In rally speech, Trumps rails against media, delights base
President Donald Trump returned to Arizona on Tuesday in full campaign mode, making a full-throated defense of his previous condemnations of white supremacist violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, and touting his border-security agenda and efforts to reform the “Washington, D.C., swamp” while angrily baiting the “dishonest media.”
Without mentioning their
names, Trump also took shots at Sens. John McCain and Jeff Flake, Arizona Republicans who have repeatedly crossed him.
He riled up the crowd at the Phoenix Convention Center by alluding to McCain’s July 28 vote that sank the GOP’s immediate effort to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.
And Trump said nobody — meaning Senate Republican leaders — wants him to talk about the other senator, Flake, whom he dismissed as “weak on borders, weak on crime.” But he said he didn’t have to mention Flake’s name because “nobody knows who the hell he is.”
Speaking to a near-capacity crowd at the downtown convention center, Trump provided a lengthy rebuttal to critics and media who said he didn’t speak out “forcefully” enough after the Aug. 12 neo-Nazi “Unite the Right” rally exploded into violence.
One woman was killed when a suspected white supremacist — “a terrible person,” according to Trump — ran his car into a crowd of counterprotesters.
Two state troopers died in a related incident.
While stressing the need for American unity, Trump walked the audience through his statements as he pushed back on accusations that he is racist or “a bad guy” because of his series of responses to Charlottesville, two of which included him blaming “many sides” and “both sides” for the violence.
“Did they report that I said racism is evil?” Trump asked the crowd, referring to the media. They didn’t, because they are dishonest, he said.
Trump didn’t mention, however, that in the wake of the violence, he had cast blame on both white supremacists and counterprotesters.
“When one part of America hurts, we all hurt,” Trump said. “And when one American suffers an injustice, all of America suffers together.”
He blamed the media for giving a platform to “these hate groups.”
“These are sick people,” he said at another point.
Trump’s appearance came the day after he delivered a buttoned-down, primetime speech in which he outlined a new U.S. strategy for Afghanistan.
But in Phoenix, Trump quickly dashed any expectations that that he was taking a more traditionally presidential tone.
Besides the sustained attack on the media and a reiteration of many of the campaign themes that won him the White House last year, Trump signaled that a presidential pardon might be coming for former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio.
Several hours before taking the stage in Phoenix, the White House removed the suspense around one of the day’s biggest questions: whether he would announce a pardon for Arpaio, who recently was convicted of criminal contempt of court in connection with a federal civilrights case.
Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, confirmed earlier in the afternoon that there would be no pardon of Arpaio in Phoenix.
But from the lectern in Phoenix, Trump brought up the loyal Trump supporter and ally.
“Do the people in this room like Sheriff Joe?” Trump asked the crowd, which went crazy at the mention of Arpaio’s name. “Was Sheriff Joe convicted for doing his job?
“I’ll make a prediction, I think he’s going to be just fine. I won’t do it tonight because I don’t want to cause any controversy.”
The suggestion that Trump might pardon Arpaio, a fellow immigration hardliner whose sheriff’s office was found by a federal judge to have racially profiled Latinos in its immigration-enforcement activities, drew an intense public outcry and likely would have exacerbated an already precarious safety situation outside the convention center.
Trump’s trip to Phoenix was itself controversial from the start, coming 10 days after Charlottesville.
Trump came under heavy criticism for what many considered a tepid response to the ugly episode. He did not make a visit to Charlottesville ahead of his trip to Arizona, which is the furthest he has traveled West since becoming president.
Trump in the past has spoken of the connection he feels with Arizona, where he made seven campaign stops during the 2016 presidential election cycle. He considers an early, raucous July 2015 rally at the Phoenix Convention Center as central to his rise to the front of the GOP presidential pack in the race.
“You were there at the start, you were there every single day since,” Trump said. “And I will never forget — believe me, Arizona — I will never forget.”
He won Arizona’s Republican presidential preference election and carried the state over Democratic rival Hillary Clinton by 3.5 percentage points.
Vice President Mike Pence, among several speakers who warmed up the crowd for Trump, touted the president as “a man of his word” and “a man of action” and talked up their administration’s “seven months of results.”
Since Trump has taken office, Islamic State terrorists are on the run, North Korea and Iran are on notice, unauthorized border crossing are down, among other accomplishments, Pence said.
Trump added that the “forgotten men and women” are no long forgotten now that he is president.
“I don’t think any president has accomplished as much as this president in the first six or seven months,” Trump boasted.
Trump fans in attendance cheered his remarks.
“Vintage Trump and he was on point. I mean, he’s still fighting the media all the time,” said Raymond Christian, who is from Texas but has property in Williams. “So he’s going to deal with that probably his entire term. When (the media) lost they fell into the loser mode and the only way they can get back at him is to turn every word he says around on him and the people that voted for him.
“I like him when he freelances, I understand that he puts his foot in his mouth every once in a while but that’s the honesty and the part that I like most about him.”
Diane Bivona, a flight attendant from Peoria, said Trump and his remarks “were amazing.”
The 65-year-old Republican, who donned an Americanthemed shawl and was just feet away from Trump as he spoke, said his remarks about securing the borders most resonated with her.
“Especially being a border state in Arizona, it’s hard to tell people who don’t live in a border state that we are vulnerable to a lot of things that are happening in this country,” she said. “They’re coming through our border.”
She said Trump was right to take on the media, saying they have treated him unfairly, especially after Charlottesville.
“He’s down-home American,” she said. “He says it from his heart and he loves our country, and that is why there are thousands of people out there. We love this man.”
Linda Knapp of Scottsdale said she believes Trump is “going to change our country and bring us together like no one has in generations.”
“I like the fact that President Trump is not a politician, that he is one of us, he speaks to the people. He’s my voice. He’s your voice.”
Asked about his attacks on Arizona’s senators she said: “I’m not going to talk about the senators … I’m not voting for them.
“I think that the president has the right to stand up for all of the people of Arizona that are very unhappy with Jeff Flake. His approval ratings are 18 percent and (Flake is) not speaking for me but President Trump is.”
Ayhan Pauwelyn of Orange County, California, applauded Trump’s goal of “helping the country.”
“He’s going to be the best and he’s not going to sit and explain every single detail because not everybody’s mindset can understand it,” she said. “So his incredible vision, future vision for the country is what matters.”