pushed Biden about busing on the debate stage that she did not view him as a racist.

ABC News' Terrance Smith contributed to this report.

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