September 7, 2024, presidential campaign news | CNN Politics

Former President Donald Trump touched on familiar talking points as he spoke during a campaign rally at an airfield in central Wisconsin on Saturday, projecting confidence about Tuesday’s debate against Vice President Kamala Harris while shouting out allies Elon Musk and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Here’s some of what Trump said during the rally:

On the debate: Trump said the country is run by “stupid people” and that we “found that out at the debate with Joe (Biden).”

“We’re going to find it out again on Tuesday night. Is anybody going to be watching?” Trump asked the crowd. The former president predicted that pundits would say he lost the debate, even “if I destroy her.”

Praising RFK Jr.: Trump repeatedly praised Kennedy, saying that with his help, “we’ll take on the corruption at the FDA, the CDC, World Health Organization and other institutions of public health.”

Kennedy, the former independent presidential candidate who has embraced conspiracy theories about vaccines and other issues, has been positioned by the former president to helm a panel investigating chronic health problems in a potential second Trump administration.

On Boeing and SpaceX: Trump said the Boeing Starliner crew being stuck in space is “embarrassing,” and that Musk, the SpaceX CEO, is “going to have to save them.”

Trump continued his public praise of the tech billionaire amid the tightening alliance between the two men. 

“He’s very good at what he does,” Trump said of Musk. “Leon’s going to send up a rocket, he looks forward to it,” he added, apparently misstating his ally’s first name.

The praise of Musk comes days after Trump announced he would appoint Musk to head a newly created government efficiency commission if reelected.

The ballot in Colorado: Trump said people in Colorado should “do a major protest vote” in favor of him because of the failed efforts to remove him from the ballot, which had cited the 14th Amendment’s insurrectionist clause in relation to the January 6 Capitol riot.