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Dark Rhetoric At Trump Rally In New York's Madison Square Garden; Harris Courts Black, Latino Voters In Battleground Pennsylvania; Melania Trump Makes Rare Appearance At Trump Madison Square Garden Rally, Followed By Donald Trump; Trump Speaks At Madison Square Garden Rally. Aired 7-8p ET
Aired October 27, 2024 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[19:01:14]
JESSICA DEAN, CNN HOST: You are in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Jessica Dean in New York.
And at any moment, former president Donald Trump will take the stage at Madison Square Garden in what feels very much like a second Republican national convention. We've already heard from his running mate, Senator J.D. Vance. We've heard from Tucker Carlson, Hulk Hogan, and Donald Trump Jr. And frankly, the overall tone so far has been dark and full of vitriol.
Kristen Holmes is on the ground there. She joins us now with more.
Kristen, you've covered Trump through this whole thing. What stands out to you so far?
KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jessica, as somebody who attends so many of these rallies, even I was surprised at how dark, as you noted, the rhetoric has been. A lot of it is even nativist and hateful.
I just want to give you an example of some of what we have heard leading up to the former president who has not yet taken the stage. At one point, a speaker called Harris the anti-Christ and the devil. Another speaker called Puerto Rico a floating island of garbage. Another speaker referred to illegal aliens, excuse me, illegal immigrants as effing illegal. Someone called Hillary Clinton a sick bastard. And a lot of that's been nativist rhetoric. A lot of America is for Americans only.
You just heard Howard Lutnick, who is the head of the transition, saying America First means American citizens employed first. This is what we are hearing to set up the former president. Remember this rally is really speaking as a turning point, not even turning point, but a setting off period for the final week of the campaign before the election. This is supposed to set the tone for what Donald Trump's closing message is going to be and likely it is going to follow suit here.
And I will say this crowd is packed. I don't think there's an empty seat here. And they are loving the messaging that is coming out. Again, despite the fact that it is so dark, so divisive and at times so polarizing -- Jessica.
DEAN: Yes, and I believe, Kristen, we see Elon Musk on the stage there behind you. He of course has emerged as a top Trump surrogate. He's pouring millions of dollars into electing Trump. What more can you tell us about their relationship and the role that he's played?
HOLMES: Well, not only is he pouring millions of dollars into this race, but he's also been campaigning with Donald Trump, spending an enormous amount of time with him. He's been on the ground in Pennsylvania, knocking on doors, doing his own rallies, and Donald Trump's team believes that Elon Musk can help them with specific voting groups, particularly men, men who don't normally hit the polls.
These are people who are low propensity voters and they believe Elon can help with that. Donald Trump has fully embraced Elon Musk. At times, they did not have the best relationship, but clearly they believe that he is a helpful key to November 5th.
DEAN: All right. Kristen Holmes for us at Madison Square Garden. Thank you so much for that reporting.
Meantime, Vice President Kamala Harris focused her energies today in the battleground state, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, specifically targeting black and Latino voters in Philadelphia and an ambitious slate of stops across that city.
CNN's Priscilla Alvarez has more on the vice president's busy day.
Priscilla, this was a day of retail politics for her.
PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. In a crucial battleground state of course. Pennsylvania is part of that blue wall that her team is trying to lock in. That includes Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan, and it's what her team sees as the most favorable path to those 270 electoral college votes. So she spent her Sunday making multiple stops across the Philadelphia area. She started the day at a church service, at a predominantly black church, followed by a moderated conversation at a barbershop.
Then later at a bookstore and ended it, well, and also at a Puerto Rican restaurant and ended it here at the community center behind me where she delivered remarks. What was notable about her remarks that she spent very little time talking about former president Donald Trump, but talking about the election more broadly, saying that it was, quote, "one of the most consequential elections of our lifetime."
[19:05:04]
And then going on to talk about her appeal to a broad coalition. Of course, even if she spent her day courting black and Latino voters, her message at her campaign event was that her campaign is trying to build a big tent. This is something that we have heard multiple times on the campaign trail, especially when she's been on the trail with Republican Liz Cheney. And it was what she was trying to convey here as well. But she also tried to appeal to young voters and talking about or at
least mobilizing their vote and acknowledging their realities. And that was really the bottom line here. This is the vice president trying to urge voters to go to the polls early where they can and certainly on election day. So this has been an ongoing rallying cry for the vice president that will only be drummed up over the last days of this presidential election.
Of course, the vice president is set to schedule to multiple battleground states over the next several days as again they try to shore up support and lock in their coalitions, particularly those black and Latino voters, where some polling has showed that she's behind, where Democratic nominees have historically been. But certainly keeping the focus on Pennsylvania, which she, over the course of her remarks and over the course of the day, said was the path to victory for her and her team.
