Trump is holding a campaign rally in Minneapolis. In this thread there will be quotes and fact checks.
Eric Trump is speaking now. "Who likes Fox?" he says to mostly-cheers. "I guess everybody in here likes Fox, right?" His father tweeted criticism of Fox this morning.
The Trump campaign has been filling some of the empty areas of the upper bowl before the president speaks. (The president has repeatedly said in recent weeks that he has never once had an empty seat.)
As Eric Trump speaks, the crowd chants "lock him up" chant about one or both Bidens. He says he likes "lock her up" more and that they don't need to lock up Biden, "we're just gonna beat the hell out of all of them."
There's only one way you can describe the last three years, VP Mike Pence says: "Three years of action."
"Veterans Choice is now available for every veteran," Pence says. Veterans actually have to meet specific criteria -- being a 30-minute drive from a VA facility, facing a 20-day wait for an appointment, etc. -- to access the program formerly known as Choice.
"It's going to take at least four more years to drain that swamp," Pence says to a prolonged cheer.
Trump has come out. He begins by claiming he has "just set a new record" for this arena and that there are currently 25,000 people outside. We will check these claims. Anyone reporting from outside right now?
Trump touts the economy, says China has been "very nice" in the negotiations, and that today "I got a call from one of the top representatives. He said, 'Congratulations, Mr. President, on having a truly great, great economy.'" (Trump tells a lot of stories about phone calls.)
Trump referencing Minneapolis cops' Cops for Trump shirts: "Cops love Trump. Trump loves cops."
Trump, reading his text about a Washington Post article, ad-libs to call the Washington Post "a terrible newspaper that doesn't know how to write the truth." He then has to continue as follows: "...published a story...and in this case, they might have gotten it pretty correct..."
Trump makes fun of former FBI officials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, dramatically depicting their romantic relationship. He then criticizes "phony polls" and "crooked writers."
Trump is telling a Darling story, a cousin of the Sir story, about how he told the First Lady, darling, that he was finally going to get "respect" from the media after he was elected, but instead coverage got worse.
Trump rants about the media at length, then calls Democrats' impeachment push "insane," then cites Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, "the great Mark Levin," and Lou Dobbs. He usually gets a bit further into his prepared text before beginning to talk like this.
Trump: "I'm energized. Because we're draining the swamp."
Trump: "The Democrats' brazen attempt to overthrow our government will produce a backlash at the ballot box the likes of which they have never, ever seen before in the history of this country."
Trump says "everybody that looked at" his phone call with Ukraine's president thought it was "perfect." That is not even true of Trump administration officials.
"These people are sick, I'm telling you. They're sick," Trump says of Adam Schiff and Nancy Pelosi, who are booed loudly.
After criticizing Schiff's second-person rendition of his Ukraine call, Trump does a fictional second-person rendition of what Pelosi supposedly said after seeing the rough transcript of his Ukraine call, claiming she said, "What the hell? Nobody ever told me this was the call."
Trump: "Democrats are on a crusade to destroy our democracy. That's what's happening. We will never let it happen. We will defeat them."
The president to residents of Minneapolis: "You've got a rotten mayor. You've gotta change your mayor. You've got a bad mayor."
Trump congratulates police officers at length for evicting a protester very quickly, then moves on to insulting Joe Biden. "If you can't beat him in a debate, you can't be president," he says.
Trump mocks the media for habitually saying Trump's accusations against the Bidens are "unsubstantiated." (Many of them are unsubstantiated.) He mocks Hunter Biden and then "Sleepy Eyes Chuck Todd."
Trump calls Hunter Biden a "loser" while questioning his business dealings in China. "Your father was never considered smart," he adds.
Trump on Biden: "He was only a good vice president because he understood how to kiss Barack Obama's ass."
Trump criticized Hunter Biden at length, then returned to Joe Biden. He claims the elder Biden "sold out America" by dealing weakly with China. He claims "we're respected again as a nation" now that he is president.
Trump: "Isn't it much better when I go off script? Isn't that better? So much better." (Cheers.) "It's just -- it's just -- hey folks, the greatest buyer of advertisements of the history of the world: Mike Lindell, My Pillow. I have never seen so many ads."
With an abrupt "anyway," Trump transitions from the My Pillow guy to the "lawless political establishment" that will "try to frame you."
Trump on Pelosi: "She's either got one of two problems. She's either really stupid, or she's really lost it, or maybe there's a certain dishonesty in there someplace."
Trump is again bitterly and vaguely attacking the integrity of the special counsel's investigation. "They ruined people. They destroyed people. Good people," he says. "They're vicious, horrible, and the media was behind every single step." There are boos.
Trump is telling the story about how his old friends are now "afraid" to speak to him because he's president, and won't call him "Donald" anymore, only president. "I WANT SOMEBODY TO CALL ME DONALD," he says. The crowd starts a loud DO-NALD chant.
Trump says he'll promise not to serve "more than 16 years," then says he's only kidding, to troll the media.
Trump, shouting, says he was asked what nation is toughest to deal with, North Korea etc. etc., and: "I said you're not gonna believe this: it's -- the USA is the toughest nation to deal with! The USA. It's true. Because we're dealing with some very sick and deranged people."
Trump is mocking articles about how he profits from people staying at his hotels for piddling amounts in the hundreds of dollars. He then mocks the word "emoluments." He claims he's lost "billions" from being president.
Trump begins his criticism of Minnesota's Ilhan Omar, whose name comes out of his mouth something like "Ilyeean."
