President Trump is rallying Belgrade, Montana, Saturday afternoon for Republican candidates, particularly Senate candidate Matt Rosendale, who is challenging Democratic Sen. Jon Tester. This is the first of two rallies Mr. Trump is attending on Saturday; he will travel to Florida for a rally in the evening.
Even though Mr. Trump won Montana by 20 points in 2016, Tester is maintaining a small lead over Rosendale. A CBS News Battleground Tracker poll from September showed Tester leading Rosendale among likely voters 47 to 45 percent. The CBS News Battleground Tracker rates the race as “edge Democrat.”
Mr. Trump has personal animosity toward Tester, as the senator was instrumental in torpedoing the nomination of Dr. Ronny Jackson for secretary for Veterans Affairs, due to allegations of substance abuse while working. However, at a rally in Montana in October, he acknowledged that Jackson “didn’t really want it. And he might not have been qualified.”
Mr. Trump is also is rallying in Montana in support of Republican Rep. Greg Gianforte. Mr Trump has praised Gianforte for body slamming a reporter in 2016 while also continuing his line of attack that voting for Democrats is voting for a “mob.” “Any guy who can do a body slam, he’s my candidate, he’s my guy,” Mr. Trump said at a rally in October.
Gianforte pleaded guilty to assaulting a Guardian reporter in June 2017, the day before the state’s special election. Mr. Trump’s comment elicited cheers from the crowd.
During his Montana rally Saturday, Mr. Trump is likely to make a speech similar to others he has made this week. The president has largely focused on illegal immigration in the days before the election, a topic that could motivate Mr. Trump’s base to turn out and vote in the midterms even though he is not on the ballot. At a rally in Indiana on Friday, the president repeated familiar rhetoric about immigration, and particularly a migrant caravan en route to the U.S. from Central America that is weeks away from arriving at the border.
“The Democrats want to invite caravan after caravan,” Mr. Trump said, falsely, adding that Democrats want caravans “full of illegal aliens to flood into our country.”
In recent rallies, he has also discussed the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who has been accused of sexual assault. Mr. Trump has also impugned Democrats as the “party of crime,” urging Republicans to turn out to vote for “jobs, not mobs.”
Mr. Trump’s goal in these rallies is to turn out Republican voters. Outwardly, the president is optimistic about whether Republicans will keep control of the House, but he hedged that optimism before heading to a rally in West Virginia Friday afternoon.
“It seems that the campaign is doing very well,” Mr. Trump told reporters on the White House South Lawn Wednesday. “Looks like we’re doing very very well in the Senate. A lot of seats that were not really being thought of in terms of victories a year ago now look like they could very well be victories. The House is a lot of people, I mean there are a lot of people, and I think we’re going to do well in the house also. But I know we’re doing well in the Senate but we’re doing OK in the House, we’re going to have to see. There are just so many people.”
Many Republicans would like the president to keep his focus on the booming economy, and things like tax cuts, but while Mr. Trump mentions his economic accomplishments during campaign appearances, it’s not a focal point of his rallies. “Sometimes it’s not as exciting to talk about the economy because we have a lot of other things to talk about,” he said at the rally in West Virginia.
On Thursday, he delivered remarks in the Roosevelt Room claiming his administration is finalizing plans to deny asylum other than at designated points of entry along the border, and saying he will sign an executive order next week. The president has continued to rail against the caravan, and said he may deploy up to 15,000 troops to deter the migrants, most of which are seeking asylum. He also said he will end birthright citizenship through executive order or Congress, claiming the 14th Amendment doesn’t cover birthright citizenship.
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