HARRISBURG — Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump called on more than 3,000 supporters at a Thursday night rally in Harrisburg to vote for him in Pennsylvania’s primary election on April 26.
Tuesday’s vote will be “the most important vote of your life,” Trump told his audience at the Farm Show Complex arena. He started talking shortly after 7 p.m., not waiting for everyone to be seated. He advised the crowd as they continued to pour in that they should either vote for him or not go to the polls at all.
“You have to go out and vote Tuesday because we have a movement going on,” he said, adding he thinks the Republican Party and his campaign are growing stronger. Trump won a decisive victory in New York on Tuesday, and said he expects to win Pennsylvania.
His speech included his previous calls to build a wall on the U.S.–Mexican border and bring business and jobs back to the U.S. He also said he will make better trade deals with China, recognizing the trade deficit as a problem.
Trump broke away from his routine to say he would like to run against Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, who he thinks is not qualified to be president.
“I think she’s qualified, I guess,” Trump said initially. He said he wanted to expand on comments Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders’ made in the past few weeks about Clinton and her qualifications.
“So now I am going to say she is not qualified,” he said, citing her vote in favor of the war in Iraq when she was a senator. “I want to run against crooked Hillary Clinton.”
Continuing his stump speech, Trump used Harrisburg as an example of a city that lost manufacturing and industrial jobs.
“Harrisburg lost 40 percent of its manufacturing jobs,” he said. “I don’t like the scenery of empty factories everywhere. We are going to bring jobs back to Harrisburg and Pennsylvania.”
Trump responded to “build the wall” chants from the crowd, saying he will build a wall on the Mexican border and help the Hispanic community.
“I will have the most gorgeous wall you have ever seen,” he said to a roaring crowd applauding and chanting “USA.”
“I love Mexico. I love Hispanics,” he said. “I’m going to get jobs for so many Hispanics and African Americans.”
More than a dozen protestors interrupted the rally, distracting Trump from his speech. Police escorted protestors out of the arena about every 10 minutes.
The event lasted about an hour, after which hundreds of people spilled outside the complex to find a crowd of protestors. On each side of a bus road by the complex, hundreds of people with signs yelled, cursed and chanted at each other.
Many of the protestors said they were Bernie Sanders supporters, which got a response from the Trump supporters: “Bernie sucks.”
Dozens of police officers stood shoulder to shoulder, preventing the opposing crowds from meeting each other. After about 30 minutes the Trump supporters left, and shortly afterward officers dispersed the protestors.
Members of Trump’s energized crowd said before they left that the election is over and Trump will win. Winning was one of Trump’s main themes for the evening.
“We are winning,” he said. “We are kicking ass.
“We are going to win so much, some of you folks won’t be able to take it.”
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