DEAN: All right. Priscilla Alvarez for us on the trail in Philadelphia. Thank you for that reporting.
Joining us now to talk more about this presidential race, CNN political commentator and Republican -- all right. So we are actually watching, let's go into Madison Square Garden. We see former first lady, Melania Trump, who has taken the stage there at this massive rally in New York City. We've not seen a lot of Melania Trump on the campaign trail. She appeared at the Al Smith Dinner with former president Trump about a week ago in New York City.
But we haven't seen her doing a lot of stumping for the former president. And here we are with just 10 days to go and the former first lady is there at this massive rally at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Let's listen in.
MELANIA TRUMP, FORMER FIRST LADY: Good evening, New York City.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
M. TRUMP: Hello, Madison Square Garden.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
M. TRUMP: Our hometown, where architectural symbols of strength, courage and unity create a canvas for the world's undisputed capital of industry.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
M. TRUMP: Where Titans of finance, fashion, and entertainment convene among an iconic range of superior design structures and artistic accomplishments.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
M. TRUMP: And American ingenuity blossoms among determined citizens who raised across city streets and between offices, striving for success. It is you who are the heartbeat of these great metropolis. (CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
M. TRUMP: It is you who are the poles of this America. Yet, New York City is unforgiving. In fact our lives are complicated even during the best of time. And sadly today a declining quality of life coupled with economic instability makes it difficult for business to thrive.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We love you!
M. TRUMP: Love you, too.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
M. TRUMP: Crime is on the rise while public safety diminishes creating an environment for families with young children choose to relocate, and these story repeats itself from coast to coast across our nation. This is America.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
M. TRUMP: For generations this town has produced America's most fearless leaders whose mark changed the course of the world. New York City and America needs their magic back.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
[19:10:05]
M. TRUMP: A country of tomorrow that will shape our future and reset expectations for the generations. And vision, a wonderful America, where the seeds of security, prosperity, and health are sown once again for benefit of our families.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
M. TRUMP: Let us charge together with a shared vision that builds on American greatness. Let's seize this moment and create a country for tomorrow. The future that we deserve.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
M. TRUMP: And now --
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
M. TRUMP: Please welcome our next commander-in-chief, my husband, President Donald J. Trump.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
(MUSIC)
DEAN: And you are watching live as former president Donald Trump takes the stage at Madison Square Garden in New York City before a giant crowd with just days to go before election day, introducing him, his wife and former first lady Melania Trump, who made a surprise appearance tonight. She has not been doing really any campaign rallies with him. So to see her tonight was a surprise to the crowd. And now we were seeing them there on stage together.
Again, we've seen a host of familiar faces in the Trump orbit tonight on that stage, ranging from Senator J.D. Vance to Elon Musk, who was just out just before the former first lady among a number of other people prominent in the Trump orbit. Who we have not seen on that stage tonight were any of the Republicans who are running in competitive House districts in New York state.
Again, New York, of course, reliably blue when it comes to presidential politics. But the state of New York will have a big role on who has control of the House of Representatives. But again, watching former president Donald Trump there with former first lady Melania Trump as Lee Greenwood sings live on stage. His now very well- known song that the Trump campaign has used time and time again at its rallies.
Again the former president, as Kristen Holmes, our colleague, has reported really had a long dream of wanting to do this. The campaign really wanting to have this event at Madison Square Garden in New York. As we mentioned, it's not in a swing state, but the strategy of the Trump campaign has been that this is a nationalized race with nationalized media and that the clips from what is going to be happening there tonight will be disseminated all over social media, all over the internet. And that they will be able to reach those really high value voters in so many of the swing states that are likely to determine this race in just a few days.
We saw Vice President Kamala Harris in Pennsylvania today doing her own thing, meeting voters more in a retail politics way. Going to small businesses and church services there. But the Trump campaign, of course, really hoping to take this news cycle and win it with a very splashy rally at Madison Square Garden.
Now let us listen in for just a minute.
(CHANTING)
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
[19:15:14]
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Thank you, everybody. Thank you. Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you very much to a very popular former first lady. Hopefully first lady again.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: And I just want to say a very big hello to a special place, New York, and to an incredible arena, Madison Square Garden. Incredible.
And then we have all of the people that could fill it up 10 times. You take a look at outside where it's going on all the way down to the river. The beautiful, beautiful Hudson River. They're outside watching this now at levels that nobody has ever seen before. They've never had it.
And I want to thank Jim Dolan. He's been incredible. He's been just incredible. The job they've done. The job they've done. Thank you.
But I'm thrilled to be back in the city I love and thousands of proud, hardworking American patriots here with me, we're all together. We've always been together.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: And I'd like to begin by asking a very simple question. Are you better off now than you were four years ago?
