“The radical Democrats are trying to overturn the last election because they know that they cannot win the next election,” Trump added. “It’s very simple.”

Tuesday’s night rally — lasting more than 90 minutes and held in a key battleground state that the president, a lifelong New Yorker, recently declared as his official residence — was the latest evidence that Trump intends to run his 2020 reelection campaign on his brand of political grievances. Instead of talking up immigration or trade practices or presenting a forward-looking vision for his second-term, he doubled down on impeachment fare — mocking the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), as well as former Vice President Joe Biden’s son Hunter.

“First it was the Russia hoax, total hoax,” Trump told the crowd. “It was a failed overthrow attempt and the biggest fraud in the history of our country. And then you look at the Mueller deal. You remember that mess. They had nothing. Two years — they spent $45 million and the real cost is many times that number. And now the same maniacs are pushing the deranged impeachment.”

His extensive remarks on impeachment came as the inquiry, centering on efforts to get Ukraine’s help in investigating the president’s political rivals, is about to enter a crucial phase in early December. House Democrats have spent several weeks collecting testimony from a raft of top administration officials and holding public hearings, but now they must make their full case to the American public, which remains as polarized as ever.

The White House has tried to keep Republicans unified while trying new messages to undermine Democrats’ efforts. Casting the inquiry as an entirely partisan exercise will be key for the White House if Trump is impeached by the House and faces a trial in the Senate. Administration officials want to give Republican senators the ammunition to dismiss any charges against him.

Trump has long complained to friends, allies and White House aides about what he considers unfair treatment. That narrative of persecution played out on Tuesday night as he talked about impeachment and how he has been treated compared with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, a target of his long after he beat her in 2016.

“In the twisted worldview of the Washington, very sick Democrats,” the president said, “it was totally fine when crooked Hillary Clinton ran her outrageous pay-for-play schemes out of the State Department. And then she deleted 33,000 emails after receiving a subpoena from Congress. That was standard play. But when I have a perfect phone call,” he said, referring to the July 25 conversation he had with Ukraine’s leader in which he asked for investigations of his rivals, prompting a whistleblower complaint.

By the middle of the rally, Trump had brought several Florida politicians up to the stage to show his support in the Sunshine State. Gov. Ron DeSantis praised the president for now being a resident of Florida — and talked up the way Trump has paid attention to the state after natural disasters.

Roughly 50 minutes into the rally, the president temporarily stopped his bashing of Democrats, the media, and his enemies to talk up what he considers his achievements, including low unemployment, rising wages for Florida’s blue-collar workers, growth in the energy sector and the renegotiation of trade deals.

Matthew Choi reported from Virginia.