President Donald Trump called out the Democratic party for putting illegal immigrants over America’s inner cities as he gave an impassioned response to the 2020 candidates who fought for the spotlight in two days of live debates earlier this week.
Speaking to an animated crowd of supporters at a rally in the Bank Arena in Cincinatti, Ohio, Trump pointed out how Democrat leaders have been leading inner city communities for years, and have had no success in turning things around.
His remarks come after he criticised Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) for the handling of his Maryland congressional district, which the president earlier described as a “disgusting rat and rodent infested mess.”
Trump also said the Democrat party is now being led by the four “leftwing extremists who reject everything that we hold dear,” referring to Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), Rashia Tlaib (D-Mich.), and Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.).
“The rage-filled Democratic party is trying to tear America apart,” he said. “No one has paid a higher price for the far left’s destructive agenda than American’s living in our inner cities. They have paid a dear price—you see what’s happening. We spend billions and billions and billions for years and years. And it’s stolen money and it’s wasted money, and it’s a shame.”
“For decades these communities have been run exclusively by Democrat politicians and it’s been total one party control for the inner cities. Look at them, we can name one after another but I won’t do that,” he continued. “Because I don’t want to be controversial. We want no controversy.”
Trump noted that he watched each of CNN’s two-day live Democrat debates, describing it as “long, long television.”
“The Democrats spent more time attacking president Obama than attacking me, practically,” he said. “This morning, the fake news was talking about it—that wasn’t pretty.”
Before the president spoke, Vice President Mike Pence also addressed the rally and made mention of the Democrat debates.
“Did you guys watch that debate this week? It’s kind of hard to watch” Pence said. “I mean those people were standing so far to the left I thought that stage was going to flip over.”
Tens of thousands of arena tickets for the rally had been sold, according to Trump, who noted that there were thousands still standing outside.
“There never has been a movement like this. They’ve never seen anything like this before. You came from the mountains, from the valleys, from the rivers,” he said to the crowd in the arena.
In his hour-long remarks, Trump also brought up his “America First” agenda and touted his record of economic wins, including the creation of 6 million new jobs since his election.
But exposing the Democrats far left agenda was a key part of his speech.
“The Democrat record is one of neglect and corruption and decay ... total decay. The Democrats have taxed and regulated jobs and opportunity out of these cities. They have squeezed the blood out of them,” Trump said. “Left-wing mayors and its councils have opposed school choice trapping children in failing government schools.
“So many of these mayors right now ... you know where they are? They are in jail right now,” he said.
Trump said the Democrat’s “greatest betrayal” was their support for open borders. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said during the July 30 debates that she would decriminalize illegal border crossings, which are currently a criminal offense, if she were elected president in 2020.
But Trump said, “These open borders would overwhelm schools and hospitals, drain public services and flood communities with poisonous drugs. It’s tough enough.
He added, “I want to thank the country of Mexico by the way. They’ve got 21,000 soldiers on the border right now.”
Trump also referenced Warren’s purported Native-American heritage, saying she was “lying and cheating her way to the presidency.”
“She defrauded people with her credentials. She said she was [Native] Indian. I said I have more Indian blood than she has and I have none,” he said. “And we drove her crazy.”
The Senator has since apologized for Native-American heritage claims.
Trump said that it was Democrat leaders who failed to address the crimes and other issues affecting their districts.
“572 were murdered in Chicago last year. The homicide rate in Baltimore is significantly higher than El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala. Think of that,” he said. “Yet Democrats want to spend hundreds of billions of dollars on illegal migrants instead of supporting their own struggling communities. No good.”
He also directly criticized House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) in a series of remarks.
“The conditions in Nancy Pelosi’s once great city of San Francisco are deplorable” he said. “Nearly half of all the homeless people living in the streets in America happen to live in the state of California. What they are doing to our beautiful California is a disgrace to our country. It’s shame. The world is looking at it.
“Look at LA with the tents and the horrible, horrible disgusting conditions,” Trump continued. “You have a governor who invites the whole world ... we'll give you healthcare. Who wouldn’t come up? How crazy is this.”
The president then raised what he said was a solution that both parties could come together on.
“Today, I have a simple proposal for Democrat leaders: to support legislation to end illegal migration and we will use the vast savings to rebuild our inner cities,” he said. “That’s the way we should be doing.”
“We passed groundbreaking prison justice reform that nobody could pass except us. President Obama tried, a lot of them tried, they couldn’t get it past. I got it passed with a lot of help from liberals and conservatives,” Trump said. “And the biggest beneficiary is the African-American community.”
Near the later half of his remarks, Trump repeated a line he has often said at previous events: that the choice in the upcoming election is between the radical socialism embraced by the Democratic field and his agenda of freedom and the American dream.
“Tonight we renew our resolve that America will never be a socialist country,” he said. “Never, ever will it be a socialist country.
“No matter what label they use, a vote for any Democrat in 2020 is a vote for the rise of radical socialism and the destruction of our great, our beautiful, our wonderful American dream.”