(CHEERS)
TRUMP: I'm here today with a message of hope for all Americans. With your vote in this election, I will end inflation. I will stop the invasion of criminals coming into our country and I will bring back the American dream. We need the American dream to come back home. Our country will be bigger, better, bolder, richer, safer and stronger than ever before.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: This election is a choice between whether we will have four more years of gross incompetence and failure, or whether we will begin the four greatest years in the history of our country.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: We will achieve success that no one can imagine. We will have the strongest economy, the most secure borders, the safest cities, the most powerful military, the best trade deals. And we will dominate the frontiers of science, medicine, business, technology and space.
And I'm asking you to be excited about the future of our country again. I'm asking you to dream big again. We're going to dream big again. We haven't been dreaming big at all. This will be America's new Golden Age. It's going to happen quickly, too. Very quickly. Every problem facing us can be solved.
But now the fate of our nation is in your hands. Next Tuesday, you have to stand up and you have to tell Kamala Harris that you've done a terrible job, that Crooked Joe Biden has done a terrible job. You've destroyed our country. We're not going to take it anymore.
Kamala, you're fired. Get out, get out. You're fired.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: Early voting is underway in every swing state and we are setting all-time records of voting. I'll tell you what, I don't want to talk about it. But we have to keep it going. You got to get out and vote. We just have to get out and who would have thought this was going to happen? We're leading in every swing state.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: But it doesn't mean a thing. It only means how are we doing at the end so we have nine days from now we're going to defeat Kamala Harris and we're going to win back the beautiful White House, and we're going to make America great again, and it's going to happen fast.
[19:20:17]
(CHANTING)
TRUMP: Thank you. In less than four years, Kamala Harris has shattered our middle class. She cast the deciding votes that launched the worst inflation in the history of our country. She cost the typical American family over $3,000 in a short period, but over $30,000 over the last three years. She killed --
(BOOING)
TRUMP: 50,000 manufacturing jobs this year alone. Now Kamala wants to raise the typical family taxes by nearly $3,000 a year and imposed a 33 percent tax hike on all domestic production. If Kamala Harris gets four more years, our economy can never recover. If I win we will quickly build the greatest economy in the history of the world.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: Which is what we had in our last term. We will rapidly defeat inflation and we will very simply make America affordable again. We're going to make it affordable.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: Right? I will massively cut taxes for workers and small businesses, and we will have no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, and no tax on Social Security benefits for our seniors.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: And I'm announcing a new policy today that I will support a tax credit for family caregivers who take care of a parent or a loved one. It's about time that they were recognized. Right?
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: They add so much to our country and are never spoken of ever, ever, ever. But they're going to be spoken of now. Thank you all very much. I'll also make interest on car loans fully tax deductible. But only for cars made in America.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: Have to be made in America. And we will achieve energy independence. And we will do something we wanted so badly. We're going to do some, you know, what we're going to do, front row Joes? You know, I got front row Joes here. I got the ladies from North Carolina, number 249, this is the -- and you look so beautiful. We have a lot of people, they followed us, but we're going to do something. The ladies can tell you what we're going to do. We're going to drill, baby, drill.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: And I will terminate the green new scam. And we'll cut your energy prices in half. 50 percent within one year from January 20th. Is the fake news hearing that? Whoa. Look how much -- wow, that's a lot of fake news.
That is a lot of fake news. Look at that. Wow. That's got to be a record, Mr. Speaker. I think that's a record. That is a lot of fakers back there.
To bring back millions of jobs we will give our companies the lowest taxes, the lowest energy cost, the lowest regulatory burdens, and free access to the best and biggest market on the planet.
Remember this, if we keep going like this, we won't have the biggest and the best. We won't have a market. We won't have a country. But only for those who make their product here in the USA and hire American workers for the job.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: And if these companies don't make their products here, then they will pay a very stiff tariff when they send their products into the United States for the privilege of competing with our workers and our now protected companies.
[19:25:11]
We're going to protect our companies. They're not leaving anymore. They're not leaving anymore.
We're also going to pass the Trump Reciprocal Trade Act, meaning if China or any other country charges us 100 percent or 200 percent tax or tariff we will then charge them a 100 percent or 200 percent tax or tariff. It's called an eye for an eye.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: And I will never apologize for defending America. I will protect our workers. I will protect our jobs. I will protect our borders. I will protect our great families and I will protect the birthright of our children to live in the richest and most powerful nation on the face of the earth.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: As we rescue our economy, I will also restore our borders. There's never been anything like it.
