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The crowd chanted “lock her up” as Trump repeated a promise to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate Clinton’s use of a private email server and destruction of her personal emails. He also said he would investigate the FBI investigation that exonerated Clinton of criminal wrongdoing but found that she and her staff were very careless in using the private email server for official business.
Clinton reaction
The Clinton campaign released statements from two Cincinnati Clinton supporters after the rally.
“I have voted Republican in every election but today I voted early for Hillary Clinton for president,” said Robert Kearney, a veteran and Cincinnati resident. “I am placing the nation I served and defended over the party I chose.”
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“It’s upsetting to have Donald Trump in town today, for many reasons, including the hateful, disgusting and dangerous things he says and does,” said Caroline Lembright, a student at the University of Cincinnati.
Going after Ohio
U.S. Bank Arena is home to many loud and raucous concerts, and that was the mood Thursday evening, complete with the loud music blaring and dramatic light show as Trump entered. The crowd was 100 percent with Trump, despite his rough week. When the national news media walked in the crowd erupted with jeers and shouts against the media, a moment that was repeated when Trump denounced the media in his speech.
Trump said there were 21,000 people inside the arena and 7,000 waiting to get inside. That could not be independently verified. The arena website says it can seat 17,556 people for a hockey game. The floor was full but more than half of the upper section of seats were vacant. News photographers outside estimated there were about 100 people outside.
Gary Larocca, of Midland, Ohio, said the rally was “moving, inspirational and I think it was defining.”
“They’re reacting to his message and his message is basically that we want change,” Larocca said.
Butler County Sheriff Richard Jones and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani also spoke at the rally.
“You can make a difference. We deport people every day. And we should,” said Jones. “We learn the language, we learn the constitution, we prosper.”
Giuliani claimed the Clintons got rich by “selling out the office of the secretary of state.”
Trump also brought up the WikiLeaks release of Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta’s hacked emails. Trump said those emails proved that the Clinton campaign colluded with the Justice Department and the State Department over the emails. Trump also said that the media colludes with Clinton to give her answers to debate questions.
And Trump also claimed, without offering proof, that Hillary and Bill Clinton “ripped off the wonderful people of Haiti.”
He urged African-Americans to vote for him.
“You have no jobs, no education” and you risk getting shot walking down the street, said Trump. “I say this,’What the hell do you have to lose? Vote for Donald Trump. I will fix it.’”
Trump also said Clinton “wants to end forever the American independence that our soldiers fought and died for” and he painted the Nov. 8 in the starkest of terms.
“Either we win this election or we lose our country,” said Trump. “It’s as simple as that.”
Trump said Ohio has been hit hardest in the country by the loss of jobs to trade deals and he promised to keep companies from leaving.
“No companies are going to leave the state of Ohio without there being serious economic consequences,” Trump said.
Recent allegations
Trump said nothing in Cincinnati about new allegations published in The New York Times and People magazine about women who say Trump groped them. He earlier denied it on his Twitter account and in his speech in West Palm Beach, Fla., Thursday. The new allegations follow the release last Friday of a video from 2005 where Trump made lewd comments about women, which he has since apologized for, but which led to an exodus of GOP officials supporting him.
The campaign for Democratic Party nominee Hillary Clinton issued a statement about the newest allegations.
“This disturbing story sadly fits everything we know about the way Donald Trump has treated women. These reports suggest that he lied on the debate stage and that the disgusting behavior he bragged about in the tape are more than just words,” said Communications Director Jennifer Palmieri.
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