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President Trump campaigns in Jacksonville, calls for Biden to release list of Supreme Court choices

President Donald Trump said during a campaign rally in Jacksonville on Thursday that he will announce a woman Saturday as his Supreme Court pick on Saturday and he challenged Democratic nominee Joe Biden to release his own list of potential Supreme Court candidates.

Trump said Biden doesn't want to release a list because the names because he is beholden to "the left."

Biden has said the winner of the November election should fill the seat left vacant by the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

"If he puts an extremist into that position, he loses everything that's like normal," Trump said. "If he goes the other way, he loses the left. I'd love to have him put out the list. I'd like to see what happens. I can already tell you, the people on that list, it would not be good. It would not be pretty. That would be the end."

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President Donald Trump waves to the crowd as he leaves Thursday, September 24, 2020 at the Great American Comeback Event at the Cecil Commerce Center in Jacksonville, Florida. (Will Dickey/Florida Times-Union)

Trump didn’t drop any hints about who he will announce on Saturday beyond saying the selection will be a woman. It will be Trump's third appointment to the Supreme Court.

When Trump asked the crowd whether they rather would have a man or woman appointed to the court, the crowd cheered loudly for the prospect of a woman.

Trump spoke for about an hour at the outdoor campaign rally at Cecil Airport on Jacksonville's Westside. Air Force One landed on the runway and pulled up behind the stage where Trump spoke just outside an airplane hangar.

The rally included speakers like Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry, U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Trump's warm-up speakers adopted his signature tone, with Curry leaning into a level of partisanship that has been missing from past speeches the city's mayor has given.

"As the radical left abandoned our men and women in uniform, Trump has remained a steadfast supporter of the blue," Curry said. Curry called Trump a president of "law and order." 

Curry took on a pugilistic tone, attacking what he called a "radical left agenda" that he said doesn't reflect Jacksonville. He specifically noted his recent City Council battle over the increased Jacksonville Sheriff's Office budget. Curry's budget was approved, but activists who attended the Zoom meeting called for steep cuts while City Councilman Garrett Dennis advocated funding the Sheriff's Office for only six months at a time.

As Trump tries to repeat his 2016 win in Florida, the greater Jacksonville area will once again be key to whether the president takes the state, said Michael Binder, director of the University of North Florida Public Opinion Research. 

Binder said that like 2016, Trump needs to run up big victory margins in the counties surrounding Jacksonville. Even if Trump loses Duval, he just needs to keep the margin close, Binder said. In terms of Northeast Florida, a tie in Duval County "essentially would be a win for Trump," Binder said.

Looking forward to the debate Tuesday with Biden, the first face-to-face showdown between them, Trump simultaneously said Biden is "the lowest-energy individual I've ever seen" and also an experienced debater "who has been doing it for 47 years."

"Maybe he'll be like Superman for 15 minutes," Trump said.

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With Florida a pivotal state, Trump said Hispanics are supporting his re-election. He said he has released hurricane relief aid to Puerto Rico, which still is recovering from Hurricane Maria in 2017, and he said he is moving to revive the pharmaceutical manufacturing on the island.

He criticized Biden for the deal the United States made with Cuba to move toward normalizing relationships when Biden was vice president in Barack Obama's administration.

"My opponent stands with socialists and communists," Trump said. "I stand with the proud people of Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela."

Trump got "Back the Blue" chants when he riffed on "law and order" and said Biden has "surrendered his party to flag-burners" and "anti-police radicals."

A confirmed crowd size was not immediately available, however, First Coast News reported the venue holds "close to 15,000 people." Bleachers and folding chairs were packed tightly together, limiting the ability for people to socially distance.

Masks were rarely spotted, nor were they required. But the Trump campaign did give masks to each attendee that walked in. Temperatures were also checked upon entrance. 

City of Jacksonville officials said they'd "prefer social distancing," but since the event was outdoors, no city ordinances about COVID-19 safety were violated. 

Trump and Joe Biden face off on the Nov. 3 ballot but vote but a large share of votes will be done before then through mailed ballots and in early voting. In Duval County, early voting starts on Oct. 19.