(APPLAUSE) TRUMP: It's bigger than inflation. It's bigger than the economy. What they're doing to our country, they're allowing criminals from all over the world to enter our country. Over the past four years, Kamala Harris has orchestrated the most egregious betrayal that any leader in American history has ever inflicted upon our people. She has violated her oath, eradicated our sovereign border, and unleashed an army of migrant gangs who are waging a campaign of violence and terror against our citizens.
There has never been anything like it anywhere in the world for any country. Kamala has imported criminal migrants from prisons and jails, insane asylums and mental institutions from all around the world from Venezuela to the Congo. A lot of people are coming from the Congo prisons. They're coming from all over the world.
Over the last month 181 countries violated our laws, and she has resettled them into your communities to prey upon innocent American citizens. But the day I take the oath of office the migrant invasion of our country ends and the restoration of our country begins.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: One of the deadliest and most vicious migrant gangs that Kamala has imported into our country is the savage Venezuelan prison gang, nice group of people. They got together in prison, the worst prison in the world they say. It's called Tren de Aragua. And that is taking over apartment complexes and unleashing a violent killing spree all over America, especially in Aurora, Colorado, where we have a governor who's petrified of them and maybe he should be but now they've even take it over Times Square. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Border's deadly consequences.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Border crisis. Record high crossings are putting a strain on cities across America.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is a full-blown invasion.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Armed Venezuelan gang members storming an apartment complex in Aurora, Colorado.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When people talk about migrant crime, this is what they're talking about.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: San Antonio, Texas, just one of the latest cities to have apartment complexes taken over by members of the Venezuelan gang.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Biden-Harris had created a program to bring them in under humanitarian parole.
KAMALA HARRIS (D), VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I am in favor of saying that we're not going to treat people who are undocumented, cross-border criminals. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: More than 13,000 illegal immigrants convicted of
murder had been released into the United States.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My 20-year-old daughter Kayla Hamilton was murdered in her own room. Kayla's murderer was apprehended by Border Patrol crossing illegally into the U.S.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Kayla's murderer had been improperly released into the United States.
HARRIS: Abolish ICE. Yes, we need to probably think about starting from scratch.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: More than a dozen people suspected of being Tren de Aragua gang members right here in San Antonio.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The gang members had been terrorizing the apartment complex.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: New details in the murder of Laken Riley.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The illegal immigrant suspect who cops say committed the heinous murder is a Venezuelan national.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And was paroled and released into the country by the Biden administration.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If they'd all been properly vetted, that probably wasn't going to happen.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Two men investigators say are in the country illegally from Venezuela are charged with capital murder in the death of Jocelyn Nungaray.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Martinez Archangel wrapped his arms around Jocelyn's neck, took off her pants, and climbed on top of her. Later strangles Jocelyn to death and then tied up her hands and feet.
[19:30:08]
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Court documents suggest a group of men arrested for beating and robbing a Dallas woman last month are members of the Venezuelan street gang.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The man threatened to cut off her fingers if she did not cooperate. Manuel Hernandez-Hernandez was booked by Colleyville Police just two days earlier and released the day before the robbery.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A Peruvian gang leader who is wanted for 23 murders was arrested by Border Patrol near Roma, Texas then released into America.
(RALLY: END VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R) FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: That's who we're allowing into our country. We're not going to have a country any longer, that's who we're allowing in.
The United States is now an occupied country but it will soon be an occupied country no longer, that couldn't be happening, not going to be happening. November 5th, 2024, nine days from now will be liberation day in America, it's going to be liberation day.
On day one, I will launch the largest deportation program in American history and we'll get the criminals out. I will rescue every city in town that has been invaded and conquered and we will put these vicious and blood thirsty criminals in jail, we're going to kick them the hell out of our country as fast as possible. And to expedite removals of Tren de Aragua and other savage gangs like MS-13 which is equally vicious.
I will invoke the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, think of that. That's how far back, that's when they had a law and order. They had some tough ones. Think of it, the Alien Enemies Act of 1798. You hear that Mr. Speaker, get ready, to target and dismantle every migrant criminal network operated on American soil, and there are lots of them. We don't have the same country anymore, you know that.
And you know, when you look at the polls and they say about the economy and they have all these different things, the worst nightmare that we're facing is what they've done to us on our borders. We had the safest border in the world. In fact, there's a chart which I hope they have because I didn't tell them I wanted it, but there's a chart that I love very much because I wouldn't be here without it.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
That's it. I love it. I'm in love with it. I love that chart even if it had bad numbers, I would love that chart, but it has great numbers that if you look at the arrow in the bottom, you'll see that was the day I left office. That was the lowest illegal immigration that we've ever had in recorded history. The recorded history of our country.
And then look at it, it was like an Elon Musk rocket ship. Look at what happens. Look at what happened after that.
