How to watch Trump rally in Erie, Pennsylvania: Time, live stream, info

Former President Donald Trump will host one of his signature rallies in Erie, Pennsylvania, on Saturday, as he continues to be the frontrunner for Republicans’ 2024 presidential nomination despite a growing slate of criminal charges.

Polls show Trump is the clear favorite among GOP primary voters to be their party’s candidate in the next presidential election, with the current average by news and polling analysis site FiveThirtyEight showing Florida Governor Ron DeSantis in distant second place. Trump leads the Republican field with over 52 percent support compared to the Florida governor’s 15.5 percent.

Meanwhile, Pennsylvania is seen as a key battleground state for 2024. Trump carried the swing state by a narrow margin in the 2016 election, but lost to President Joe Biden there in 2020. Democrats also managed to picked up a Senate seat that was previously held by a Republican in the state during the 2022 midterms in November.

Trump’s Saturday rally will be held at the Erie Insurance Arena. The former president’s rallies typically draw thousands of attendees, and the venue seats some 9,000 people, according to the arena’s website. Free tickets are available via Trump’s website with a limit of two per mobile number.

For those unable to attend who are interested in watching the rally, the event can be live streamed online. Right Side Broadcasting Network (RSBN) will air the event live as well as coverage from the crowd leading up to the event. The stream is available on the network’s website, YouTube channel and other social media channels.

Parking for the event opened at 8 a.m. ET, but doors won’t open until 1 p.m. Guest speakers—including GOP Representative Mike Kelly of Pennsylvania’s 16th District, Representative Dan Meuser of the state’s 9th District, former Representative Fred Keller, former U.S. ambassador to Denmark Carla Sands and former combat veteran Sean Parnell—will take the stage starting at 4 p.m.

Trump is slated to take the stage at 6 p.m. RSBN’s broadcast is expected to begin at noon local time.

The rally takes place just two days after the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) special counsel Jack Smith unveiled three additional criminal charges against the former president related to his alleged mishandling of classified documents and his alleged efforts to obstruct investigators’ efforts to return them to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). Smith previously charged Trump with 37 counts, including 31 counts of willful retention of national defense information, related to the classified documents case, to which the former president pleaded not guilty to in June.

In addition to the classified documents probe, Smith is widely expected to bring charges against Trump related to the events of January 6, 2021, and the former president’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results.

Trump became the first former president in American history to be indicted in March when a grand jury in New York voted in favor of pressing charges related to an alleged hush money payment that the former president made to adult film star Stephanie Clifford, known by her stage name Stormy Daniels. Trump, who pleaded not guilty in the case, is also widely expected to soon face charges in Georgia from Fulton County’s District Attorney Fani Willis related to his efforts to change the state’s 2020 election results in his favor.

“ELECTION INTERFERENCE & PROSECUTORIAL MISCONDUCT, all rolled up as one. We are truly a Nation In Decline!” Trump wrote in a Friday post on Truth Social, his social media platform. Meanwhile, the former president and his allies have consistently said that all investigations and prosecutions targeting him are politically motivated, and that the probes and indictments are an effort to block him from becoming president in 2024.

However, even if Trump were to be convicted and imprisoned, he legally would be able to continue his campaign and potentially win the election. Some analysts have floated the possibility that the former president could pardon himself if reelected. Several of Trump’s GOP rivals have even suggested the possibility, or promised, to pardon him if they are elected instead.

The legal issues surrounding Trump don’t appear to be harming the former president’s popularity with Pennsylvania Republicans, however. A poll conducted by Quinnipiac University from June 22 to 26 showed Trump with 49 percent support compared to DeSantis’s 25 percent. The third place contender was former Vice President Mike Pence at just 5 percent.

The survey additionally showed Trump with a very small lead over Biden in a hypothetical 2024 matchup, although the results were statistically a tie. Trump was backed by 47 percent of respondents compared to Biden’s 46 percent. The poll’s margin of error was plus or minus 2.5 percentage points and it surveyed 1,584 registered Pennsylvania voters.

Newsweek reached out to Trump’s press office via email for comment.