Trump sticks to plan, holds rally in southern Illinois
Warns against giving ‘sick and evil’ shooter too much importance
MURPHYSBORO, ILL. – Against the backdrop of the national tragedy of a deadly shooting rampage in a Pittsburgh synagogue, President Trump campaigned in southern Illinois for Republicans Saturday and said Americans should not “change our life for somebody that’s sick and evil.”
Trump, attempting to boost first-term U.S. Rep. Mike Bost in a tight battle with Democrat Brendan Kelly, acknowledged thoughts of canceling the political rally while authorities in Pennsylvania were still assessing the mass shooting that killed at least 11 people and wounded six others during services.
But the president — who told reporters before departing for events in Indiana and Illinois that if the synagogue had armed “protection inside, the results would have been far better” — sought in Murphysboro to balance a somber tone against rallying rhetoric aimed at keepDonald
ing a Republican majority in the House with midterm elections just more than a week away.
“This evil anti-Semitic attack is an assault on all of us. It’s an assault on humanity. It will require all of us working together to extract the hateful poison of antiSemitism from our world,” Trump said in using the incident to call for a restoration of the death penalty.
“This is a rally for Mike Bost, and I frankly, this one maybe I could have (canceled) except I don’t want to change our life for somebody that’s sick and evil and I don’t think we ever should,” he said as he stood before twin blue banners reading, “Promises Made, Promises Kept,” before the audience inside a hangar at Southern Illinois Airport.
Recognizing the gravity of the day, Trump said, “If you don’t mind, I’m going to tone it down just a bit,” prompting shouts of “No” from the crowd. Later, Trump’s mention of defeating Democrat Hillary Clinton in West Virginia coal country prompted the crowd to chant, “Lock her up.”
While Trump’s visit was aimed at helping Bost, it also had overtones for other Illinois contests, including the fate of four closely competed GOP-held congressional seats that could help determine control of the House.
Along with Bost, far west and northwest suburban Rep. Randy Hultgren of Plano, locked in a contest with Democrat Lauren Underwood of Naperville, traveled hundreds of miles to appear onstage with Trump. Central Illinois Rep. Rodney Davis of Taylorville, battling Democrat Betsy Dirksen Londrigan of Springfield, also took the stage.
Rep. Peter Roskam of Wheaton, engaged in a tight contest against Democrat Sean Casten of Downers Grove, did not attend.
“We’ve got a tough battle running against a very liberal who absolutely is dying to support Nancy Pelosi for speaker,” Hultgren said of Underwood as he stood by Trump’s side. “We’ve got to stop that. We’ve got to hold the House. We’ve got to continue to fight for this great country.”
Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner showed up at the rally despite years of actively distancing himself from the controversial president — at least until recently when the governor sought to try to unify core social conservatives angry with his signature on laws expanding abortion, immigration and transgender rights.
Trump made no mention of Rauner, who sat off to the side in bleachers far behind the main podium. Wearing a motorcycle vest and a baseball cap affirming the pro-police message “Back the Blue,” Rauner did not address the audience.
While Rauner was Downstate, Democratic challenger J.B. Pritzker was campaigning in the west and northwest suburbs while adding $10 million to his own already recordshattering self-funding mark, bringing it to more than $171.5 million since he launched his campaign fund in March of last year.
In a campaign fundraising email appeal for other Democratic candidates, Pritzker said Rauner’s attendance at the Trump rally was a “final desperate attempt to save his failing campaign.”
But the more parochial political implications of the rally were overshadowed by events earlier in the day at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh and Trump’s decision to maintain his schedule.
Federal authorities are investigating the mass shooting as a hate crime, and Trump said he plans to go to the synagogue at a future date. He began his remarks in southern Illinois by saying it was “a rough, rough day for all of us.”
“The hearts of all Americans are filled with grief following the monstrous killing of Jewish Americans,” Trump said in vowing that “those seeking their (Jewish) destruction, we will seek their (the perpetrator’s) destruction.
“Now when you have crimes like this, whether it’s this one or another one on another group, we have to bring back the death penalty. They have to pay the ultimate price. They have to pay the ultimate price. They can’t do this. They can’t do this to our country. We must draw a line in the sand and say very strongly, ‘Never again,’” Trump said, using the phrase associated with the Jewish vow to never allow the tragedy of the Holocaust to ever be repeated.
Speaking to an audience that is largely Christian conservative in a southern Illinois region that also is part of the traditional evangelical Bible Belt, Trump spoke of the crime and the need to unify among core principles.
“In America, we love our families. We love our neighbors, and we protect our community. We trust in God. We protect the freedom of worship. And we believe in the power of prayer. We defend our Constitution. We defend our heritage. And we rally around our great American flag like nobody does,” Trump said before giving his message a more partisan tone.
“All of us here tonight are united by these same American values, and we are all fighting to defend these values in this election. This is a very, very important election,” he said.
Trump, in Murphysboro as well as in an earlier visit to the Future Farmers of America Convention & Expo in Indianapolis, defended his decision to make public appearances despite the tragedy, including holding a political event.
“We can’t allow people like this to become important, and when we change all of our lives in order to accommodate them, it’s not acceptable,” Trump said of the shooter.
“I could have had a little bit of excuse” to cancel the Murphysboro event, Trump said. “There are no excuses. We have our lives, and we have our schedules and nobody’s going to change it, OK?”
Trump allies have said privately that the Pittsburgh incident as well as the serial mailing of more than a dozen incendiary devices to former top Democratic officials including former President Barack Obama and former Vice President Joe Biden have diverted public attention and interrupted GOP momentum heading into the midterms.
Addressing rallygoers, Trump said the choice for the midterms was “between resistance and results.”
“How about the Democrats? No, no. Their whole theme is resist. Oh, that’s great. Resist. It’s actually the thing they’re good at. Their policies are no good. They’re not good as politicians. What they do do is stick together and resist and obstruct,” the president said.
“If you don’t want to be saying the words, ‘Ladies and gentlemen, Speaker Nancy Pelosi’ for the next two years, vote Republican. You’ve got to get out and vote,” he urged.
To big cheers, Trump called his haters “foolish and very stupid people” and attacked Democrats for treating Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh “very badly” during confirmation hearings.
“This will be the election of the caravans, the Kavanaughs, law and order, tax cuts, and you know what else?” Trump said, using the term caravan to refer to a group of Central American migrants traveling toward the U.S. border. “It’s going to be the election of common sense.”
Bost, the local congressman, said he appreciated Trump’s visit as well as the crowd that waited for him for hours.
“Thank you for coming out and showing how much we love our president, Donald Trump. Thank you,” the Republican from Murphysboro said. “Mr. President, thank you. Thank you for leading in a way that we need America to be led and thank you for coming to southern Illinois.”
American flags lined the main road through downtown Murphysboro ahead of Trump’s visit. Banners on the light poles touted the city’s well-known barbecue and history as the home of John A. Logan, a Union general in the Civil War. A plaque downtown commemorates the site of Illinois’ first coal mine less than a mile away.
Coal is one reason behind Trump’s overwhelming popularity in much of southern Illinois, and the Coal Miners Political Action Committee has endorsed Bost.
“In southern Illinois, we’re pro-coal, we’re progun, we’re pro-life … we have huge in agriculture here,” said state Sen. Dale Fowler, a Republican from Harrisburg.
“We have everything that the president stands for.”
Fowler won his Illinois Senate seat two years ago in a Republican wave driven by Trump’s popularity that swept through the region that made area Democrats even more scarce than they already were. His home of Saline County voted 73 percent for Trump in 2016.
Rick Pearson reported from Chicago.