August 22, 2017

Donald Trump’s Rally in Phoenix Was an Unhinged Nightmare. Here Are the Lowlights.

Former National Intelligence Director James Clapper called the speech “downright scary and disturbing.”

President Donald Trump at a rally in Phoenix, Arizona.Alex Brandon/AP

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9:48 p.m. PDT

That’s all for now, folks. Tomorrow, Trump heads to Reno, Nevada to speak at the American Legion Convention.

9:42 p.m. PDT

On CNN, former national intelligence director James Clapper called Trump’s speech “downright scary and disturbing.”

https://twitter.com/lpolgreen/status/900209865280323585

9:01 p.m. PDT

After Trump’s rally, the scene outside the Phoenix Convention Center quickly devolved, with police reportedly deploying tear gas on protesters.

8:42 p.m. PDT

Some reactions to Trump’s speech weren’t exactly glowing.

8:25 p.m. PDT

Trump promises to pass the “first major tax reform in over 30 years,” saying that if the Democrats in Congress don’t support his measures, they’ll be “stopping you from getting a massive tax cut.”

8:20 p.m. PDT

8:16 p.m. PDT

Pivoting back to Charlottesville, Trump warned against removing statues of non-Confederates like George Washington and Teddy Roosevelt. “They’re trying to take away our culture, they’re trying to take away our history,” he said.

8:10 p.m. PDT

The president touched on his “fire and fury” comments earlier this month regarding North Korea. “What i said, that’s not strong enough,” said Trump, adding, “I respect the fact that I believe [Kim Jong-un] is starting to respect us.”

8:02 p.m. PDT

Trump called for getting rid of the filibuster rule, saying “if we don’t the Republicans will never get anything passed,” and bemoaned the close Senate vote on the Republican health bill. “I will not mention any names,” he said, hinting at Arizona Sen. John McCain, who cast a crucial “no” vote on the legislation.

7:58 p.m. PDT

Trump touted his crackdown on sanctuary cities and pushed for a wall on the southern border. He vowed to build the wall even “if we have to close down our government.”

7:50 p.m. PDT

Trump all but guaranteed a pardon for former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who was convicted last month of criminal contempt for defying a judge’s order to stop targeting immigrants for traffic stops. “Sheriff Joe can feel good,” he told the crowd.

7:43 p.m. PDT

https://twitter.com/lpolgreen/status/900186375605059584

7:40 p.m. PDT

“They’re trying to take away our history and our heritage,” Trump says, adding that “the only people giving a platform to these hate groups are the media and fake news.”

7:38 p.m. PDT

Trump says he think jobs can have a “tremendously positive impact on race relations,” pointing to the “over 1 million jobs” he’s created since entering office.

7:30 p.m. PDT

President Donald Trump is holding a “Make America Great Again” rally at 7 p.m. PT tonight in Phoenix, Arizona. Hundreds of people lined up outside the city’s convention center—some before dawn—to hear Trump speak at his first major political event since the deadly protests in Charlottesville, Va. on August 12.

The rally’s first speakers were Secretary of Housing and Urban Development—and the only black member of Trump’s cabinet—Ben Carson, as well as Alveda King, Martin Luther King, Jr.’s niece.

After taking the podium, Trump blamed the media for mischaracterizing the statements he made following the Charlottesville protests. “They don’t report the facts….Just like they don’t want to report that I spoke out strongly against…Neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and the KKK.” He then proceeded to read portions of the statements he made following the protests, notably omitting the times he noted the bigotry “on many sides” of the protests.

Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton called on Trump yesterday to delay his rally. “America is hurting. And it is hurting largely because Trump has doused racial tensions with gasoline,” he wrote, pointing to Trump’s reaction to the violence in Charlottesville.

Many suspected that Trump would use the rally to pardon former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio—a pardon Trump said last week he was “seriously considering.” Arpaio, who campaigned for Trump in 2016, was convicted last month of criminal contempt for defying a judge’s order to stop targeting immigrants for traffic stops. Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders quelled that suspicion earlier today. “I can tell you that there will be no discussion of that today at any point, and no action will be taken on that front at any time today,” she said on Air Force One as Trump took off for the speech.

Nearly a dozen protests of the rally were planned by various immigrant rights, anti-fascist, and civil rights groups. The Associated Press reports that some protesters and Trump supporters have shoved and shouted at each other before the event.

At least one group of protesters has brought guns:

Some brought bikes:

And others brought signs:

While Trump brought protection:

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WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

The short of it: Last year, we had to cut $1 million from our budget so we could have any chance of breaking even by the time our fiscal year ended in June. And despite a huge rally from so many of you leading up to the deadline, we still came up a bit short on the whole. We can’t let that happen again. We have no wiggle room to begin with, and now we have a hole to dig out of.

Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

The upshot: Being able to rally $253,000 in donations over these next few weeks is vitally important simply because it is the number that keeps us right on track, helping make sure we don't end up with a bigger gap than can be filled again, helping us avoid any significant (and knowable) cash-flow crunches for now. We used to be more nonchalant about coming up short this time of year, thinking we can make it by the time June rolls around. Not anymore.

Because the in-depth journalism on underreported beats and unique perspectives on the daily news you turn to Mother Jones for is only possible because readers fund us. Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism we exist to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we need readers to show up for us big time—again.

Getting just 10 percent of the people who care enough about our work to be reading this blurb to part with a few bucks would be utterly transformative for us, and that's very much what we need to keep charging hard in this financially uncertain, high-stakes year.

If you can right now, please support the journalism you get from Mother Jones with a donation at whatever amount works for you. And please do it now, before you move on to whatever you're about to do next and think maybe you'll get to it later, because every gift matters and we really need to see a strong response if we're going to raise the $253,000 we need in less than three weeks.

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