The New York Times posted its piece on how Donald Trump may not have paid federal income taxes for 18 years just as the Republican presidential candidate took the stage for a rally in Manheim, Pennsylvania. Trump was 102 minutes late to getting the rally started and once he did, the candidate just seemed to find it impossible to stick to the script. Throughout his speech, Trump went off topic several times to lob what may very well be some of the wildest accusations against Hillary Clinton and the American election process in general. And there were also some head-scratching tangents about how Hollywood doesn’t make good movies anymore and praise for the success of the Apprentice.
For the second day in a row, Trump told a mostly white audience that they need to monitor polls in “certain” areas because voter fraud is a really big deal and could cost him the election. “You’ve got to go out, and you’ve got to get your friends, and you’ve got to get everybody you know, and you gotta watch the polling booths, because I hear too many stories about Pennsylvania, certain areas,” Trump said during the speech. “I hear too many bad stories, and we can’t lose an election because of you know what I’m talking about. So, go and vote and then go check out areas because a lot of bad things happen, and we don’t want to lose for that reason.” The warnings over voter fraud are particularly concerning considering they come shortly after Trump suggested he may not accept the results of the election if Clinton wins.
At one point, Trump said Clinton did the bidding of her donors and gave away jobs of Pennsylvanians but people probably don’t realize it, and, hey, aren’t movies awful these days? “You’re unsuspecting,” Trump said. “Right now, you say to your wife: ‘Let’s go to a movie after Trump.’ But you won’t do that because you’ll be so high and so excited that no movie is going to satisfy you. OK? No movie. You know why? Honestly? Because they don’t make movies like they used to—is that right?”
That seemed to be the perfect moment for Trump to talk about another aspect of the entertainment industry: himself. “Oh, I could be doing the Apprentice right now,” Trump said. “I loved it—14 seasons. How good was that? Tremendous success. They wanted to extend—I could be doing the Apprentice now. Somehow I think this is a little bit more important. Do we agree? Just a little bit?”
The Republican presidential candidate directly attacked his opponent several times during the speech saying at one point that “she has bad temperament, she could actually be crazy.” He then went on to imply that the former secretary of state had likely been unfaithful to her husband. “Hillary Clinton’s only loyalty is to her financial contributors and to herself … I don’t even think she’s loyal to Bill, if you want to know the truth,” Trump said. “And really, folks, really, why should she be? Right? Why should she be?”
Trump also for some reason thought it’d be a good idea to impersonate how Clinton stumbled because of her pneumonia on Sept. 11. “Here’s a woman, she’s supposed to fight all of these different things, and she can’t make it 15 feet to her car,” Trump said. “Give me a break.” Trump also seemed to veer off script when he brought up Clinton’s use of a private email server. “She should be in prison, let me tell you,” Trump said. “She should be in prison.” The crowd went wild with that one and began chanting: “Lock her up! Lock her up! Lock her up!”
Just another day in the presidential campaign.
