Donald Trump suffered a bizarre onstage meltdown as his big campaign rally was plagued by technical problems.
Both Mr Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris gave rival rallies last night in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. And both events attracted thousands of voters each in the crucial battleground state – which could decide the result of Tuesday’s election.
WAP rapper Cardi B endorsed Ms Harris at her rally – branding Donald Trump a “bully” – and saying “I’m not giving [him] another chance.”
“I can’t stand a bully,” she told the 12,000-strong crowd. “But just like Kamala, I always stand up to one.”
She added: “I wasn’t going to vote this year. But Kamala joining the race changed my mind completely. She’s passionate, she’s compassionate, she shows empathy and most of all, she’s not delusional. People like Donald Trump don’t believe that women deserve rights – and when those rights are taken away they are nowhere to be found.”
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Anadolu via Getty Images)
Meanwhile, Mr Trump spoke to a near-capacity crowd at the Fiserv Forum, the home of NBA team the Milwaukee Bucks.
But the event was dogged by sound problems – with chants of “turn it up” and “fix the mic” repeatedly interrupting his speech. Eventually, Mr Trump realised they were complaining they couldn’t hear him and became apparently furious, ripping the mic from its holder on the podium and ranting about his technical team.
“You’ve gotta be kidding. Do you want to see me knock the hell out of people backstage?” He said. Mr Trump later launched into a bizarre mime, pretending to lean close to where the microphone should have been, with his mouth wide open.
“And then everyone says, is there something wrong with his back?” He complained to the crowd. “What the hell is wrong with him? They’re saying he’s cognitively impaired and physically impaired, because I have people who are stupid back there.”
Elsewhere in his lengthy, rambling address, Mr Trump variously complained he’d delivered two, three and four speeches that day – in fact, he’d delivered two. He branded Ms Harris a “dummy”, and claimed: “She’ll get overwhelmed, melt down and then millions of people will die.”
And continuing his attacks on migrants, he said: “The day I take the oath of office, the migrant invasion ends and the restoration of our country begins.”
“We know who Donald Trump is,” Ms Harris shot back at her rally across town. “This is not someone who is thinking about how to make your life better. This is someone who is increasingly unstable, obsessed with revenge, he is consumed with grievance and the man is out for unchecked power.”
Analysis: Trump has merged muddled far-right politics and team sports fandom
It was all going so well. Donald Trump filled a huge basketball arena with more than 10,000 excited Milwaukee voters.
But his event was plagued with technical issues, to the extent that he spiralled into a mini-meltdown on stage.
At almost the same moment, across town, Kamala Harris had convinced rapper Cardi B – who admitted she hadn’t even intended to vote in this election – to endorse her at a similarly huge rally.
But again, the technology failed and Ms B’s speech didn’t appear on the teleprompter – leaving her to awkwardly vamp for a minute or so while an aide brought her phone, which had the text on it.
It goes to show that you can spend millions of dollars and work insanely hard on your campaign – but the unforeseen will always catch you in the end.
The Trump rally was by far the biggest of his I’ve attended – and had it not fallen apart spectacularly, it would have been the most troubling.
To see so many people chanting about mass deportations, shouting out derogatory comments and wearing T-shirts bearing slogans like “Trump vs Tramp” and “Say no to the hoe” – was shocking.
But the team colours, hats and singalongs soften what otherwise resembled an angry, intolerant mob.
Trump has somehow managed to meld his brand of muddled far-right politics with the trappings of sports fandom – and that’s a dangerous combination.
Fun fact – if case you were wondering exactly how much of celebrity endorsers’ speeches are pre-written and carefully vetted… Jennifer Lopez tearfully told a crowd in Las Vegas on Thursday: “I promised myself I wouldn’t get emotional…”
I can confirm that line was pre-written and appeared on the teleprompter.