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With just days to go before his first and likely only debate against Vice President\u00a0Kamala Harris<\/a>, former President\u00a0Donald Trump<\/a> posted a warning on his social media site threatening to jail those \u201cinvolved in unscrupulous behavior\u201d this election, which he said would be under intense scrutiny.<\/p>\n \u201cWHEN I WIN, those people that CHEATED will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the Law, which will include long term prison sentences so that this Depravity of Justice does not happen again,\u201d Trump wrote late Saturday, sowing doubt once more about the integrity of the election, even though cheating is incredibly rare.<\/p>\n \u201cPlease beware,\u201d he went on, \u201cthat this legal exposure extends to Lawyers, Political Operatives, Donors, Illegal Voters, & Corrupt Election Officials. Those involved in unscrupulous behavior will be sought out, caught, and prosecuted at levels, unfortunately, never seen before in our Country.\u201d<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s message represents his latest threat to use the office of the presidency to exact retribution if he wins a second term. There is no evidence of the kind of fraud he continues to insist marred the 2020 election; in fact, dozens of courts, Republican state officials and his own administration have said he lost fairly.<\/p>\n Just days ago, Trump himself\u00a0acknowledged in a podcast interview<\/a>\u00a0that he had indeed \u201clost by a whisker.\u201d<\/p>\n While Trump\u2019s campaign aides and allies have urged him to keep his focus on Harris and make the election a referendum on issues like inflation and border security, Trump in recent days has veered far off course.<\/p>\n On Friday, he\u00a0delivered a stunning statement to news cameras<\/a>\u00a0in which he brought up a string of past allegations of sexual misconduct, describing several in graphic detail, even as he denied his accusers\u2019 allegations. Earlier, he had voluntarily appeared in court for a hearing on the appeal of a decision that found him liable for sexual abuse, turning focus to his legal woes in the campaign\u2019s final stretch.<\/p>\n Earlier Saturday, Trump had leaned into familiar grievances about everything from his indictments to Russia\u2019s meddling in the 2016 election as he campaigned in one of the most deeply Republican swaths of battleground Wisconsin.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Harris-Biden DOJ is trying to throw me in jail \u2014 they want me in jail \u2014 for the crime of exposing their corruption,\u201d Trump claimed at an outdoor rally at Central Wisconsin Airport, where he spoke behind a wall of bulletproof glass due to new security protocols following his July\u00a0assassination attempt<\/a>.<\/p>\n There\u2019s no evidence that\u00a0President Joe Biden<\/a>\u00a0or Harris have had any influence over decisions by the Justice Department or state prosecutors to indict the former president.<\/p>\n Trump\u00a0has eschewed traditional debate preparation<\/a>, choosing to hold rallies and events while Harris has been cloistered in a historic hotel in downtown Pittsburgh, working with aides since Thursday.<\/p>\n Harris has agreed so far to a single debate, which will be hosted by ABC.<\/p>\n At the rally, Trump outlined his plans to \u201cDrain the swamp\u201d \u2014 a throwback to his winning 2016 campaign message as he ran as an outsider challenging the status quo. Though Trump spent four years in the Oval Office, he vowed anew to \u201ccast out the corrupt political class\u201d if he wins again and to \u201ccut the fat out of our government for the first time, meaningfully, in 60 years.\u201d<\/p>\n As part of that effort, he repeated his plan,\u00a0announced Thursday<\/a>, to create a new \u201cGovernment Efficiency Commission\u201d headed by Elon Musk that will be charged with conducting \u201ca complete financial and performance audit of the entire federal government\u201d to root out waste.<\/p>\n After again maligning the Congressional committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the nation\u2019s capitol by his supporters after his election loss in 2020, Trump told the crowd of thousands that he would \u201crapidly review the cases of every political prisoner unjustly victimized by the Harris regime\u201d and sign their pardons on his first day back in office.<\/p>\n Trump has repeatedly defended those who have been jailed for crimes including\u00a0violent attacks on law enforcement<\/a>.<\/p>\n And he said he would \u201ccompletely overhaul\u201d what he labeled \u201cKamala\u2019s corrupt Department of Injustice.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cInstead of persecuting Republicans, they will focus on taking down bloodthirsty cartels, transnational gangs, and radical Islamic terrorists,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Harris campaign spokesperson Sarafina Chitika responded to his comments with a statement warning that, if Trump is reelected, he will \u201cuse his unchecked power to prosecute his enemies and pardon insurrectionists who violently attacked our Capitol on January 6.