Trump trumpets his loudest call to swing North Carolina

A large crowd was moving towards the Republican rally in Concord, North Carolina. We the journalists were among them, to report on what was to be one of the crucial last rallies of Republican Presidential Candidate Donald Trump. 

North Carolina is emerging as the State in which the 2016 US Presidential election will turn. The presence of both the US Presidential candidates on the last days in the major battle-ground State, in their respective rallies, making a last ditch effort to swing the votes in their favour, seems to only endorse this view.

Trump arrived a little late for North Carolina’s Concord rally held in Cabarrus Arena and Events Centre. I was seeing him for the first time in person. Just five feet away, he got on to the podium amidst the thunderous applause of an enthusiastic crowd. Dressed in a black suit and blue tie, he reminded me of his ‘act’ on his famous TV series ‘The Apprentice’ (incidentally aired in Sri Lanka not so long ago).

He looked confident. His interaction with the crowd was impressive and his rhetoric was as per what he has become so well known for.

In his characteristic style, he lashed out at his rival Hilary Clinton from the very commencement of his speech. Approximately 5000 people present, mostly youth, cheered loudly. Some of them were dressed in the Republican Party colour red and several wore the distinctive red baseball cap with the words ‘Make America Great Again’.

Trump attacked Clinton bitterly, accusing her of “far-reaching criminal conduct,” drawing attention to the FBI’s renewed inquiry into Clinton’s e-mail practices while she was Secretary of State, when she used a private server. 

“Now she’s got bigger problems. She got away with murder, honestly,” he said. “She has no right to be running, you know that. But if she was to win it would create an unprecedented constitutional crisis that would cripple the operations of our Government,” he declared. However, he did not provide evidence for his claim.

The GOP nominee also criticised now interim Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Donna Brazile after an e-mail released by the anti-secrecy website Wikileaks indicated that she provided debate questions in advance for the Clinton campaign. Trump said that if he had done something similar, he would have faced a bigger backlash. 

“Headlines will be, Trump to leave race,” he said, referring to what the media reaction would have been had that happened to him.

His visit to the battleground state, and three rallies on the same day came as state-wide poll, ‘Real Clear Politics Average’ showed the two candidates tied at 46.4%. Carolina carries 15 electoral votes and will be among the biggest prizes come tomorrow. This rally was Donald Trump’s second visit to North Carolina in less than a week and the last of three rallies for the day. He knows only too well it is a must win state for him and that he’s got to get the magic number of 270 electoral votes.

Trump criticised Clinton’s support of the Affordable Care Act as well as her positions on education and Middle Eastern foreign policy

He also strategically tapped into an issue that is sensitive and foremost in the mind of many workers in the North Carolina; the loss of manufacturing jobs.

“At the core of my contract is my plan to bring back your jobs that have been taken away,” Trump said to raucous cheers. “North Carolina has lost nearly half of its manufacturing jobs since NAFTA, a deal signed by Bill Clinton and supported by Hilary.” Carolina was once a hotbed of textile manufacturing until foreign markets joined the game with cheaper labour and materials. Local textile mills throughout North Carolina have since shut, often leaving small towns economically reeling. 

Trump cited Pillowtex, the long dead Kannapolis textile giant, which he said laid off 1125 people and “took their jobs to Mexico”. The plant’s abrupt 2003 closure actually wiped out 7650 jobs nationwide, including more than 4000 in Cabarrus and Rowan counties; the biggest one-day job loss in the history of the state and the textile industry at the time.  Trump also referenced Freightliner, which he said laid off 500 people in Mount Holly and “moved their jobs to Mexico”. And finally, he echoed his famous line, “I am going to build that wall,” which resonated with supporters gathered at the rally who responded with thunderous applause. 

Being at the right place at the right time is important for US Presidential candidates. It is the same for those of us handling media coverage of the US presidential election.