(Note: The following story was written based on a live TV broadcast of the rally.)
by Dennis Dalman
At a July 27 evening rally in St. Cloud, presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump delivered a relentless verbal assault against presumed Democratic candidate Kamala Harris, vice president.
The main reason for the rally was an attempt to turn “blue” Minnesota “red,” since polls show the race is close. The state has not elected a Republican president since Richard Nixon in 1972.
More than 8,000 people filled the Herb Brook National Hockey Center in south St. Cloud. There was a huge crowd gathered outside – those who could not get into the arena because of lack of room. They watched the rally on a large screen.
Trump and vice-presidential candidate JD Vance both gave rip-snorting speeches punctuated by vicious insults and false accusations. Sixth District Rep. Tom Emmer also spoke, saying Biden and Harris have caused “havoc” in Minnesota and that electing Harris would bring more radical, failed policies.
Other speakers included District 14A State Rep Bernie Perryman, District 13A Lisa Demuth and Mike “Pillow Man” Lindell.
As both Vance and Trump spoke, the big arena crowd at times pumped their fists, chanting loudly “U.S.A.!, U.S.A.!, U.S.A.!” and “Four More Years!, Four More Years!”
The following are summaries of the two speeches.
Vance
Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), who spoke first, called Biden one of the worst presidents in American history.
Vance blasted the media gathered at the back of the arena for spreading misinformation as the crowd booed loudly.
Among the charges Vance made are the following:
Kamala Harris is a “card-carrying member of the San Francisco lunatic fringe.” As “Border Czar,” she purposely let 20 million illegal aliens enter the United States, and those illegals are getting everything “for free.”
If he and Trump are elected, they’ll launch the biggest deportation in American history, and a total wall will be built.
“I love this country!” said Vance. “We’re going to turn Minnesota red!”
Harris, he said, pretends to be compassionate, but if elected she will cause widespread suffering, the kind he (Vance) endured as a poverty-stricken boy.
Harris spouts a “very insane” green (environmental) policy, and she and Biden are “100 percent responsible for inflation.” She is also “soft on crime,” coddles criminals, believes in de-funding the police and wants illegal immigrants to vote. If elected, she will take guns away from every law-abiding citizen.
A Trump presidency, Vance said, “will save this country for every race, color and creed.”
Trump
When Trump walked on to the stage, the eager crowd gave him a loud, ecstatic welcome with chants of “U.S.A.!”
In his 90-minute speech, Donald Trump at times veered and meandered from one topic to the next: the Southern border crises, the utter failure of the Biden Administration, law and order, the “fake” news media, a promise to create a Christian nation (“I am a Christian,” he said), “radical-left lunatics” like Kamala Harris (“She is probably the most left-wing person in American history.”), and she is a big de-funder of the police.
Among the adjectives Trump used to describe Harris are “evil,” “unhinged” and “sick.”
Like Vance, Trump slammed Biden and Harris for their lack of security at the Southern border. He said throughout the world, “They’re closing their insane asylums. They’re sending the criminals into the United States.”
If he’s re-elected, Trump promised he will create a “glorious future” that will restore the “American Dream.”
Trump made fun of Harris’s hysteric way of laughing and said she was a “terrible” California attorney general. While illegal migrants are “stampeding” into America, Harris will wreak havoc on the nation: higher gas prices, more inflation, bringing about a socialist take-over of the health-care system, impoverishing working families and putting the brakes on energy sources (like oil and gas) and creating a free-for-all abortion policy.
“Maybe it will be World War III,” Trump said.
Trump ridiculed Biden’s difficulty in walking down steps as the crowd responded with laughter.
Later he launched into a recap of the day he was nearly assassinated, then he reminded his listeners of the big crowds at his rallies.
Once again he verbally attacked the “fake news,” the “crooked press,” bringing cheers and boos from the crowd.
“What a great state!” he shouted. “I think I should move here!”
As Trump’s speech wandered willy-nilly from topic to topic, at times repetitive, with a long verbal riff about his golfing, the crowd right behind him on the bleachers began to look a bit restless, distracted, fidgety, vaguely bored.
Biden, he said, is a president who “can’t put 2 and 2 together.”
Trump called to the stage Shannon Owen, the widow of Minnesota sheriff’s deputy Josh Owen of Pope County who was shot and killed in the line of duty last year.
Trump gave her a hug, then said, in reference to Harris’s alleged “soft-on-crime” stance, “We need to back the Blue!”
Toward the end of his speech, he mentioned some things he’d like to accomplish if elected, such as getting a Reciprocal Trade Bill passed, no taxes on tips, a mandatory one-year jail term for burning the American flag and creating an “Iron Dome” defense system over the country.
When Trump ended his long speech, the big crowd went wild – a thunder of applauding, cheering, fist bumps and chanting.
