“When you get those seats you sort of know the campaign, so when she said ‘Well we didn’t know, ‘ he knew, they knew”. “A lot of people know me”. Trump revels in the energy provided by the crowd, made up mostly of white, working-class voters, as he delivers hour-long speeches largely without notes – and never with a teleprompter.
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Clinton rejected any knowledge that Mateen attended her rally, and spokesman Nick Merrill told NBC that Clinton “disagrees with his views and disavows his support“.
After Trump told the supporters seated behind him that they were “going to be famous” because they would appear on TV, he turned his remarks to Seddique Mateen, the father of the man identified by authorities as the mass shooter at an Orlando nightclub in June.
“Wasn’t it awful”, Trump said, that Mateen was “sitting with a big smile on his face right behind Hillary Clinton”.
Foley told an MSNBC reporter that Trump is a longtime friend and one of his biggest contributors.
At another point during the rally, the Republican nominee called President Barack Obama “the founder of ISIS” – and doubled-down on that outrageous and unfounded claim by calling Hillary Clinton the “co-founder” of the terror group. “Friends and family have married, divorced, given birth, and died during this campaign, and I’ve missed it all”.
This has not been a good week for the staffers charged with filling the arenas of the Trump and Clinton campaigns.
His latest unforced mishap: an off-hand remark that critics quickly slammed as a suggestion that gun-rights backers should take a literal shot at Hillary Clinton should she win the White House.
“He tries to amp up the crowd, which he’s very good at”, said former Trump adviser Barry Bennett, who said the rallies may be large, but don’t represent the broader coalition of voters who typically decide general elections. I’ve admired so much of what he’s done.
The Trump campaign has not responded to requests for comment. “He’s a different breed of leader”.
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Foley resigned from Congress in 2006 after a 12-year tenure amid reports that he exchanged sexually explicit instant messages with a 16-year-old former congressional page, and sent suggestive messages to other underage teenagers. Last night, Trump supporter Kayleigh McEnany smiled as she attacked the Clinton camp’s faux pas and used it to imply that the Democratic candidate was too soft on terrorism. And following the convention, Trump’s daily gaffes, and double-downs on those gaffes, seem without end.
