LAS VEGAS (AP) — Former President Donald Trump rallied voters in the scorching heat of Las Vegas, telling supporters to ask for help if they need it and showing frustration that his teleprompter wasn’t working.
The presumptive Republican nominee’s campaign hired additional medical staff to carry fans and water bottles and allowed supporters to carry umbrellas to an outdoor rally in Las Vegas on Sunday where temperatures exceeded 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37.8 Celsius).
“I don’t want anyone to get in my way. We need every voter. I don’t care about you. “I just want your vote,” he joked.
He said early in his speech that the campaign would help those feeling tired and joked that “everyone,” including the U.S. Secret Service, was worried about the safety of the crowd, not his own.
“They never mentioned me. “I’m sweating like a dog here,” he said. “This is hard work.”
Trump returned to Nevada, one of the biggest battlegrounds in the November election, for his second rally since his conviction in the hush money scandal.
The former president’s unprecedented conviction has revitalized Trump’s fundraising efforts and energized his supporters, but it remains to be seen whether it will sway swing voters. President Trump is scheduled to be interviewed by New York probation officers via videoconference on Monday ahead of his sentencing in July.
Temperatures in the Southwest have cooled since hitting record highs late last week, but temperatures remained above normal for this time of year, exceeding 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 Celsius) at the rally, held in a barely shaded park next to the airport.
Trump said during his speech that it was “not as bad” as he thought, and that he was more upset that the teleprompter wasn’t working properly, even when he mocked President Barack Obama for relying on it.
“I pay all this money to teleprompter people, and 20 percent of the time they don’t work.” He added that he would not pay the vendor that provided the teleprompter. “It’s such a mess.”
Campaign organizers handed out water bottles to supporters as they lined up to be screened by security guards. Inside the venue, large fog fans, water pallets and cooling tents were placed around the perimeter. About two hours before Trump took the stage, clouds rolled in and a gentle breeze appeared, providing relief from the oppressive sun.
“This is dry heat. This means nothing to the people of Las Vegas,” said Nevada GOP Chairman Michael McDonald. “But what it symbolizes for the rest of America is that we are going to go through hell,” Donald Trump said when he was elected.
MacDonald and five other Republican lawmakers were indicted on charges of submitting a certificate to Congress that falsely declared Trump the winner of Nevada’s 2020 presidential election, and their trial has been postponed until next year.
Trump said the rioters who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, were “victims” of a “set-up.”
“They were, first and foremost, victims of what happened. All they did was protest election fraud. That’s what they were doing. Then the police say, go in, go in, go in, go in.” “What a setting. “It’s a terrible, terrible thing.”
The conspiracy theory that the January 6 rioters were encouraged by law enforcement agencies is widespread on the right, but has no basis in fact. Many of those who were at the Capitol on January 6 have proudly, publicly and repeatedly said they did so to help the then-President.
Federal and state election officials and President Trump’s attorney general have said there is no credible evidence that the 2020 election was tainted. The former president’s fraud charges were also roundly rejected by courts, including judges appointed by Trump.
The campaign paid to provide additional EMS services on site in the event of an emergency. The Secret Service has made an exception to allow people to bring in their own water bottles and umbrellas. Food trucks sold shaved ice and large cups of lemonade.
“You know what? It’s worth it,” said Camille Lombardi, 65, a retired nurse from the Las Vegas suburb of Henderson, who met President Trump in person for the first time. “It’s a shame it’s not indoors, but it’s okay.”
At a Trump rally in Arizona on Thursday, the Phoenix Police Department said 11 people were taken to the hospital for heatstroke, treated and released. Many Trump supporters waited in line for hours, and some were unable to get inside before the venue reached capacity. Temperatures that day reached a record-breaking 113 degrees Fahrenheit (45 degrees Celsius).
Trump’s Nevada rally, his third in the state this year, came at the end of a western swing that has included several high-dollar fundraisers where he is expected to rake in millions of dollars.
Democrat Hillary Clinton won Nevada in 2016, and President Joe Biden also won in 2020, but Nevada was the only battleground where Trump fared better against Biden than Clinton. In the 2022 midterms, Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak, a Democrat, was the only incumbent governor not to win re-election.
Trump is hoping his strength among working-class voters and growing interest among Latinos will allow him to win the state.
President Trump said he would seek to eliminate taxes on tips, a key source of income for food servers, bartenders and others who power Nevada’s large hospitality workforce.
His campaign announced a new push for Hispanic voters ahead of an event with the Latino Americans for Trump Coalition. Four of the speakers who warmed up the crowd before Trump took the stage were Hispanic immigrants.
Gomez Licon reported from Miami.
