Last Updated Nov 5, 2018 11:55 PM EST
President Trump is holding his final midterm rally in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, just nine hours before the polls open in the state. Mr. Trump is stumping for Republican candidate Josh Hawley, who is trying to unseat vulnerable Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill.
Mr. Trump said McCaskill only won in 2012 because “she got lucky. She was way down the last time and somebody running – it didn’t look too good.” McCaskill won 57 percent of the vote in 2012 against her opponent, Todd Akin, who won the GOP primary but quickly imploded after making comments about “legitimate rape” that caused the national GOP to all but leave him for dead.
Although McCaskill released an ad saying she wasn’t one of those “crazy Democrats,” Mr. Trump said she would go back to voting along party lines if she is re-elected.
Mr. Trump portrayed Democratic policies as creating “anger, division and destruction.” “You can stop them with your votes tomorrow,” he told the crowd.
This is Mr. Trump’s 11th rally in six days, and his second in Missouri. Mr. Trump won Missouri in 2016 by almost 20 points.
The rally had a number of special guests: Rush Limbaugh introducted Mr. Trump, Sean Hannity, Jeanine Pirro, Ivanka Trump and RNC chairwoman Ronna McDaniel. At one point, a woman in the audience had a medical emergency, and Mr. Trump waited patiently on stage for several minutes while the crowd tried several chants and eventually started singing “Amazing Grace.”
Limbaugh, a native of Cape Girardeau, spoke before Mr. Trump. He called it a “night of a lifetime.” Hannity, who interviewed Mr. Trump back stage, came out on stage and said “those people in the back are fake news.”
Hannity said he had no idea he would be would be speaking, although the Trump campaign had said Saturday he would be a “special guest.” Hannity tweeted earlier “in spite of reports,” he was just doing a live show and “will not be on stage campaigning with the President.”
Lee Greenwood, who sings the song “God Bless the U.S.A.,” which is Mr. Trump’s entrance song, sang the song live.
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