Knoxville Donald Trump rally seeks to ‘shock the world’
Fresh off the campaign trail with Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump in North Carolina, U.S. Rep. John J. Duncan Jr., R-Knoxville, on Monday told hundreds at a rally in Knoxville that if Republicans work hard between now and Election Day, “we’d shock the world” and particularly news organizations.
“Who do you want to negotiate trade deals?” he asked, leading the crowd, and calling, “Trump, Trump, Trump.”
“Who will enforce the border?” Duncan asked again, with the crowd chanting, “Trump, Trump, Trump.”
A rally to get Republicans to support all candidates on the ticket in the Nov. 8 election was held almost at the last minute at the Knoxville Expo Center on Clinton Highway. A handful of candidates and office holders came off the bus with Duncan.
Duncan said he was a speaker at a rally Friday outside Asheville, where Trump was featured. A news report said 3,100 people attended that event at the Western North Carolina Agricultural Center.
“Trump couldn’t have been nicer to me,” he said. He also mentioned there were three polls that came out on Friday that had the Republican nominee winning over Democrat Hillary Clinton. He quoted Mike Huckabee, former Arkansas governor who also sought the GOP presidential nomination, as saying he’s never seen anything like the early voting that has started.
“Something’s going on,” Duncan said.
Former Knox County Sheriff Tim Hutchison, a Trump volunteer since before the March primary, told the crowd a five-state bus rally had been planned about five weeks ago, which was to feature one of Trump’s children.
“Matthew showed up,” he said, referring to the hurricane that came through Florida, one of the states that also will be on the bus tour that began Monday in Knoxville.
Former Knoxville Vice Mayor Joe Bailey, a state co-chairman for the ticket of Trump and vice presidential GOP nominee Mike Pence, urged the crowd to take pictures of the bus after the event and send them to encourage others to vote.
The crowd was entertained before and after the Trump bus visit by the Gary Davis Band. Knox County Republican Chairman Buddy Burkhardt thanked Steve Hunley, who publishes the weekly Focus, for providing the music.
Hunley said afterward that he was asked by party officials if he could get music for the event.
“Can a Hunley get music?” he said. His brother is country music singer Con Hunley.
Steve Hunley said he was providing the music as an in-kind donation to the Knox County Republican Party “unless Trump wants to put it on their campaign.”
Trump T-shirts and signs were sold by party officials at the event. David Sheley of Knoxville bought a red “Proud to be a Deplorable” shirt for $10 and put it on for the rally.
In September, Clinton said half of Trump’s supporters belong in a “basket of deplorables” characterized by “racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic” views.