Trump rails against inquiry at Louisiana rally
Trying to help unseat Democratic governor
LAKE CHARLES, La. — President Donald Trump on Friday pressed his argument that the House impeachment inquiry is nothing more than a new attempt to overturn his election based on “a lot of crap.”
Trump found a sympathetic audience in Louisiana, where an arena packed with his supporters roared at his denunciations of the proceedings hundreds of miles away in the nation’s capital.
“They’ve been trying to stop us for more than three years with a lot of crap,” he said, referring to the investigation into Russian election interference that concluded earlier this year.
“They know they can’t win on Election Day, so they’re pursuing an illegal, invalid and unconstitutional” impeachment inquiry, the president thundered at his second political rally in as many days.
Trump also pressed his claims against Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and his son Hunter, who sat on the board of a Ukrainian gas company when Biden was vice president.
The president complained about a double standard in news media coverage. He said if any of his children were similarly accused, the media wouldn’t call the allegations unsubstantiated. “They would be saying, ‘Where’s the nearest cell?’ ”
Trump came to Louisiana to unite a squabbling Republican Party against John Bel Edwards, the Deep South’s only Democratic governor, ahead of Saturday’s primary election. In Louisiana, all candidates run against one another, regardless of party, on the same primary ballot.
“Tomorrow, you’ve got to vote John Bel Edwards out,” Trump said.
Republican loyalties are split between two major candidates: Ralph Abraham, a third-term congressman and physician from rural northeast Louisiana, and Eddie Rispone, a businessman and longtime political donor from Baton Rouge who is making his first bid for office.
Both Republican candidates claim long-term support from Trump.
Elsewhere on the campaign trail:
Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’rourke said he raised $4.5 million in the third quarter, outpacing his lackluster total for the second quarter but still far less than he got at the whirlwind start of his 2020 campaign.
The former Texas congressman’s campaign said it saw donations increase after the last Democratic presidential debate in Houston, when O’rourke declared, “Hell yes, we’re gonna take your AR-15, your AK-47.”
The nonpartisan Commission on Presidential Debates announced sites and dates for the 2020 presidential and vice presidential debates.
The presidential debates are set for Sept. 29 at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana; Oct. 15 at the University of Michigan; and Oct. 22 at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee.
One vice presidential debate has been scheduled, for Oct. 7 at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City.