LIVE BLOG: Trump holds Illinois rally after Supreme Court overturns Roe
Former President Donald Trump held one of his “Save America” rallies in Mendon, Illinois, Saturday evening in his first public appearance after the Supreme Court voted to overturn the landmark abortion case Roe v. Wade.
The former president spoke to supporters at the Adams County Fairgrounds, located 20 minutes outside of Quincy, a deep-red region of the largely blue state, to stump for Rep. Mary Miller (R-IL). Miller, who currently represents the area, is embroiled in a bitter primary fight against Rep. Rodney Davis (R-IL).
Davis, who has been known as a mainstream member of the GOP, is being pulled to the far-right of his party after the state redrew its congressional map and set the two House Republicans up for a showdown. Miller, who is serving her first term, currently represents Illinois’s 15th Congressional district, while Davis has represented the much more moderate 13th District since 2012. He is now seeking to take Miller’s seat in the newly drawn map.
As their primary fight heats up, Davis is taking heat from critics to his right over his stance on the 2020 presidential election. Davis, who will head the House Administration Committee if he wins his primary and Republicans retake the House in November, voted to certify President Joe Biden’s election victory and supported the original bipartisan Jan. 6 commission that was killed in the Senate.
Abortion was the main topic of the evening, as Trump took a victory lap over the Supreme Court’s overturn of Roe. On Friday, he took credit for the court’s landmark ruling on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.
Follow along here to see how the speech unfolded.
The former president predicted a red wave in November as he wrapped up his speech, saying: “This is the year we’re going to take back the House. We’re going to take back the Senate and we’re going to take back America. And in 2024 most importantly, we are going to take back our magnificent White House.”
Going back to his endorsement of Rep. Mary Miller, he then said, “But first, we have to secure a massive victory for Mary.”
As he closed, a storm began forming above the fairgrounds, which he said was reason to end the speech and get everybody on their way home.
“Two years ago we had the greatest nation in the world like never before. We’ve never had greatness like that. It was hard working patriots like you that did all of this, you built our country,” he said. “And so that you can continue to build our country, I’m gonna get you out of this lightning.”
“Already this year, there have been over 24,000 violent crimes in Chicago alone,” Trump said, asking how such a number could even be possible. “That’s just a statistic that I got out of a book. And it’s true all over the country. There’s crime all over the country in Democrat run cities.”
“Here’s an idea,” he continued. “Instead of targeting Republicans, conservatives, Christians, and patriotic parents, the Biden administration should try going in and dismantling the Crips, the Bloods, MS-13. How about BLM? How about Antifa and the other savage street gangs who are turning our communities into a warzone?” he asked the crowd.
“Its as if we lived in a third world nation, this is not our country, what’s happening,” he continued, adding, “All Democrat run cities and literally you have hundreds of people a month being shot. And instead of taking guns away from law abiding Americans, we should try taking them away from the gangs, the cartels, and the violent criminals.”
Trump called it “sad” that President Biden and the Democrats in Congress were not responding in the same way as he and Republicans had to the migrant crisis.
“Did you see what’s happening? You know, the fake news media won’t cover it,” he said of the crisis. “They never cover it. They don’t show these massive caravans, thousands and thousands and thousands of people pouring into our country, hundreds of thousands of people a month. Numbers that are far greater than you hear, they don’t even cover it.”
After slamming Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker over COVID-19 lockdowns, Trump announced he would be endorsing State Sen. Darren Bailey in the GOP gubernatorial primary.
He then compared the level of crime in Chicago to what occurred in Afghanistan before the U.S. military withdrawal, saying that there were no Americans shot in 18 months in the Middle East country, whereas
“Eighteen months we didn’t have one soldier shot or killed, not even shot at,” he said. “And then you look at Chicago. What do you have? 38 [people shot in] a week.”
Trump invited Miller, who he called a “high quality person,” to the stage.
After the cheers died down, Miller said it was “such an honor to be able to welcome you to God’s country.”
“President Trump, on behalf of all the MAGA patriots in America, I want to thank you for the historic victory for white life in the Supreme Court yesterday,” she added, sparking more applause from the crowd. “Our victories for life and the Second Amendment would never have been possible if the Never Trump RINOs had gotten the way.”
“We need to elect America first conservatives to Congress and then we need to get that weak and incompetent man out of the Oval Office and get President Trump back,” she then said, making reference to President Joe Biden.
“This was an organized and concentrated effort to threaten the court and interfere with its decisions,” Trump said of the threats against justices and pro-life organizations. “But the justices stood their ground against these extremists in these tariffs and they did not back down.”
“To this day, the leaders of the Democratic Party have failed to forcefully condemn the violence and threats and hold the perpetrators accountable. There could be no greater illustration of the two tiered system of justice,” he continued.
He then slammed Democrats for prioritizing Jan. 6 investigations over the threats against Supreme Court justices after the Dobbs draft was leaked in May.
“At the very moment the radical Democrats are staging a ridiculous fake trial over January 6, their party leaders are saying nothing about the violent intimidation of the United States Supreme Court,” he said. “They refuse to talk about it. They refuse to do anything.”
“I especially want to commend the justices for standing strong in the face of outrageous threats and even violence,” the 45th president said. “You’ve been seeing what’s been going on. There’s never been a time like this. The left wing campaign of terror directed at the Supreme Court in recent months is unlike anything in the history of our country.”
“The attempted assassination of Justice Kavanaugh, the illegal intimidation of justices homes and the radical left’s violent terrorist attacks on pro-life centers were a frontal assault on our republic,” he continued.
Trump noted how during his 2016 presidential campaign, “I promised to nominate judges and justices who would stand up for the original meaning of the Constitution and who would honestly and faithfully interpret the law as written. We got almost 300 federal judges and three great Supreme Court justices confirmed to do exactly that.”
“Thanks to the courage found within the United States Supreme Court, this long divisive issue will be decided by the states, and by the American people,” the former president continued. “That’s the way it should have been many many years ago and that’s the way it is now.”
“Yesterday the court handed down a ruling for the Constitution,” Trump told the crowd, spurring more cheers. “A victory for the rule of law and above all, a victory for life.”
“This breakthrough is the answer to the prayers of millions and millions of people, and these prayers have gone on for decades. For decades and decades they’ve been praying and now those prayers have been answered.”
The former president has taken the stage to cheers from the crowd. After mentioning Rep. Mary Miller, who he’s endorsed over Rep. Rodney Davis, Trump celebrated the “big news” that came from the Supreme Court the day before.
The crowd responded with repeated chants of “Thank you Trump” after.
