ANOTHER SWING INTO ARIZONA
Trump makes 7th visit: ‘The best is yet to come’
President Donald Trump barnstormed Arizona Wednesday in his seventh visit to the state in 2020, where he urged throngs of red-capped supporters in the competitive battleground state to get out to vote for him and vice presidential running mate Mike Pence.
Trump’s swing through ruby-red Bullhead City and then south to the western suburbs of Maricopa County represented a late push by Republicans to hold Arizona
in the red column, even as polls show the state’s electorate appears to be favoring the Democratic ticket, led by presidential nominee Joe Biden and vice presidential nominee Sen. Kamala Harris of California.
Trump headlined two campaign appearances to thousands of mostly maskless supporters near airport tarmacs in Bullhead City and in Goodyear, where GOP members of Congress vouched for him and he railed against the media and claimed unrivaled economic progress and the advancement of conservative ideals during his first tenure in the White House.
As the COVID-19 pandemic worsened across the nation, Trump used his closing message to Arizonans to reassure them the path he has set the nation on would lead to “record prosperity, epic job growth” and a “safe vaccine” that would soon be available. At both speeches, he played a video of governors praising, at various points since last spring, Trump’s response to the pandemic.
“Normal life will fully resume,” he said in Bullhead City. “That’s what we want, right?”
Trump ridiculed Biden’s energy levels and campaign strategy, telling crowds that Biden would devastate the economy with pandemic-induced lockdowns.
“With Sleepy Joe, there’d be no graduations, no weddings, no Thanksgivings — they’re already talking about no Thanksgiving,” he said.
Public health officials are discouraging large, and in some cases even small, indoor gatherings to prevent spread of the virus and Biden has limited the size and number of his in-person campaign gatherings to prevent exposure and spread of the virus.
Trump referenced his own recovery from the disease and said he felt so good after one treatment, he could fight an unidentified person in the crowd.
“I don’t think Sleepy Joe would be a good fighter,” he said. “... One gentle little touch to the face and he’s down.”
He pledged to make the treatments he received after testing positive for COVID-19 available to all Americans for free.
Trump claimed he was dominating in the polls ahead of Tuesday’s election and was going to win record shares of minority voters. He warned the crowd that Democrats would weaken Second
Amendment rights, increase taxes, eliminate school-choice programs, and cave to pressure on trade and other issues with China.
Trump encouraged voters to elect Sen. Martha McSally, R-Ariz., over her Democratic rival, Mark Kelly, saying she has done a “fantastic job” during her appointment to the Senate. And he praised Republican Gov. Doug Ducey for keeping Arizona businesses open in spite of the pandemic.
“I hear we’re doing well, Doug,” Trump said. “I’m going to be so angry, Doug, if we don’t get there.
Early in his appearance, Trump bemoaned the windy conditions, saying he should have worn a hat. He asked the MAGA hat-wearing crowd, “Should I put on a hat?” They cheered as he appeared to get a hat from someone in the crowd. He asked who had worn it before: “It’s pretty nasty. Am I allowed to do it?” He slid the Make America Great Again hat on his head, as the crowd celebrated.
At another point, he admired what he said was a jet fighter flying overhead. It intercepted a plane flying in restricted airspace near the rally.
The North American Aerospace Defense Command sent two F-16s to investigate “a general aviation aircraft that was not in communication” with airtraffic controllers as it neared Bullhead City, NORAD said in a tweet.
In Goodyear, Trump said he worried about Democrats cheating during the election.
Trump made a closing pitch to Latino voters, promising new jobs, low unemployment, and bolstered homeownership if he is elected to a second term. At one point early in his remarks, the
crowd chanted, “Latinos for Trump!”
At the podium in the city west of Phoenix, Trump said that former Department of Homeland Security official Miles Taylor, who came forward Wednesday as the anonymous author of a blistering opinion article and book about the president, should be prosecuted. He said Taylor, who has endorsed Biden, was a “low-level staffer” and “a sleaze bag.”
Taking aim at Harris, who was also campaigning in Arizona Wednesday, Trump seemed to purposefully mispronounce her first name, a tactic conservatives are using to taunt her.
“You know if you don’t pronounce her name exactly right she gets very angry at you,” he said.
Midway through his remarks, he asked McSally to hurry up on stage, “Come on, quick, quick, quick,” he said. She briefly made her case to voters, telling them she was standing between Republicans maintaining control of the U.S. Senate.
GOP Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Mike Lee of Utah also addressed the crowd, with Lee speaking in English and Spanish and making an appeal to people of faith to vote for Trump.
House Minority Leader Kevin Mc
Carthy, R-Calif., spoke, too.
Despite taking aim at personal matters, such as Harris’ name and her laughter, Trump closed his time on stage with a message of unity. He praised Arizona’s history, filled with larger-than-life historical figures such as Doc Holliday and Wyatt Earp, and urged attendees to vote and honor the state’s “legacy of red-blooded American patriots.”
“The best is yet to come,” Trump said, closing his rally in Goodyear. He encouraged them to vote.
As Air Force One prepared to take off from the Phoenix Goodyear Airport and the crowd made its way for the gates, the opening verse of Frank Sinatra’s “My Way” rang out over the sound system.
Trump will headline a Make America Great Again campaign appearance at the Laughlin/Bullhead International Airport at noon r Airport for a second rally, which is scheduled to begin at about 2:30 pm. Doors open at 11:30 a.m. for that event.
Trump’s visit to Arizona Wednesday came on the same day and about the same time that Harris made appearances in Phoenix and Tucson, the state’s largest population centers.
Their campaign stops likely break the all-time record for presidential-ticket visits to Arizona in an election year and are just one of the more visible signs of how both sides view the state as up for grabs with less than a week to go.
So far the presidential and vice presidential campaigns have made 11 public stops in Arizona this year. That ties the 2016 total for major party election-year visits, which is the most since at least 1996, according to Arizona Republic research.
Before that, the state’s reliable Republican voting history meant few candidates campaigned here. Going back even earlier, the state had relatively little electoral clout.
The Republic’s count only includes a pair of events for 2008 Republican presidential nominee John McCain, who visited the state throughout the year but only held a pair of public events in his home state.
The late play for voters came as hundreds of thousands of Arizonans already have voted, and as Tuesday’s Election Day draws nearer.
Republicans are making a major play to shore up support in rural Arizona, which could help them make up potential vote deficits in the suburbs of Phoenix and Tucson. They also are making a play to attract more Latino and suburban voters.
Democrats are also vying for Latino and suburban voters and hope to pick up support from independents, younger people, and disaffected Republicans.
Trump won the state in 2016 by 3.5 percentage points. Polls suggest his handling of the pandemic has accelerated a shift by some voters away from him.