President Donald Trump took aim at the “hateful” and “enraged” Democrats leading the ongoing impeachment inquiry at his “Keep America Great” campaign rally in Dallas Thursday night.
The president spoke at the American Airlines Center to over 20,000 supporters, with several thousand others also watching outside the arena.
Trump said he doesn’t believe Democrats “love this country anymore” and that “the survival of American democracy” is at stake in the upcoming election.
“The Democrats have betrayed our country,” Trump said. “But no matter how hard they try the people of America, and the people of Texas, will never stop believing.”
Trump also fired back at House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who said he had a “meltdown” during a meeting with congressional Democrats Wednesday at the White House.
Trump called Pelosi “crazy” numerous times and told supporters her party is “crooked…far worse now than they’ve ever been.”
Trump also warned the move to possibly oust him through the impeachment process will backfire against the Democrats and he said he’d win reelection in 2020.
“It’s going to be a landslide,” Trump said. “We have to make it a landslide.”
In nearby Grand Prairie, Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke held a counter-rally to a crowd of about 5,500.
Trump called the former El Paso congressman “very dumb” for suggesting he’d remove tax-exempt status on religious institutions that provide public services but discriminate against same-sex marriage, as well as his call for a mandatory buyback program for assault weapons.
“Beto, in a few short weeks, got rid of guns and got rid of religion,” Trump said. “Those are not two good things in Texas.”
The president also called out Democrats for engaging in “endless wars” that bring “death and destruction” before highlighting the five-day ceasefire his administration brokered between Turkey and Syria earlier Thursday.
“It’s tough love with Turkey; if we didn’t have tough love then we wouldn’t have been able to make this deal,” Trump said. “Without spilling American blood–not one drop–we’ve all agreed on a pause or ceasefire on the border region of Syria.”
Vice President Mike Pence and Turkish President Recep Erdoğan brokered a deal this week that brought a ceasefire between the two countries, during which time YPG fighters–a Syrian Kurdish fighting force in the region that has helped the U.S. fight ISIS for years–would withdraw from a 20-mile safe zone near the Turkish border.
“The same people wanting us to continue these endless wars overseas are the same people who want undocumented people from other countries to come in,” Trump said.
