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MANCHESTER, NEW HAMPSHIRE — A crowd of over 1,000 people gathered at the Radisson Hotel in Manchester on Friday for the chance to see Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump speak.
Local politicians and campaign officials, in addition to prominent surrogates such as retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn and former New Hampshire Gov. John Sununu, accompanied the Republican nominee at the hotel.
Each gave passionate speeches in support of Trump, while also underscoring what they believe to be examples of the Democrats’ failures in New Hampshire.
Trump, upon arrival, had just heard the news of the FBI continuing to look into new emails they believe to be related to his opponent, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and both he and the audience were elated by the news.
“Hillary Clinton’s corruption is on a scale we have never seen before,” he said. “We must never let her take her criminal scheme to the oval office.”
The audience became more impassioned whenever Trump called out Clinton by name, frequently breaking into chants of the phrase, “Lock her up.”
While Trump talked about many of his policies and the things he plans to do should he get elected, much of the rally Trump focused on Clinton’s incompetence to be president.
“[Hillary Clinton’s scandal] is bigger than Watergate,” Trump said. “She bleached and deleted 33,000 emails after receiving a subpoena … that alone says enough.”
Trump cited examples of mistakes he believes Clinton made during her time as a public official.
“She lied to Congress, she lied to the FBI, she made 13 phones disappear, some with a hammer,” he said. “The Clinton crew gave over $65,000 to the wife of the deputy director of the FBI and the man who was overseeing the investigation into her illegal server.” He then shouted, “These people are seriously corrupt.”
Trump talked about New Hampshire’s heroin epidemic, and promised to fix the problem if he gets elected.
“New Hampshire, more than any other place, taught me about all the drugs flowing in to this country,” Trump said. “And if I win, we are going to stop the inflow of drugs into New Hampshire, and into all parts of the country.”
Trump reiterated his promise to build a wall along the country’s southern border, and told the stories of the people he had met on the campaign trail whose children were killed by illegal immigrants.
Several attendees expressed dissatisfaction with the state of the nation and felt that the United States is reaching a tipping point, with this election being their last opportunity to save it.
Paula Johnson, 63, of Nashua, New Hampshire and a co-chair of New Hampshire Women Coalition for the Trump/Pence campaign, spoke during the rally. Before the rally began, she voiced her support for Trump, and said his comments about women aren’t as concerning as Clinton’s behaviors.
“Trump earns the women’s vote every day — if you take a look at the rallies, there’s more and more of us coming every day. Just look at this rally here, you can see how many women are here, and I’ve been talking to many women,” Johnson said. “[Trump opponents keep] telling us that they can’t understand why the press keeps saying every day that ‘women don’t like Trump.’”
Johnson went on to comment about the 2005 footage of Trump speaking to Billy Bush.
“I’m 63 years old; [Trump’s comments with Billy Bush] didn’t faze me in the least,” she said. “I’m more concerned about all the corruption that Hillary has done and why the FBI hasn’t put her in jail, than what anything Mr. Trump might have said.”
Bob Felsberg, 64, of North Andover, Massachusetts, agreed that a vote for Trump would ensure the protection of certain freedoms granted to Americans.
“We’re Americans. We want to preserve our rights, our freedoms,” he said. “We cannot afford four more years of an Obama administration, and that’s what you’d get with Hillary Clinton. These are un-American people, but Donald Trump isn’t.”
Andrew Dow, 50, of Farmington, New Hampshire said he was glad to hear the FBI is continuing to look into emails that are possibly related to Clinton.
“I’m an independent, and I’m supporting Donald Trump because of the second amendment, and partial-birth abortion is just something I can’t agree with,” Dow said. “Hillary is for open borders. If she gets in we’ll lose our sovereignty, unemployment will go through the roof, wages will crash. You can’t add 10 million people to the economy and expect the taxpayers to be able to afford it.”