Trump is criticizing Ilhan Omar for some of her comments about Israel. "I'm very angry at you people right now" for electing a person like that, he says. "She is a disgrace to our country."
The president is quoting at length from the right-wing blog Powerline, citing its accusations about Ilhan Omar's family history.
Trump: "You know, Hispanic, they understand borders better than anybody. Better than we do."
He's actually been making fewer objectively false claims than usual, so far. It's more incendiary/ranty/odd than provably inaccurate.
Trump on his campaign manager: "Nobody knows the world of computers better than this guy: Brad Parscale."
Trump boasts about his victory in the election three years ago. For more than the 25th time as president, he says the Electoral College score was 306 to "223." Before faithless electors, it was 306 to 232.
Trump claims that if he'd actually wanted to win the popular vote, he would have gone to "four states, maximum," instead of all the states he did go to. ?
Trump is shouting about how the media supposedly said he couldn't get 270 electoral votes. He says he got a headache "almost as bad as listening to Mike's damn commercials about those pillows. Maybe I need one of those pillows to cure my headache. Does it cure headaches?"
Trump's pitch for re-election: "It's like a tree, you plant it, you plant it, it has to go, but it needs a little -- that's why we need the four additional years. It has to grab on and catch. So they can't destroy it."
After slamming Fox in the morning, Trump praises Fox and Friends hosts by name, then Jesse Watters, then Tucker Carlson, then "the legendary Sean Hannity," then Laura Ingraham, then Maria Bartiromo, and "the great Lou Dobbs," and "Gregg," and "we can't forget Judge Jeanine."
Trump says his dad told him not to say "cops," because it's disrespectful; you say police officers.
Trump calls up the head of the Minneapolis police union, who he says he saw praising him on Fox and Friends, and other officers wearing Cops for Trump shirts.
Trump is criticizing the government for allowing large numbers of Somali refugees to come to Minnesota. He promises local governments a greater say in who gets to live there, then boasts of reducing refugee resettlement by 85%.
Trump says he won't make the immigration mistakes he says European countries made, so will not allow "a violent ideology to take root in our country, on our shores." He doesn't name the ideology, but then touts his (Muslim-focused) travel ban.
Interlude: THE WASHINGTON MYSTICS!!! Ok sorry
Trump claims he's building the wall "faster than anyone ever anticipated it could be built." Zero new miles had been erected as of September 30 where barriers hadn't been existed before; there were about 70 miles of replacement barriers.
Trump is telling his multi-sir story about his trip to Iraq and how generals there told him ISIS could be defeated rapidly if only soldiers were actually allowed to fight, and he let them fight, and "we won very quickly." He's stopped mentioning Raisin Caine in particular.
Trump: Turkey's campaign is "very tough," and "we get along with the Kurds," but don't forget "they're also fighting for their land."
Trump is now talking about letters he signs to the families of soldiers who are killed. "Dear Mr. and Mrs. Smith from Arkansas. Dear Mr. and Mrs. Jones from Alabama. Dear Mr. and Mrs...somebody from some great state. I'm sorry to inform you your son has been killed in combat."
Trump complains of "blue on green" killings where local soldiers the US is training turn around and kill American soldiers. He says he knows each and every one of these incidents. (It's usually known as "green on blue.")
Trump is now talking again about Dover Air Force Base ceremonies for deceased soldiers, and how the plane flies in, this "big, incredible machine...so powerful, so big," and parents seem to him like they're doing "absolutely fine" but then "scream and cry" when the coffin comes.
Trump uses his account of devastating ceremonies at Dover Air Force Base to argue that it's time to bring soldiers home. He wrongly says again that the Syria mission was initially supposed to last "30 days."
Trump is telling the story of the wounded soldier he met whose nose was shattered in war. This time, he says the soldier told him of the military surgeon, "He rebuilt my nose with glue. He glued the bones together."
There have been a lot of sirs in this speech.
Trump falsely says "most" captured ISIS fighters "came from Europe." The military says about 8,000 of about 10,000 detainees are Iraqi and Syrian nationals. Trump himself has previously put the European number at 800.
Trump says US wars in the Middle East "produced only chaos and bloodshed," and all the US "blood and treasure" have only made the region "less safe, less stable, and less secure."
Trump says previous admins put "historic Christian communities in vastly more danger than they were before we started. They are some of the biggest victims of these power vacuums and restless foreign adventures." He doesn't talk about Christians affected by his Syria decision.
Trump repeats his ridiculous Sir story about a general telling him "sir, we have no ammunition." There was a perceived shortage of certain bombs, but there was never "no ammunition." My fact check: cnn.com/2019/10/09/pol…
Trump tells a sir story about a "strong guy" with "tears in his eyes."
Trump repeats his nonsensical promise to "always protect patients with pre-existing conditions." He's repeatedly tried to weaken or eradicate Obamacare's protections for patients with pre-existing conditions.
I think this is the most discrete sir stories of any Trump speech.
Per Bill Frischling of the superb website @FactbaseFeed, this is now Trump's longest speech as president aside from the two-hour CPAC epic. Here's my story about how his rallies have gotten way longer this year. cnn.com/2019/09/21/pol…
Trump again promises to cure childhood cancer and end the AIDS epidemic in America within 10 years. "Nobody thought that could be done," he says as if it has already happened, then adds, "It's gonna be done."
Trump: "The best is yet to come."
Trump has finished his speech after about one hour and 40 minutes. That was his longest campaign rally.
