Donald Trump delivers red meat during Iowa rally
CLIVE, Iowa — Donald Trump delivered Iowans a plate of red meat policy talk Tuesday, highlighting threats to family farms, the Second Amendment and national security while avoiding the issue of his Democratic rival's health.
The rally marked Trump's fourth trip to Iowa since claiming the Republican nomination in July as he and Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton vie for the state's six electoral votes. He was last in the state Aug. 27, attending Sen. Joni Ernst's Roast and Ride fundraiser, and Trump echoed many of the same sentiments Tuesday. Clinton has campaigned once in Iowa since earning the nomination, but has seen Iowans at campaign stops on the Illinois side of the Quad Cities and in Omaha.
Trump's appearance comes during a week in which Clinton has been excoriated by her critics for withholding a pneumonia diagnosis. The Democratic nominee was diagnosed Friday, but the information wasn't made public until a video showed her stumbling and being held up by aides while leaving a Sept. 11 anniversary ceremony in New York Sunday.
Clinton defended the decision to keep the diagnosis secret in an interview with CNN Monday saying she "didn't think it was going to be that big a deal."
Trump, even after floating conspiracy theories about Clinton's health earlier in the campaign, gave a muted response. He told Fox News he hopes “she gets well and gets back on the debate trail, and we’ll be seeing her at the debate.”
He instead has focused his attacks on Clinton’s recent comment that “you could put half of Trump’s supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables. Right? The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic — you name it.”
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"While my opponent slanders you as deplorable and irredeemable, I call you hard working American patriots who love your country and want a better future for all of our people," Trump said Tuesday.
Senior public relations adviser and former Iowa spokeswoman Tana Goertz made light of the gaffe, telling the crowd, “You guys are one good lookin’ basket of deplorables!”
George Humphreys, a 71-year-old retired Des Moines resident, attended the event and called Clinton’s comments “outrageous.” But he said he liked just about everything Trump said.
“He’s what we need,” Humprheys said. “We need to take our country back.”
But Clinton and her supporters have remained firm, calling on Trump to be more transparent by releasing his tax returns and a more complete medical history.
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A group of millennial-aged Clinton supporters gathered ahead of Trump’s event at a local union hall.
Josh Hughes, a student, school board member and DNC delegate, said he supports Clinton because she represents progress on a range of issues, including higher education. He praised her plan to make in-state public colleges tuition-free for families with incomes of up to $125,000.
“Donald Trump has failed to win our support because his ideas and his policies stand in stark contrast to ours as a generation and Hillary Clinton’s,” he said.
According to a Sept. 2 Emerson College poll of Iowans, Clinton leads among voters aged 18 through 34 with 47% compared to Trump’s 37%. But overall, the race remains too close to call here, with a new poll released Monday showing Trump with the smallest of leads over Clinton.
Former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani gave Trump a surprise introduction Tuesday, praising him and criticizing Clinton over her emails which prompted brief chants of “lock her up.”
Giuliani said it a “corruption of government” that charges were not brought against Clinton “when I know in my heart that that case would have been brought against anyone else.”
Dawn Scout, a 58-year-old Des Moines resident who attended the rally, said she thinks Trump has a lot of good ideas. In particular, she likes what he has to say about immigration.
“I think we’ve got too many people coming in here that are not doing it the right way,” she said. “I don’t care who comes in. But we’ve got papers you’ve got to sign to come in. No sneaking in. It’s not safe.”
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Outside the Trump rally in Clive, fewer than a dozen protesters held signs to express their opposition to the Republican presidential candidate. They competed for attention as pro-Trump motorists hunted for parking spaces in a jammed parking area .
Jessica Flannery of Des Moines, Iowa organizing director for NARAL Pro-Choice America, toted a sign which read, “Make Misogyny Great Again.”
Flannery said the sign represented Trump’s “hateful rhetoric” against women who have had an abortion.
Immediately after the rally, Trump headed to a high-dollar fundraiser in West Des Moines where tickets were on sale for as much as $50,000 per couple. About 100 people attended the event.
A handful of protesters greeted him as his caravan arrived, including a man in a mascot outfit called, “D.J.Duckers,” who was sponsored by Americans United for Change, a liberal advocacy group. The mascot held a sign which read, “Trump ducks releasing his tax return.”
Trump entered the restaurant though a side door, however, and simply waved to a few people nearby who saw him arrive.
Former state senator Jim Kersten of Fort Dodge, who attended the event, said Trump told his donors that he was very proud of the work his campaign has done in Iowa.
“He said it looks like the polls are coming up and he said we should all go out and work very hard to make sure that we get the turn out," Kersten said. "He thinks he can win Iowa, and I do, too."