Donald Trump claimed migrants are preying on “innocent American people” at an Arizona campaign rally where he accepted an endorsement from the National Border Patrol Council and pledged to hire thousands of new agents and give them $10,000 bonuses.
The former president said the nation is under siege by people from foreign countries during his trip to Prescott Valley, repeating campaign promises to invoke an 18th-century law to target members of a Venezuelan gang and seek the death penalty for migrants who kill American citizens.
Trump blamed Harris as the source for the “invasion” in a speech where he attacked her as a “border czar” and a “taxing queen” who is less “intelligent” than President Joe Biden.
“What they’ve done to us on the border can never be forgiven,” Trump said. “They’re coming from prisons and jails, insane asylums, mental institutions, from Venezuela, from the Congo, all over. And she’s resettled them into your communities to prey upon innocent American people. If Kamala gets four more years, the entire country will be turned into a migrant camp, and that’s what happening.”
The former president rallied his supporters in Prescott Valley on Sunday afternoon, days after mail ballots began going out across battleground Arizona.
Donald Trump in Arizona: Live coverage of his trip to Prescott Valley
Some 7,000 people attended the rally at the Findlay Toyota Center, according to the Trump campaign.
The former Republican president struck a confident tone in Arizona, where public polls show he has a narrow lead. He even mused that he should perhaps spend his time in Pennsylvania instead of Arizona, a Rust Belt battleground where the race is tighter.
Immigration was at the heart of Trump’s pitch in Arizona, a border state where early ballots began reaching mailboxes across the state this week. He called illegal immigration the “number one issue” in the election and claimed it is causing “the destruction of our country.”
Migrant encounters at the U.S.-Mexico border reached record highs under the Biden administration, but those numbers have dropped by 77% from their peak in December 2023 to August, after Biden signed an executive order to curtail asylum at the southern border.
Trump took his rhetoric a step further, saying that it was as if Harris “had a gun in her hand” when it came to instances of migrant crime.
“These are people that she allowed, just as if she had a gun in her hand,” Trump said. “For that woman to be running for president is a disgrace.”
Trump accepted an endorsement from the National Border Patrol Council on stage, praising the union that represents U.S. Border Patrol agents and support staff.
Trump pledged to hire 10,000 new Border Patrol agents said he’ll ask Congress to approve a 10% raise for the agents and provide them with $10,000 signing and retention bonuses. Border Patrol agents were seated in the front rows for the speech.
The Harris campaign fired back at Trump over the border issue.
“Donald Trump told us Mexico would pay for his failed border wall. That was a lie. Then he made taxpayers pay for his failed border wall,” Harris campaign spokesperson Matt Corridoni said in a written statement. “Trump doesn’t care about solving problems, he only wants to run on one. That’s why he killed the bipartisan border bill that would’ve secured the border, despite the fact that it was endorsed by the Border Patrol. There’s only one candidate focused on tackling issues for the American people, has taken on transnational gangs, and is focused on keeping our communities safe – Vice President Kamala Harris.”
Trump spoke for more than 90 minutes in Prescott Valley, a city north of Phoenix in Yavapai County. The podium was draped in brown camouflage military netting.
He attacked Harris in personal terms, saying that Biden is “superior” to her when it comes to intelligence. The former president played a video for the crowd that three times featured a clip of Harris saying there is “not a thing that comes to mind” that she would have done differently from Biden during an interview on “The View.”
Trump has an edge over Harris in most public Arizona polls, but the race could be decided by a razor-thin margin. Biden beat Trump by fewer than 11,000 votes in 2020, the narrowest victory of any state in the country.
To widen the gap, Trump made an appeal to members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints at a roundtable before his speech. He said he believes family is “foundational” to society’s success and prosperity and that he shares that view with church members.
LDS support is key to Trump’s electoral chances in Arizona and Nevada, the two Southwestern battlegrounds, Trump said.“If we can pick up an extra point or two points, and the Latter Day Saints are going to have a lot to do with that,” Trump said. “It makes us pretty much unbeatable in those states, and that’s why we’re here.”Both campaigns are battling for LDS support in Arizona. Harris recently formed a coalition of Mormon supporters, making inroads with a traditionally conservative group of voters.Joel John, a Republican former state lawmaker, voted for Trump in 2020 but is leading Harris’ Mormon coalition this year. John said in a statement that the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol makes Trump “instantly disqualified to ever sit in the Oval Office again.”