And if they come back into our country, it's an automatic ten years in jail would no possibility of parole.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
And I'm hereby calling for the death penalty for any migrant that kills an American citizen or a law enforcement officer.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
(PEOPLE chanting "USA.")
Under Kamala, America is a sanctuary for criminals and for illegal aliens that are in our country, illegally. I will immediately ban all sanctuary cities in the United States.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE) Kamala's gross incompetence disqualifies her from being president of
the United States of America. She is grossly incompetent, all you have to do it look at her interviews. Look at what she did the other night on fake news, CNN, just take a look. She couldn't answer a question.
She's unfit for office. Everyone knows it. No one respects her. No one trusts her. No one takes her seriously.
Everyone knows she is a very low IQ individual -- from humiliating our country in Afghanistan to the war in Ukraine, to the nightmare on our border, to her inflation catastrophe, all done in conjunction with Sleepy Joe.
[19:35:41]
But he was largely sleeping, wasn't he? After four o'clock, it's time to go to bed. To his and her egregious hurricane response, the worst response in North Carolina and other states since Katrina, but I think it was even worse than Katrina, they haven't even responded in North Carolina, they haven't even responded, there's nobody, they don't see any FEMA, you know why? They spent their money on bringing in illegal migrants, so they didn't have money for Georgia and North Carolina, and Alabama, and Tennessee, and Florida, and South Carolina.
(BOOING)
They didn't have any money for them. They spent all of their money on bringing in illegal immigrants and flying them in by beautiful jet planes, they flew here and we just found that about a year-and-a-half ago. Remember we said what's going on, those planes, a lot of planes going over there. What are they?
They would fly them into the middle of our country, our beautiful, beautiful country. And you know what happened? You take a look at Springfield, Ohio, think of this where -- think of this, where 30,000 illegal migrants were put into a town of 50,000 people. No place can withstand that.
Or take a look at Aurora in Colorado. Colorado is going to vote for us, you know why? Typically, they go a little bit the other way, of course were there voting system, I'm not so sure about that. But, you know why? Because they tried to throw the leading candidate of both parties, meaning me, I was leading both parties off the ballot and the people of Colorado including Democrats, are very angry about it. They are a threat to democracy to use their term.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
Isn't it nice to have somebody that's your president that doesn't need a teleprompter.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
We haven't been on teleprompter for a long time. I haven't been on this teleprompter, you know it is nice. You saw the other day where Kamala got a little stuck on the teleprompter, went a little bad. It stopped doing her -- you have to be, you know, if you're a politician, you have to be able to handle that. Remember? You have to do the weave, he says -- you've got to do more than the weave, but it happens a lot as a politician. It happens.
I mean, we have so many politicians here, great ones really great -- some are nuts out there, but great ones, and when Newt -- or when the Speaker or when Tommy Tuberville, who's here someplace, the great Senator from Alabama or when any one of our literally 75 -- by the way, should I introduce all of them by name? I should. Should I?
No? Yes? I don't know, it's a lot.
Speaker, should I? I don't know, will they be angry at me? Yes, they will. It's a lot of introducing, right?
Let's keep going with this speech, huh? But you know, when you have a -- when you're in this profession, I a friend he wanted to come in. I said, what's your -- do you like speaking? Well, I do, but I have a great fear of speaking. I said don't be a politician. If you have a fear of speaking, don't be a politician, but one thing you have to know is that no matter how good your people are that operate this machinery, it's going to break and you're going to be out there all by yourself a lot and you've got to be able to do so.
Three weeks ago, she was saying there was only 32 days left and she's reading and like hah -- it's 32 days and it stopped and she went this 32 days -- 32 and I was watching, I said this isn't pretty, 32, she was gone.
And then damn it, it kicked back on.
(LAUGHTER)
She was gone. We've had it. It happens a lot.
And don't forget, you had all those people back there. Now they don't talk about her, but if that ever happened -- it happens all the time, I was campaigning in Ohio, for a very, very -- Bernie Moreno, he's doing a good job, I think he's maybe going to win in Ohio, the problem he's got his opponent Brown, Sherrod Brown, he's like an ad like he's my best friend, he never votes for me he's not my best friend.
[19:40:40]
Ohio has been very friendly to Trump, we win it all the time by a landslide but the opponent is taking ad, I've got four of them, I think we have four of them, right, they are taking ads, all of a sudden, they love Trump, we agree with Trump on tariffs, we agree with Trump on the border, we love Trump, and they're Democrats, their friends calling up, did they switch to the Republican Party?
But it happened with Bernie Moreno, I was in Ohio to try and get him over the initial primary hump and it was 45 mile-an-hour winds and these suckers were blowing like, you ever try reading the teleprompter where its moving about two feet in each -- but I didn't have to worry about that because even worse, they ended up blowing off the stage, a lot of it.
