Former President Donald Trump on Sunday relied heavily on claims of voter fraud and appeared to call for violence against members of the press at his rally in Lititz, Pennsylvania, continuing a nearly decade-long series of attacks on the media.

Speaking about the bulletproof glass in front of his lectern, the former president said that the only way a gunman could be hit by a bullet in an assassination attempt is to “shoot through the fake news, and that doesn't bother me that much.”

“I have a piece of glass here, and I have no piece of glass there, and I have this piece of glass here,” Trump said, pointing to the glass around his lectern that has become commonplace since he was two earlier this year multiple assassination attempts, one of which occurred at a similar outdoor rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

Trump was often cruel to his critics and, in the final weeks of his campaign, preoccupied himself with the violent demise of his enemies.

Trump called Democrats “the enemy within,” called for shoplifters to be shot on sight, imagined former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney facing a firing squad and suggested his former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff deserved to be executed.

“All we really have here is fake news,” Trump added. “And to get me, someone would have to shoot through the fake news. And that doesn’t bother me that much.”

At the start of the rally, Trump also criticized the press, telling his supporters: “The media is so damn bad. It's unbelievable.”

He also specifically named several media outlets, telling attendees, “It’s one thing for CNN and MSNBC to be screwed as hell. Look at CBS. Look what CBS did,” Trump said before criticizing the network last month over its interview with Vice President Kamala Harris on “Face the Nation,” which he said was unfairly edited to paint Harris in a positive light . On Thursday, the former president sued the network, saying the interview with Harris was misleading.

Later at the rally, Trump said: “ABC, ABC, fake news, CBS, ABC, NBC. These are, in my opinion, these are seriously corrupt people.”

In a statement, Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung defended the former president's comments on Sunday, saying: “President Trump has spoken brilliantly about the two attempts on his own life, including one in which he came within an inch of killing him kill, whatever.” which the media constantly talks about and jokes about.”

Cheung added: “The president’s statement about placing protective glass has nothing to do with harming the media or anything else. It was about threats against him fueled by dangerous rhetoric from Democrats. In fact, President Trump stated that the media was in danger because it was protecting him and therefore was in grave danger itself and should have had a glass shield as well. There can be no other interpretation of what has been said. He actually cared about her well-being far more than his own!”

Trump's attacks are part of a long-standing trend of attacking the media that he has practiced publicly since he first ran for president in 2016.

At that time, he called members of the press at press conferences and campaign events “dishonest,” “not good people,” and “scum.”

The former president's comments on Sunday came during a lengthy speech in which he also attacked Harris as “corrupt,” called President Joe Biden “a poor, stupid guy” and disparaged former President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle Obama.

“I caused chaos because I took over the chaos caused by Barack Hussein Obama (left),” Trump said at Sunday's rally, adding that Obama was a “big troublemaker,” “a big divisive” and “a terrible president”.

Trump also told the crowd, “I think we're going to have a little fun with Michelle. “I think we're going to have a little fun with Michelle, but I've always treated her with a lot of respect.”

A spokesman for the Obamas did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

At another point in the rally, Trump said he was not allowed to leave the White House on January 20, 2021, when Biden was sworn in.

“The day I left, I shouldn’t have left. I mean, honestly, because we did that, we did it so well,” the former president told his supporters.

And as the rally began, Trump focused his remarks on criticism of the way the election was conducted, escalating his attacks on mail-in voting and election security at the end of a cycle in which some Republicans supported early voting had pronounced.

The former president offered extensive criticism of America's electoral process, calling for one-day voting and paper ballots, while also expressing doubts about Election Day and the ballot-counting process that followed.

“I just heard that some states may allow 12 additional days. How the hell do you have a choice? You know, they spend all this money on these damn machines and ballots, you'd have the answer by tonight at 9 p.m. “It's a damn shame, it's a damn shame,” Trump said, later arguing, “They should have the election over by 9 p.m. “I'm hearing now that it's going to take weeks.”

Trump also repeated baseless claims about widespread voter fraud in states like Pennsylvania and said the upcoming election is “all about the lawyers.”

“There are hundreds of lawyers in every voting booth. It's all about the lawyers. Everyone, normal lawyers. Nobody should have that. You should have a damn ballot and cast it,” the former president said.