Republican vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance and his wife, Usha Chilukuri Vance, enter to cheers and applause during a campaign rally at the Herb Brooks National Hockey Center, Saturday, July 27, 2024, in St. Cloud, Minn. (Glen Stubbe/Minneapolis Star Tribune/TNS)
TNS
ST. CLOUD, Minn. – Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and his running mate JD Vance went hard after Vice President Kamala Harris on Saturday in their first joint Minnesota appearance, portraying the presumptive Democratic nominee as a failure and mocking her for everything from being a San Francisco prosecutor to her laugh.
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Trump said voters would reject Harris’ “crazy liberal extremism” in a “massive landslide.” He and Vance repeatedly called her the “border czar,” blaming her for the migrant crisis at the nation’s southern border. If she’s elected, Trump said, Harris would “kill Social Security and Medicare” while making inflation worse.
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Under the Democrats, Trump said, the United States would face “four more years of weakness, chaos and probably World War III,” while he would bring back “leadership, competence, common sense and strength.”
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A capacity crowd of 8,000 filled the Herb Brooks National Hockey Center, and hundreds took up standing-room-only space on what would be the ice sheet in the St. Cloud State University arena. Thousands more who couldn’t get in watched the speech on a large screen outside the arena, cheering wildly when Trump called out to them multiple times.
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Trump and Vance repeatedly railed against “illegal aliens” and complained about the media and the last election. They detailed few policy proposals of their own beyond “overfunding the police” rather than defunding them, and indicated they will portray Harris as overly friendly to criminals in the campaign.
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Trump called Harris a “radical left lunatic,” saying “her big thing” is to “defund the police.” Harris has not pushed that position since the movement in 2020, and Trump said she should be held accountable for her initial support: “Politicians don’t change,” he said.
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The crowd broke into chants of “USA!” and “Fight, fight, fight” frequently through the event. Although President Joe Biden has dropped out of the race, Trump targeted him for plenty of criticism, ranging from the president’s speech patterns to how he navigates stairs.
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Rally attendees had lined up to get in as early as 2 a.m. When the doors closed before 6 p.m. , hundreds – if not thousands – remained outside in the muggy 90-degree heat.
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Trump and Vance used similar lines of attack on Harris, including her voicing support for the Minnesota Freedom Fund in the wake of George Floyd’s murder in 2020, and blamed her for releasing dangerous criminals. The Minneapolis-based nonprofit pays criminal and immigration bonds for people in Twin Cities jails and detention facilities.
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Trump’s speech ran for more than an hour and repeated some of his favorite topics of late, including a reference to the fictional movie cannibal Hannibal Lector.
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He said Democrats and the media are trying to make Harris into the late British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. However, he said, “Thatcher didn’t laugh like that, did she?” And he called Harris “a dangerous person who’s not smart.”
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Vance, who spoke first, was greeted with loud applause as he kicked off 20 minutes of remarks. The Ohio senator talked about how Trump “wiped the debate stage” with Biden in June, and then pivoted to attacking the media. When the crowd booed the media, Vance said: “They deserve it.”
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He said the media covered for Biden’s shortcomings and is now trying to portray Harris as the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, when she is really a “card-carrying member of the San Francisco lunatic fringe.”
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Vance said Harris owns “every failure” of the Biden administration, referring to her repeatedly as the “border czar” who would give free health care and college tuition to undocumented immigrants. “She wants to hand over control of our country to people who shouldn’t be here in the first place,” he said.
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Then speaking directly to those he called “illegal aliens,” Vance said: “Start packing your bags now.”
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U.S. Rep. Tom Emmer, R-Minn., warmed up the crowd and enthused about the GOP turning Minnesota red in a presidential election for the first time since 1972. The House majority whip jabbed Gov. Tim Walz, who reportedly is on the short list for consideration to join Harris on the ticket.
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The most popular outfits included flag-themed attire and red MAGA hats, metallic gold shoes and all sorts of campaign T-shirts. One bore an image of the White House and read “Stolen Property,” and another had Trump’s mugshot with the line, “I’m voting for the Convicted Felon.”
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Debi Rancour, 68, of St. Michael, Minn., arrived hours early in support of Trump’s views on the Southern border and what she called his faith-based conservatism. “This is on my bucket list. It’s a dream come true,” she said of the rally.
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Cynthia Gail, 66, a teacher from Albert Lea, said she respects Trump for persisting. “I’m not proud of some of his past but there’s such a thing as forgiveness,” she said. “And nobody else is going to be able to tackle the tasks to protect the United States.”
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Despite the crowd energy in St. Cloud, Minnesota Republicans have a steep hill to climb with Harris at the top of the Democratic ticket. A KSTP-TV poll on Friday showed Harris leads Trump by 10 percentage points in the state, a gap larger than Biden had before announcing he was stepping down from the race.
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Earlier Saturday, DFLers gathered in St. Paul to hear from Walz before knocking on doors for Harris. The governor sharply targeted the GOP ticket. “This is the beautiful tapestry of America and not one damn stupid red hat amongst you,” he told the DFL volunteers.
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In St. Cloud, Tim Tuuri, 66, of White Bear Lake said he came to see Trump, Vance and GOP-endorsed U.S. Senate candidate Royce White. “We just want to be out here with our fellow patriots who love our country,” Tuuri said.
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Taylor Hill, 24, of Sartell, Minnesota, arrived at 6 a.m. and secured a shaded waiting spot, where she set up a tent and card table. Hill said she knows Trump is divisive, but “in our political climate, we need someone who is decisive and powerful.”
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Michelle Hoeper of Villard, Minnesota., said she came to the rally “to show people here in Minnesota, maybe even those who are just driving by, that there are more people here that support (Trump), maybe more than they realize.”
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(Staff writer Kyeland Jackson contributed to this story.)
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This story was originally published July 27, 2024, 10:44 p.m.