So, I'm now in the first sentence and I got 28,000 people and millions of people watching on television. I got no teleprompter. And did I do a good job, Mr. Speaker? And he won, and he won, huh? Thank you Matt, and he won.
So you're up there all alone, we don't go 32, 32, 32, oh my God. Kamala Harris is a train wreck who has destroyed everything in her path. To make her president would be a gamble with the lives of millions and millions of people. She would get us into World War III, we're very close to World War III.
If you don't have a smart president or if you don't have a president that gets it, if you don't have a president that is respected by the other side and they did respect us four years ago, they really respected us. Iran was broke, they had no money. Russia wouldn't have played with us at all. Russia would have never gotten into Ukraine. Israel, October 7th would never ever have happened. It would never have happened.
All those -- all those people would be alive right now. Those people that were killed on that horrible day, but if you don't have a president that gets it -- you know what else you wouldn't have had, you wouldn't have had that -- the most embarrassing day in the history of our country, in my opinion, Afghanistan, the way they, not that they got out, we were getting out but we're going to get out with dignity and strength.
We got out, an embarrassment, the likes of which this country has never suffered. And because of that Putin looked at us and they probably figured we were a paper tiger and he went into Ukraine and the rest is history. It would have never happened with us.
And you wouldn't have had any inflation, you know, we had the best economy, we had no inflation and inflation has destroyed a lot of seniors on fixed income and a lot of people in this room have been virtually destroyed by inflation.
You wouldn't have had inflation, they screwed up our energy and it went up so much. And then they started spending far too much money on things like the green news scam, which was just a scam, just a complete scam. They actually admitted that if you think about it.
But she would get us into World War III because she's incompetent. Can't do the job, unfit for it, and then all of your sons and daughters will end up getting a little notice. They'll say, mom, dad, what is this little green piece of paper? Ay-yay-yay, darling, that's a draft notice. They're drafting you to go and fight in some country that I've never heard. I've never heard of this country before.
Oh, no, I don't want my baby to fight. I don't want my baby to be killed. What they did in Afghanistan with those 13 great soldiers, I've gotten to know the parents so well, and leaving all of that equipment behind and leaving Americans behind and many, many people with no legs and no arms, all because of incompetent people. But we don't want your sons and daughters to get a little draft
notice and you have to explain to them what it means, we're tired of fighting. I'm the only president in the last 84 years that didn't start a war. Remember Crooked Hillary?
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
[19:45:04]
Remember crooked Hillary Clinton? Crooked Hillary, oh she was a beauty. During one of our many debates, she said, look at him, listen to him. He's going to start a war. Listen to his rhetoric, he's going to start a war.
I said no, no, no, my rhetoric is going to keep us out of wars and that's what happened, 82 years, other than I finished off ISIS, but that was already started, we had stupid generals like Milley and Mattis, weak stupid people.
(BOOING)
But fear not, we have great generals just not the ones you just see on television all the time and we wiped them out very quickly, it was going to take five years, Mattis said, it would take five years and I'm not sure we could do it, it took us like four weeks.
We have great generals. We have the greatest military in the world, just a lot of people don't know that and everybody knows it.
But you know, I saw the other day a report that they issued, that if we end up in a war with China, we cannot win, we're not strong enough.
So I said to myself, assuming that's true, how stupid are you to put out a report like that, how stupid. Why would you put out a report then they'll say, oh, Trump is not truthful, no, I'm smart, you don't put out reports like that and it's not true, we would kick their ass, it's not true.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
(PEOPLE chanting "USA.")
Our enemies are laughing at her, they want her to win so badly, they don't want Trump. They don't want Trump, I've made this position a very dangerous one because of that, that's why. It's a very dangerous -- you know if drive a race car, you have one-tenth of one percent chance of dying. If you ride bulls, I think the bulls are pretty nasty, right? you have about the same one-tenth of one percent of dying.
If you become president of the United States, you've got a hell of a shot at dying. I never knew that when I ran, I never thought about it, but here we are, here we are, and I'm okay with it, and I would rather be here than any place in the world.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE) It's called a very dangerous profession, but if we win, our enemies
won't be laughing anymore. They are not going to be laughing and, you know what the truth is? I got along with all of them, I got along with Putin, Ukraine was the apple of his eye, but I said, Vladimir, don't go in. Remember, I ended the pipeline in Europe. I ended the pipeline in Europe, and then when Biden came in, he approved it, but he ended the Keystone Pipeline, the one in America, so he got it -- he got it a little mixed up, didn't he, huh?
