Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally in Erie, Pennsylvania, on Sunday. Trump continues his campaign in the battleground swing states before the final day of voting on November 5th, Election Day.

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In two speeches over the weekend, former President Donald Trump ratcheted up the insults, threats and lies that have become the hallmark of his political campaigns.

Speaking in Erie, Pennsylvania, Trump suggested that police violence could deter crime.

Trump falsely claimed that police in California, Harris’ home state, do not charge charges for shoplifting items valued under $950. Trump then said police should be allowed to get “tough” on criminals to send a message.

“A hard hour, and I mean really hard, will get around and end immediately. Quit immediately. You know? It will end immediately,” he repeated.

He immediately pivoted to insulting President Biden and the Democratic presidential nominee, Vice President Harris.

“The corrupt Joe Biden has been mentally impaired. Sad. But Lyin’ Kamala Harris — honestly, I think she was born that way,” he said, mispronouncing Harris’ first name. “There’s something wrong with Kamala and I just don’t know what it is, but there’s definitely something missing. And guess what? Everyone knows.”

That’s an insult he previously used at a rally in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, over the weekend.

“Joe Biden was mentally impaired. Kamala was born this way,” he told the crowd. “She was born this way. And if you think about it, only a mentally disabled person could have allowed something like this to happen in our country,” he said, referring to undocumented immigrants entering the country.

The new insults and threats come as voting has begun in some parts of Pennsylvania, marking the start of what has so far been a close presidential race. Trump and Harris are deadlocked in this state and other swing states. In this environment, Trump has chosen to maintain his harsh rhetoric rather than soften in order to win over potentially fickle undecided voters.

In his speech in Pennsylvania, Trump urged the crowd to make sure their friends who might be open to him get out and vote.

“We also need you to find as many other new voters as possible. So get it,” he said. “We have some voters – they are for us, but they never voted. And they will want to vote. If you just nudge them a little bit, they will come out and vote.”

That could be a winning strategy for a candidate who shows little interest in moderating his policies or his authoritarian rhetoric. While many moderate voters strongly oppose him, there are tens of millions of non-voters, some of whom probably sympathize with Trump.

Trump regularly repeats the lie that he won the 2020 election, and he did the same over the weekend, sowing distrust in the American electoral system on Election Day just weeks before the final day of voting. He told the crowd in Erie that Democrats are “cheating in this state, especially in Philadelphia,” a heavily Democratic city, although he offered no evidence.

“We’re going to have to have a landslide because they’re cheating so damn much,” he said later, then added: “If we win, if we win, we will prosecute those who cheat in this election.” And if we can, let us return to the last one, if we are permitted to do so.”

From speech to speech, Trump repeats the same ideas, but also changes them over time – and often reinforces them. For example, he had called Harris unintelligent several times before this weekend. This weekend he decided to cast her as mentally disabled.

A former American electorate may have found these kinds of statements disqualifying, but Trump has made them a staple throughout his nine years of campaigning.

From insulting John McCain for being a prisoner of war to the infamous Access Hollywood video to calling his opponent “mentally disabled,” voters have regularly heard him say outrageous things, but he has support within his base and among Republican voters as a whole has not changed essentially.