\u201d<\/p>\n Both Harris and Trump have been frequent visitors to Wisconsin this year, a state where four of the past six presidential elections have been decided by less than a percentage point. Several polls of Wisconsin voters conducted after Biden withdrew showed Harris and Trump in a close race.<\/p>\n Democrats consider Wisconsin to be one of the must-win \u201cblue wall\u201d states. Biden, who was\u00a0in Wisconsin on Thursday<\/a>, won the state in 2020 by just under 21,000 votes. Trump carried it by a slightly larger margin, nearly 23,000 votes, in 2016.<\/p>\n As Trump was campaigning, Harris took a short break from debate prep to visit Penzeys Spices in Pittsburgh\u2019s Strip District, where she bought several seasoning mixes. One customer saw the Democratic nominee and began openly weeping as Harris hugged her and said, \u201cWe\u2019re going to be fine. We\u2019re all in this together.\u201d<\/p>\n Harris said she was honored to have\u00a0endorsements<\/a>\u00a0from two major Republicans: former Vice President Dick Cheney and his daughter, Liz Cheney, the former Wyoming congresswoman.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople are exhausted, about the division and the attempts to kind of divide us as Americans,\u201d she said, adding that her main message at the debate would be that the country wants to be united.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s time to turn the page on the divisiveness,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s time to bring our country together, to chart a new way forward.\u201d<\/p>\n Trump held his rally in the central Wisconsin city of Mosinee, with a population of about 4,500 people. It is within Wisconsin\u2019s mostly rural 7th Congressional District, a reliably Republican area in a purple state.<\/p>\n During his speech, he railed against Harris in dark and ominous language, claiming that if the woman he calls \u201cComrade Kamala Harris gets four more years, you will be living (in) a full-blown Banana Republic\u201d ruled by \u201canarchy\u201d and \u201ctyranny.\u201d<\/p>\n Trump also railed against the administration\u2019s border policies, calling the Democrats\u2019 approach \u201csuicidal\u201d and accusing them of having \u201cimported murderers, child predators and serial rapists from all over the planet.\u201d<\/p>\n Many studies have found immigrants, including those in the country illegally,\u00a0commit fewer violent crimes<\/a>\u00a0than native-born citizens.\u00a0Violent crime in the U.S. dropped<\/a>\u00a0again last year, continuing a downward trend after a pandemic-era spike.<\/p>\n He dismissed warnings from U.S. officials about\u00a0ongoing Russian attempts to spread disinformation<\/a>\u00a0ahead of November\u2019s election, including\u00a0an indictment this past week<\/a>\u00a0that alleged a media company linked to six conservative influencers was secretly funded by Russian state media employees.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Justice Department said Russia may be involved in our elections again,\u201d Trump told the crowd. \u201cAnd, you know, the whole world laughed at it this time.\u201d<\/p>\n Among those in the crowd was Dale Osuldsen, who was celebrating his 68th birthday Saturday at his first ever Trump rally. He hopes a second Trump administration will take on \u201ccancel culture\u201d and bring the country back to its \u201cfoundational past.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve had past administrations say they want to fundamentally change America,\u201d Osulden said. \u201cFundamentally changing America is a bad thing.\u201d<\/p>\n Many supporters embarked on hours-long drives from across Wisconsin to see Trump speak. Some came from even further.<\/p>\n Sean Moon, a Tennessee musician who releases MAGA-themed rap music under the stage name, \u201cKing Bullethead,\u201d blasted his songs from a truck in the event parking lot. As a musician, he said Trump rallies approximate the experience of a raucous concert.<\/p>\n \u201cTrump is a rockstar,\u201d Moon said. \u201cHe\u2019s incredible. People see he represents them and the deep state trying to kill him and take him out. But he\u2019s standing strong, and he stands for the normal person.\u201d<\/p>\n Democrats have relied on massive turnout in the state\u2019s two largest cities, Milwaukee and Madison, to counter Republican strength in rural areas like Mosinee and the Milwaukee suburbs. Trump must win the votes in places like Mosinee to have any chance of cutting into the Democrats\u2019 advantage in urban areas.<\/p>\n Republicans held their national convention in Milwaukee in July and Trump has made four previous stops to the state, most recently just last week in the western Wisconsin city of La Crosse.<\/p>\n Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, last month\u00a0filled the same Milwaukee arena<\/a>\u00a0where Republicans held their national convention for a rally that coincided with the Democratic National Convention just 90 miles away in Chicago.\u00a0Walz returned Monday to Milwaukee<\/a>, where he spoke at a Labor Day rally organized by unions.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n