Nord Stream 2, I said, we're ending Nord Stream 2, everybody said, what is Nord Stream 2? I said that's the massive Russian pipeline where they're make a fortune with, they're going to Germany and all countries in Europe. So I said, we're fighting to help them with NATO and we're spending all of that money in they're paying the person and the group that we're fighting, billions of dollars a month, what the hell are we doing?
I ended it, it was dead, and Biden came along and he approved it, weak.
Look, 30 years ago he was not considered smart either, so, now he's really not smart.
If we win, America will be respected and even if it's necessary feared again, it's not the worst word.
On issue after issue, Kamala broke it, but I will fix it. We're going to fix it.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
But we're just not running against Kamala, I think a lot of our politicians here tonight know this. She means nothing, she's purely a vessel that's all she is.
When you see her up there, talking about the grass in my front lawn. I grew up in a middle class neighborhood and I had grass in front lawn.
(LAUGHTER)
Yes, but we're asking what would you do to fix the country? And why didn't you do it, you had almost four years, why didn't you do this stuff?
Now, she's -- you know, she's becoming more MAGA than those politicians that I just told you about from the different states. She can't put two sentences together. She's just like -- she's really just like in many ways Crooked Joe Biden and she never said to us, she never told us that Joe is not functioning properly, she should have.
[19:50:17]
Because you know, we're talking about the life of the most important country in the world, we need very smart people. We're running against something far bigger than Joe or Kamala and far
more powerful than them, which is a massive vicious crooked radical left machine that runs today's Democratic Party. They're just vessels. In fact they're perfect vessels because they'll never give them a hard time, they will do whatever they want.
I know many of them, it's just this amorphous group of people but they're smart and they're vicious and we have to defeat them. And when I say the enemy from within, the other side goes crazy, becomes this whole -- oh, how can he say -- no, they've done very bad things to this country, they are indeed the enemy from within -- but this is who we're fighting.
These are the people who are doing such harm to our country with their open-border policies, record setting inflation, green new scam and everything else that they're doing, but we're not going to let it happen any longer.
We're going to have the biggest victory in the history of our country on November 5th. It is going to be the biggest victory in history.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
We're going to make America great again, everybody.
On top of it all, Kamala says she would not do one thing differently from Joe Biden, which is totally disqualifying and you have to remember this. All of those things he made and you know what maybe is the worst, but they're also bad. Think of this 325,000 children are missing, dead, sex slaves, or slaves. They came through the open border and they are gone. Their parents will most likely never see them again, almost any of them.
Think of the number 325,000 children are missing or dead, Take a look at this please.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
SUNNY HOSTIN, CO-HOST, "THE VIEW": Would you have done something differently than President Biden during the past four years?
KAMALA HARRIS (D) VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There is not a thing that comes to mind.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You stood there on the tarmac watching you check your watch.
REPORTER: The chaotic and deadly US evacuation from Afghanistan stunned Americans and the world and caused the lives of 13 US soldiers.
HOSTIN: Would you have done something differently?
HARRIS: There is not a thing that comes to mind.
More than 13,000 -- DEAN: You are watching a rally from Madison Square Garden with former
President Donald Trump, where we are hearing scores of lies from the former president.
He has come on stage and said a number of things that are just not true, starting with a number of things on immigration. He repeated his lies that there was no relief money for victims of the hurricanes in North Carolina and Florida and other states because he claims that the government gave it all to migrants and that there was none left. That is patently untrue.
FEMA had to set up a website to debunk that and some people have not the gone and gotten help that they needed because of those lies.
He also repeated another lie that in Springfield that thousands of immigrants were dumped in Springfield (Missouri) illegally. In fact, the city website says that Haitian immigrants are there legally under the immigration parole program and that they independently chose to move there. They were not sent by any program.
Again, we have heard number of lies.
He also started talking about the fact that he thinks Kamala Harris would put a draft in place. It's worth noting, there is no active draft in place. He has also talked about the economy, when a number of economists have pointed out that the tariffs that Trump continues to talk about and want to put into place would harm the American economy and truly harm American consumers who would see the prices of goods go up and that there are real concerns about what those economic policies could lead to.
We do have Kristen Holmes there who is inside the arena. I want to go to Kristen. First also, Kristen, in addition to what Trump has been saying, and I was just kind of -- those are just a few things. There are more we're going to talk about.
Before he even took the stage, the rhetoric that we were hearing coming out of Madison Square Garden that some of the speakers called Vice President Harris, the anti-Christ, the devil.
They railed against effing illegals. They said Puerto Rico, which of course is a US territory, was a floating island of garbage. So this is what we've been hearing out of Madison Square Garden tonight. Kristen, what have you been tracking?
