Trump: Midterm elections a personal referendum
LEWIS CENTER, OHIO » Embracing his breakneck return to campaign politics, President Donald Trump on Saturday argued that Republicans needed to control Congress by casting the midterms as a referendum on himself.
In a raucous rally in a sweltering gymnasium north of Columbus, Ohio, Trump pitched for the GOP candidate in a special election this week and defiantly questioned the idea that, historically, the party that controls the White House suffers in the midterms, declaring, “But I say why?”
“Why would there be a blue wave? I think it could be a red wave,” Trump said of his party’s prospects in November. “They want to take away what we’ve given. And we’re doing a lot of things people don’t even know about.”
Though boisterous and bellicose, Trump steered clear of the trouble he stirred up the night before when he blasted one of Ohio’s favorite sons, LeBron James.
But while he didn’t mention the Akron native, he did invoke similar rhetoric while training fire on one of his new favorite targets, Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters of California. He tore into Waters, who like James is black, and derided her as “an extremely low IQ person.”
He blasted the media as “fake news” and said journalists “were terrible people.”
He went on a screed against illegal immigration and exaggerated the threat of violent gangs like MS-13.
He basked in cheers as the crowd chanted the campaign staple rallying cry, “Build the wall, build the wall.” And Trump touted his supporters as “forgotten no more,” saying that they, and he, were the nation’s true “elite.”
“The elite. They’re more elite than me? I am better than everything they have, including this,” Trump said, pointing at his head. “And I became president and they didn’t. Meaning you became president. And it’s driving them crazy.”
Trump relished playing the role of Republican kingmaker, bragging how the GOP candidates he has opposed, such as Rep. Mark Sanford of South Carolina, have lost. He mocked the time Sanford vanished to hike “the Tallahassee Trail,” which was likely meant to be “the Appalachian Trail.”
Trump also gave an onstage hug to Rep. Jim Jordan, who is under siege after allegations that, as an assistant wrestling coach at Ohio State University, he knew of alleged sexual abuse by a team doctor but did not report it. Jordan, who has denied the charge, has announced his
plan to run for speaker of the House.
“Jim Jordan, how great is he?” Trump said. “What a great defender he’s been, what courage. He’s a brave, tough cookie.”
Trump gave a fullthroated endorsement to state Sen. Troy Balderson, who is facing Democrat Danny O’Connor, the Franklin County recorder, in Tuesday’s special election to fill a vacant U.S. House seat.
He touted Balderson’s record on crime and immigration and claimed that O’Connor, if he won, would be a “puppet” of Nancy Pelosi.