LAS VEGAS — Former President Donald Trump rallied voters in the scorching Las Vegas heat, at times telling his supporters to seek help if needed and becoming irritable over teleprompters he said didn’t work. not.
The presumptive GOP nominee’s campaign hired extra doctors, stocked up on fans and bottled water and allowed his supporters to carry umbrellas to an outdoor rally Sunday in Las Vegas, where temperatures topped 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37.8 degrees Celsius).
“I don’t want anyone to pick on me. We need every voter. I do not care about you. I just want your vote,” he said, adding that he was joking.
Earlier in his speech, he said the campaign would offer help to people who were feeling tired and joked that “everyone,” including the U.S. Secret Service, was worried about the safety of the crowd and not from him.
“They never mentioned me. “I’m out here sweating like a dog,” he said. “This is a difficult work.”
Trump returned to Nevada, one of the key battleground states in the November election, for his second rally since he was convicted in a hush money scandal.
The unprecedented conviction of a former president has boosted Trump’s fundraising and galvanized his supporters, but it remains to be seen whether it will sway voters. Trump is expected to be questioned Monday by New York probation officials via video conference, a required step before his sentencing in July.
Temperatures in the Southwest have cooled since reaching historic highs late last week, but remain above normal for this time of year and exceeded 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius) during the gathering, which took place in a sparsely shaded park next to the airport.
Early in his speech, Trump said it was “not as bad” as he thought, and expressed anger over the malfunctioning teleprompters, even while mocking President Barack Obama to rely on this device.
“I pay all this money to the teleprompters, and I would say 20 percent of the time they don’t work,” he said, adding that he wouldn’t pay the vendor who provided the teleprompters. “It’s a mess.”
Campaign organizers handed out bottles of water as supporters queued to be screened by security officers. Inside the venue, large misting fans, water pallets and cooling tents were placed around the perimeter. The clouds rolled in and a breeze picked up about two hours before Trump took the stage, bringing some semblance of relief from the oppressive sun.
“It’s a dry heat. “This is nothing to the people of Las Vegas,” said Nevada GOP Chairman Michael McDonald. “But what this symbolizes for the rest of the United States is that we will go through hell” to elect Donald Trump.
McDonald and five other Republicans were charged with submitting certificates to Congress falsely declaring Trump the winner of Nevada’s 2020 presidential election and their trial was pushed back until next year.
Trump said the rioters who stormed the Capitol in January. On January 6, 2021, they were “victims” of a “set-up”.
“They were really, more than anything else, victims of what happened. All they were doing was protesting a rigged election. That’s what they were doing. And then the police say: come in, come in, come in, come in,” he said. “What a setup that was. A horrible, horrible thing.
The conspiracy theory that Jan. 6 rioters were encouraged by law enforcement is widespread on the right but has no basis in fact. Many of those who were at the Capitol in January. 6 said – proudly, publicly and repeatedly – that they did it to help the then-president.
Federal and state election officials as well as Trump’s own attorney general have said there is no credible evidence that the 2020 election was tainted. The former president’s allegations of fraud have also been roundly rejected by the courts, including by judges appointed by Trump.
The campaign funded additional EMS services on site in case of an emergency. The Secret Service made an exception to allow people to bring personal water bottles and umbrellas. Food trucks sold shaved ice and oversized cups of lemonade.
“You know what? It’s worth it,” said Camille Lombardi, a 65-year-old retired nurse from the Las Vegas suburb of Henderson, who was seeing Trump in person for the first time. “Too bad it’s not inside, but it is. OKAY.”
At a Trump rally in Arizona on Thursday, Phoenix police said 11 people were transported to hospitals, treated and released for heat exhaustion. Many Trump supporters waited in line for hours and some were unable to get in before the venue reached capacity. The temperature reached a record 113 degrees Fahrenheit (45 degrees Celsius) that day.
Trump’s rally in Nevada, his third in the state this year, came at the tail end of a Western movement that included several high-dollar fundraisers where he was expected to raise millions of dollars.
Democrat Hillary Clinton won Nevada in 2016, as did President Joe Biden in 2020, but Nevada was the only battleground state where Trump did better against Biden than Clinton. In the 2022 midterms, Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak, a Democrat, was the only incumbent governor who did not win the election.
Trump hopes his strength among working-class voters and growing interest among Latinos will push him to victory in the state.
Addressing Nevada’s huge service-industry workforce, Trump said he would seek to eliminate taxes on tipping, a major source of revenue for restaurant servers, bartenders and others who make Las Vegas’ glitzy hotels work.
His campaign announced a new push for Hispanic voters ahead of the event with a coalition of Latinos for Trump. Four of the speakers who warmed up the crowd before Trump took the stage were Hispanic immigrants. _____
Gomez Licon reported from Miami.