[19:55:12]
HOLMES: Yes, Jessica, I mean, just a reminder, as somebody who has attended dozens upon dozens of these rallies, even for me, listening to this rhetoric was incredibly dark and hateful. There was a lot of nativist rhetoric talking about how America is for Americans only. We heard someone saying that America first, not American citizens getting jobs first and as you said, we heard those lines about effing illegals.
We've heard someone saying that Hillary Clinton was a sick bastard, name calling to Kamala Harris, and that really important one that has received enormous amount of backlash from both Democrats and Republicans that Puerto Rico was literally an island of garbage.
This has been some of the darkest rhetoric that I've ever heard at one of these Trump rallies. And the reason why it is so significant is that we are talking about a kickoff event to what is the end of the campaign, the final week before people hit the polls on Tuesday, November 5th and obviously as we knows some of the early voting has already started.
This is what we've heard from Democrats pointing out this kind rhetoric hoping that it actually brings people out to vote for their side on the Republican side and this is again being received by this crowd very well.
You can hear the people cheering, you can hear them cheering in the pre-program, but it gives you an idea of what the closing message is for Donald Trump.
Now, you mentioned some of the things that he said. He did talk about the economy. He did talk about those tariffs, which of course we know there is enormous amount of pushback on whether or not they'll be successful, but it is clear that his closing message is really centered around immigration and this fear-based rhetoric.
One of the other points I wanted to make, he again repeated this rhetoric that these South American countries, these other countries are opening their prisons and insane asylums. There is no evidence of that. We have asked the campaign for evidence of that. We have never gotten it on that front.
We also, in addition to talking about Springfield as you rightly noted, saying that these that everyone dubbed, there was an illegal immigrant and they are not they are on the whole, mostly legal -- legally here in the country.
He also talked about Venezuelan gangs taking over all of America, in particular, Aurora while there was an incident in aurora, Colorado, we have been told by multiple state officials, the governor there talking about how this was overblown, how it was one thing and that there was a fear mongering that was creating chaos within the state of Colorado. I was there when he visited and gave one of the darkest speeches I've ever heard on it immigration, just a few weeks ago.
The other thing I wanted to point out, you mentioned that he claimed about the draft, but I want to go a step further on that hurricane relief because this is something he has really you have doubled down on. We have not heard from anyone in the state or local level including Republicans, that the federal response has been anything short of good. We obviously know that it is very hard. The recovery is very long.
But the fact that Donald Trump actually said that in North Carolina, some people have not even seen aid workers. We know that FEMA has been on the ground and we also know that there have been other local, state and federal officials on the ground trying to help with the recovery there.
He went on to say that the reason that FEMA didn't have any money to help with this disaster relief which they do, they are on the ground there, was because they had given it to migrants. One thing that we need to point out here, FEMA does have multiple pots of money.
One of those pots of money is for disaster relief, there is another pot of money that goes to helping with migrant housing. This is a congressional allotment of money. They cannot use one or the other at this point. So the idea that they took money from one pot to give to another is just completely false.
But generally, right now, I think the big overarching message as I've heard here on the ground, is that they believe that this fear-based and dark rhetoric around immigration is working for them. And I will tell you, Jessica, from being in this room, obviously, this is a sliver of the population. It's certainly working among his base.
DEAN: Yes, and Kristen, you just went through so many of those in immigration highlighting that rhetoric around immigration, also the falsehoods that he is spreading around his immigration message. These are things we both -- we have heard before, but that continue to be amplified.
We've got Alex Thompson from AXIOS, who's on the phone with us now. Alex, can you hear me?
ALEX THOMPSON, AXIOS, NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (via phone): Yes, I can.
DEAN: Okay, great. And Alex, you have been covering the Trump campaign as well? We are now watching as he speaks to thousands of people at Madison Square Garden, people who Kristen is saying are responding very positively to what is a very, very dark message on immigration.
And then some of these other things, as I mentioned earlier, that the speakers before Trump said on that stage to applause, things like calling the US territory of Puerto Rico a floating island of garbage. What else have you been tracking from there and as you go through what we've heard, what is sticking out to you?
THOMPSON: Yes, there were also a number of sexist comments made by some of the speakers as well, including saying that Kamala Harris had pimps that were controlling her. You also heard insinuations from Hulk Hogan and others that I can't even repeat on this network, that being said, you could hear it in the crowd. This is one of the, you know, the most vibrant and raucous crowds, that I have not only heard at a Trump rally, but any political rally I have covered.
The president, the former president has sold out Madison Square Garden and is putting on a spectacle. But the real question is, does this spectacle, given that they are preaching to the converted as Elon Musk noted, to people that are tuning in to this message, are they going to remember that bad things that he didn't like about Donald Trump, or are they going to remember the things they liked about him and that's unclear.
[20:01:03]
