Donald Trump’s Superspreader Tour 2020 hit its latest campaign stop in Ocala, Florida today after the president’s disastrous town hall appearance last night.
Trump was obviously much happier to just ramble about whatever grievance or boast that came into his head during the rally rather than being asked tough questions by a persistent journalist like NBC’s Savannah Guthrie at last night’s event.
As usual, the president’s unstructured campaign speech contained plentiful misinformation and lies, false attacks on his political enemies, and Trump’s greatest rally hits, including the perennial favorite chant among his deplorable supporters, “Lock Her Up!”
Vox‘s Aaron Rupar scoured the internet for highlights of Trump’s most notable remarks at the Florida rally some of which we present here for your amusement, disdain, horror, and anger.
It didn’t take long for the president to go after his formidable antagonist from last night’s town hall.
"She's like, disappeared. Nobody can find her. She's not too popular right now" — Trump on Savannah Guthrie after last night's NBC town hall pic.twitter.com/MAW5zmShTN
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 16, 2020
Perhaps, Guthrie isn’t too popular in the Trump camp, but she’s earned nearly unanimous praise for her ability to coax the truth out of the president by simply repeating the questions that he refuses to deliver a straight answer for until he slips up and lets some small kernel of reality intrude on his rote spiel.
Before long, Trump was trotting out his patented crowd-pleasing chant, modified slightly to target Joe Biden rather than his 2016 opponent.
Trump struggles to talk about the US coronavirus death toll, but compares the death toll of nearly 220,000 Americans favorably with a situation in which the government did absolutely nothing at all pic.twitter.com/QRvzx9wSVT
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 16, 2020
It’s kind of pathetic to see our nation’s president tout an American death toll greater than the combined number of our countrymen killed in World War I, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War, and the conflicts in the Middle East as a win for his administration, but then again what else has he got?
If you answered unironic, unintentional humor you may be right.
Trump’s claim that “the Biden family is a criminal enterprise” is downright laughable when you consider the tax evasion charges, the children’s charity swindling, Trump University, the emoluments, the sexual assault and rape charges, and the many other illegal activities that have been attributed to the president and his family.
Then again, psychological projection has always seemed to be this president’s favorite form of exercise outside of climbing in and out of a golf cart.
Where's Nestor? pic.twitter.com/9fuf8mzYm2
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 16, 2020
Trump’s diminished mental acuity was on full display as he mistakenly gave a shout out to Rick Gates — his former campaign aide who testified against his partner Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort during the Mueller investigation.
That the person he was referring to was actually his slavish congressional lapdog Congressman Matt Gaetz (R-FL) made the gaffe even sweeter, knowing that the DUI-prone legislator was likely burning with embarrassment over the fact that his hero couldn’t even remember his name properly.
Trump quips about serving three more terms in office pic.twitter.com/0vnPfA4wkd
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 16, 2020
Three more terms in prison would be a whole lot more likely than the scenario that Trump describes there.
Trump continued to spew his lies and venom before turning to his reliable attack on the media as “the enemy of the people.”
A quick word of caution. anyone who ever tells you that a free press is the enemy of the people probably deserves that title for themselves.
"We can share a microphone now" — Hope Hicks is at the rally, not wearing a mask, and for some reason she gets up to the lectern and says (literally) a couple words pic.twitter.com/ma55BJJWb5
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 16, 2020
Trump seems to know that he is far behind in the polls despite denigrating any poll that actually reflects public sentiment, and this is likely why he has been so anxious to resume his rallies so soon after his coronavirus infection.
The president gave a hint that his stamina to endure a punishing schedule of appearances across the country was chemically enabled with one of his last statements at the Ocala, Florida rally.
Ron DeSantis is mingling with people without a mask pic.twitter.com/l0gDOBXvx1
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 16, 2020
As progressives contemplate how to overcome the evil forces of Republicanism, Trump’s allies suggest that Darwin may take on a considerable portion of that burden on their behalf.
However, we can’t count on COVID-19 itself to reduce the president’s base sufficiently enough to overcome the inevitable efforts to fix the election in Trump’s favor through legal maneuvers or outright cheating.
Get out and vote Joe Biden into an unassailable margin of victory, and next year we won’t have to endure Trump’s batshit crazy blathering a moment longer.
Follow Vinnie Longobardo on Twitter.
Original reporting by Aaron Rupar at Vox.
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