President Donald Trump relaunched his re-election campaign on Saturday night, appearing in front of thousands of supporters for his first political rally in months in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
“We’re going to stop the radical left,” he said to an excited crowd in the 19,000-capacity BOK Center. “We’re going to build a future of safety and opportunity for Americans of every race, color, religion, and creed. Republicans are the party of liberty, equality, and justice for all. We are the party of Abraham Lincoln and we are the party of law and order.”
Joe Biden
Trump took the opportunity to contrast his presidential campaign with that of his Democratic rival former president Joe Biden.“Joe Biden has surrendered to his party and to the left-wing mob. He has no control,” Trump said.
“Think of it, NASDAQ just set a record and I think you’re going to see a lot of records, and next year, if we don’t do anything stupid on Nov. 3, you are going to have the greatest economic year we’ve ever had. That will be next year.
“If the Democrats gain power, then the rioters will be in charge and no one will be safe and no one will have control,” he said. “Joe Biden is not the leader of his party. Joe Biden is a helpless puppet of the radical left, and he’s not radical left. I don’t think he knows what he is anymore, but he was never radical left.”
Trump made a comparison of Democrats’ support of recent protests across the country—many of which turned violent—despite restrictions on social distancing, with their criticism of other mass gatherings, citing those same rules. “They [Joe Biden and the Democrats] believe you can riot, vandalize, and destroy, but you cannot attend a peaceful pro-America rally.
“They want to punish your thought, but not their violent crimes. They want to abolish bail, abolish, and open up your borders,” Trump said. But “we’re doing so well,” he said, adding that his administration was not loosening its oversight on illegal immigration.
“If I lose an election over that [arrests of MS-13 gang members], you know what? This country is in big trouble,“ Trump said. ”They want to disarm law-abiding citizens and dismantle our police forces while freeing vicious MS-13 gang members.”
Trump went on to criticize Biden’s political record.
“He voted for the war in Iraq. He voted for mass amnesty for illegal aliens. He supports sanctuary cities and now Biden wants to end immigration enforcement and he wants to require you to provide free healthcare for millions and millions of illegal aliens.”
He went on to say that the “military industrial complex,” which he said makes money off “dropping bombs on people,” doesn’t want Trump as president.
Veterans Affairs
Trump also touted his administration’s approval rating at Veterans Affairs and thanked Oklahoma senator Jim Inhofe for his work in passing the V.A. Choice legislation.“They’ve wanted to do it for almost 50 years, we got it done,” Trump said. “We take care of the bill and you get immediate service. It’s never happened before. And our approval rating at the V.A. is now 91 percent, that’s how good it is.”
“V.A. accountability, we had a lot of bad people in the V.A. People that didn’t love our vets, people that were sadistic, people that stole—a lot of bad people.
“You couldn’t get rid of them … And I got it done with those people and your Congressman,” he said. “V.A. accountability. Now somebody treats our veterans badly and we look at them and what do we say? We say, ‘You’re fired, get out.’ They got rid of a lot of bad people that were there for a long time.”
Trump then segued into the political landscape in Washington, saying he was doing the same there to “drain the swamp.”
“I never knew it was so deep. It’s deep and thick and a lot of bad characters,” he said. “We’re lowering the price of prescription drugs, making our allies pay their fair share. They get a big bargain on drug prices and enacting fair trade deals that finally, finally, after all these years put America first.”
His speech lasted more than an hour and 40 minutes.
