President Donald Trump implored his supporters to vote today, saying the media will treat the midterm results as a referendum on his presidency.
“Even though I’m not on the ballot, in a certain way I am on the ballot,” Trump said during a tele-town hall organized by his re-election campaign Monday to encourage Republicans to get out and vote. “The press is very much considering it a referendum on me and us as a movement.
The comments came as Trump prepared for a final, three-state rally blitz as he tries to keep Congress in Republican control and stave off losses that could profoundly change his presidency.
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Trump’s closing argument has largely focused on fear, warning, with no evidence, that a Democratic takeover would throw the country into chaos, spurring an influx of illegal immigration and a wave of crime.
And yesterday, he made the case that if Democrats win, they will work to roll back everything he’s tried to accomplish. “It’s all fragile,” he said on the call.
Trump held his final three get-out-the-vote rallies yesterday in Ohio, Indiana and Missouri, a day after stops in Tennessee and Georgia, where the president’s closing argument to voters was on stark display as he sought to motivate complacent Republicans to the polls by stoking fears about the prospects of Democratic control.
“You want to see Georgia prosperity end?” Trump told the rally crowd in Macon, Georgia. “Vote for the Democrat.” Trump’s remarks included ominous references to the “Antifa” far-left-leaning militant groups and a migrant caravan marching toward the U.S.-Mexico border that he has called an “invasion.”
Appearing before thousands in an overflowing aircraft hangar in Macon for Republican gubernatorial candidate Brian Kemp, Trump declared, “There’s electricity in the air like I haven’t seen since 16.”
“This is a very important election,” he added. “I wouldn’t say it’s as important as ’16, but it’s right up there.”
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Meanwhile, NBC yesterday pulled a controversial TV ad on immigration that was endorsed by Trump and deemed “racist” by CNN. The primetime ad, paid for by Donald J. Trump for President, ran during a “Sunday Night Football” broadcast and linked Luis Bracamontes, an undocumented immigrant convicted of killing two sheriff’s deputies in California in 2014 to the caravan of immigrants fleeing Central America.
“After further review we recognize the insensitive nature of the ad and have decided to cease airing it across our properties as soon as possible,” said a spokesperson for NBC Universal, owned by Comcast Corp (CMCSA.O), in an emailed statement yesterday.
The ad was earlier rejected by CNN who labeled it “racist.”
“CNN has made it abundantly clear in its editorial coverage that this ad is racist. When presented with an opportunity to be paid to take a version of this ad, we declined. Those are the facts,” the network tweeted on Nov. 3.