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WILKES-BARRE TWP. — Supporters of President Donald Trump hit the road on Sunday afternoon to show their love for the president just nine days before Election Day.
A day after Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden’s visit to the Back Mountain drew hundreds of Trump supporters to the intersection of Route 309 and Hildebrandt Road to “welcome” Biden, another large crowd gathered in the Walmart parking lot around noon on Sunday.
Cars, trucks and a group of motorcycles filled multiple rows of the parking lot, most if not all flying Trump flags and their drivers wearing Trump shirts and hats before parading through the Wyoming Valley.
“This is the real America,” said Debbie Lee, a member of Bikers for Trump, as she gestured around to the crowd of people. “I’ve been to plenty of these rides. … All of this is amazing.”
Lee joined the biker outfit just this summer, though she’s been a supporter of the president since he announced his candidacy back in 2015.
“Since the first day, I was a fan of his,” Lee said. “And for the middle class, we’re better off now than we were in the eight years under the previous administration.”
Saturday’s rally was organized by the Republican Party of Luzerne County to support Trump just days before his bid to win a second term in the White House.
Though she wasn’t in Dallas on Saturday, Trump supporter Stephanie Kramer pointed out that the overwhelming majority of people lined up on 309 were there not to see Joe Biden, but in support of Trump.
“There’s a reason people aren’t lining up to see Biden,” Kramer said. A Lancaster resident, Kramer heard about Sunday’s rally via social media while visiting some family in Schuylkill County and decided to make the trip.
The convoy of vehicles planned to hit the road at 1 p.m., heading up Route 315 into the Greater Pittston area before coming to a stop at the Luzerne County Republican Party office on Wyoming Avenue in Kingston.
Joe Klick, from Wapwallopen, had no less than half a dozen flags flying from the back of his truck and a picture of Trump taped to his backseat window.
“We had one of these rallies in Drums. We got like 350 people,” Klick said. “We may hit that here today, but it’s easy to see how much support the president has here.”
Klick didn’t make the trip to Dallas on Saturday, but instead was present for Eric Trump’s campaign event in the Poconos.
“He’s smart like his father. They really get it,” Klick said. “They’re one of the best things that’s happened to this country.”