The Conversation (0)
Greg Evans
Oct 19, 2020
Donald Trump's spree of campaign rallies in the run-up to the US election continued on Sunday when he spoke to supporters in Carson City, Nevada.
The president spoke for nearly 90 minutes to the jam-packed crowd, where the was little to no evidence of social distancing.
Trump covered the usual topics that he likes to delve into at these types of events such as deriding Joe Biden and downplaying the seriousness of coronavirus.
However, he made a truly bizarre comment about Biden's plans for Christmas, claiming that the Democrat will end the season if he is elected.
Around 65 minutes in the president went on a rambling rant about Biden's plans for the state of Nevada and in a seemingly unrelated note added that Biden will completely end the Christmas season.
Under the Biden lockdown, the lights of Reno and Las Vegas we’re extinguished. Carson City will become a ghost town. If he comes in, Carson City will become a ghost town. And the Christmas season will be cancelled.
Trump didn't really explain how or why Biden would do this but almost immediately went on to another story, claiming that he had single-handedly got people saying 'Merry Christmas' again.
Look, remember I said we’re going to bring back Christmas? The name. Remember? We brought it back. Remember? I used to go around saying, 'We will bring…” Because I saw these big department stores. They thought it was politically correct. So they’d say, 'Have a great season.' I say, 'No, I don’t want to have a great season. I want to say Merry Christmas. Say Merry Christmas.' Now, they’re all saying Merry Christmas.
The president's bizarre and seemingly baseless accusation against Biden comes just a few weeks after audiotapes revealed that the first lady, Melania Trump, isn't a big fan of Christmas.
It's not the first time he's taken credit for Christmas either, claiming in 2017 that people did not use the phrase "merry Christmas" before he was president, leading many people to point to the many occasions where Barack Obama had used the phrase.
Other comments from Trump that raised eyebrows during the rally included the president calling for major US states to open up despite coronavirus still posing a danger.
A classic gripe of the Trump presidency has been water pressure and sure enough, it came up again and went on to talk about people having to flush their toilet 15 times and his 'beautiful hair.'
He then mocks Biden for not having big crowds at his rallies, which is what should be happening during the pandemic, and then claims he's had the 'biggest crowds in the history of politics.'
So he goes out. Gets no people at any of the rallies. I go out, we get 35, 40,000, 25,000, 15,000. We go, boom! 15,000. We get the biggest crowds in the history of politics. Look, everything I say, they’ll correct. They’ll say… Who cares? I don’t even care what they say at this point. But we get these massive crowds. He gets nobody.
Another potentially controversial moment was when Trump commended his son-in-law Jared Kushner for being 'skinny' and 'not having a weight problem.'
In terms of Trump rallies, this was hardly the most outrageous but he's been non-stop on the campaign trail and is set to speak twice in Arizona on Monday and then again in Pennsylvania on Wednesday.
MORE: Joe Biden's wavering commitment on abortion has me worried
Top 100
