With the Mueller probe closing in and the rest of Washington honoring Sen. John McCain without the disinvited president, Donald Trump spent Thursday night where he felt safe and loved — at a campaign rally, in Evansville, Indiana.
He’s been stepping up his travel around the U.S. ahead of the midterms, and was ostensibly in Indiana to boost the prospects of Republican businessman Mike Braun, who is attempting to unseat Democratic Sen. Joe Donnelly in one of the most hotly contested Senate races in the November midterms. Trump did call Braun a “special guy” who would be a “great senator,” but as usual he spent most of his time on the podium laying into his favorite enemies, from the FBI to Big Tech to Hillary Clinton. The crowd cheered enthusiastically.
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Trump’s speech was punctuated by several protesters, but before he even got on stage, there was controversy when a volunteer member of Trump’s advance team blocked AP photographer Evan Vucci from taking a picture of a protester. Unfortunately for the volunteer, his action was captured by another photographer:
Protestors were booed by the partisan crowd as they were escorted out of the arena, with Trump at one point asking: “Where the hell did she come from?”
Here are five of the craziest things that Trump said Thursday night:
Trump wants to do the FBI’s job
Trump kept up his recent bashing of the FBI and the Department of Justice, once again calling for them to get their house in order. “[They] have to start doing their job and doing it right [because] people are angry,” Trump said, adding that if something doesn’t change, he “will get involved and I’ll get in there if I have to.” However, he didn’t mention special counsel Robert Mueller or under-fire Attorney General Jeff Sessions by name.
Trump is confused about socialism
Among several confusing comments he made onstage, probably the biggest head-scratcher was this: “They want to raid Medicare to pay for socialism.” As many people pointed out on Twitter, Trump may be surprised to find out that Medicare, being a Social security benefit, is a form of socialism. He went on to warn: “Somehow I don’t see Indiana being the next Venezuela. “That’s what would happen too.”
Only 85 percent of the media is dishonest
It was only minutes into the speech when Trump took the time to blast the media. “These are just dishonest, terrible people,” Trump told the baying crowd before adding that he was talking about “only 85 percent” of the media. As usual Trump hit on The New York Times, CNN and NBC for special criticism, mirroring up a series of tweets earlier in the day. Trump accused NBC of turning off their cameras when he began criticising the network. As with most of his allegations lately, Trump offered no evidence to back up his claim
Blasting Big Tech
Continuing his new habit of blasting Silicon Valley companies, Trump took aim once again at Google, Facebook and Twitter, clearly ignorant of the fact that his team had just censored a photographer in the crowd: “We as a country cannot tolerate political censorship, blacklisting and rigged search results. We will not let large organizations silence conservative voices.”
And he can’t forget Hillary
It wouldn’t have been a Trump rally without a mention of the person he loves to hate the most. This time he hypothesized that had Clinton held a rally in Indiana, she would have drawn a much smaller crowd. “If crooked Hillary came here, if she had 300 to 500 people. First of all she wouldn’t be in this building, should be in a hotel conference room. It would be a conference room. I’m just saying something incredible is happening with our country to have this,” Trump said.