Trump in Arizona: Former president touts LDS support
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump touts LDS support in battleground Arizona ahead of the election. Trump is polling ahead in the state.
Utah Sen. Mike Lee and Rep. Celeste Maloy, both members of the LDS church, attended the roundtable and spoke at the rally. So did Dave Sparks and Dave Riley from the reality TV show “Diesel Brothers,” who grew up in the faith.Both campaigns are making a play for Arizona because it is one of a handful of states on the Electoral College map where the race is a toss-up. Arizona has 11 electoral votes.
On the economy, Trump pledged to reduce inflation, create more auto industry jobs and get rid of taxes on tips, overtime pay and Social Security benefits. He also said he’d make interest payments on car loans tax deductible.
“Kamala Harris is known as the taxing queen. She loves taxes,” Trump said, although the vice president has pitched making the child tax credit available to more low-income families and a refundable tax credit for first-time homebuyers.
Trump also encouraged supporters to vote early, a significant change from the 2020 election when he spread conspiracies around mail-in voting and used them to claim claim the election was rigged, despite evidence to the contrary.
“If you have a ballot return it immediately and if not,” Trump said. “Get your you-know-what and vote.”
Arizona Republican Party chair Gina Swoboda repeated that message in her remarks before Trump took the stage. Other Arizona rally attendees included former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and GOP U.S. Reps. Eli Crane, Paul Gosar and Andy Biggs.
Crane acknowledged Trump’s repeated appearances in Prescott Valley and skewered Harris, whose name he mispronounced, for not traveling to perhaps the reddest part of Arizona.
“How cool is it to have a president like Donald Trump that’s come up here three times in the last couple years? Where’s Kamala Harris at? Maybe her teleprompter didn’t tell her to come to rural Arizona?” Crane said.
The former GOP president last spoke at the Findlay Toyota Center in 2022, where he boosted GOP Senate hopeful Kari Lake’s unsuccessful bid for governor.
Lake appeared on stage with Trump in Prescott Valley again this year.
“This is the greatest president in American history. But I think it goes further than that. I think we are in the midst of one of the greatest leaders in human history and his name is Donald J. Trump,” Lake said, standing beside Trump.
Trump has been to Arizona four times this year. He spoke at Dream City Church in Phoenix in June. In August, he rallied supporters at Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale and toured the southern border in Cochise County. Last month, Trump held an event in Tucson.
Harris has been to Arizona twice in the last two weeks, an indicator that she’s taking the state seriously despite Trump’s narrow lead here. Harris toured the U.S.-Mexico border in late September and took a two-day campaign swing through the Phoenix metro area on Thursday and Friday.
In Prescott Valley on Sunday, screens around the arena read “ARIZONA IS TRUMP COUNTRY,” “MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN” and “VOTE EARLY!”
Before Trump took the stage, the crowd did “the wave” with red, white and blue signs that read “SECURE OUR BORDER.” Some supporters shouted “I love you” and “we need you” sporadically as Trump spoke.
Many attendees wore T-shirts with images of the Trump assassination attempt and buttons with photos of Trump’s face and a yellow, three-dimensional tuft of hair attached to the former president’s head. With Halloween just two weeks away, others wore witch hats printed with the American flag.
Arizonans at the rally said Trump offered plans to ease increasing costs and crack down at the state’s southern border.
Ana Moreno, 30, of Phoenix, said the energy at the rally gave her hope Trump would be elected. She’d like to see him lower the cost of living and interest rates. She said this election year seemed marked by unpredictability and division.
“There’s not a lot of in-between,” Moreno said. “I think that makes things sometimes challenging. I feel like this year more than ever, people are really truly going to vote.”
Holly Gibson, 50, of Scottdale, is voting for Trump in part motivated by rising costs. She just moved to a new rental home.
“I just recently had to move and literally am paying almost $900 more for something very similar,” Gibson said. “I thought about buying but the interest rates, I just, forget about it. I can’t do that.”
Though Trump can be polarizing to some, Gibson said his policies should make clear the choice before Arizona voters on Nov. 5.
“Vote for who you think is going to do the best job for the economy and stop listening to all the crap about who’s a good person or a bad person,” Gibson said. “Think about who is going to do best for our country.”
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Publish date : 2024-10-14 01:17:00
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