Trump-Kanye meeting fires up both sides of the aisle
'The Ingraham Angle' debates the fallout from the high-profile White House meeting.
President Trump said during a rally Friday night in Ohio that he believes Republicans will win over black voters, citing improved economic statistics for African-Americans and saying rapper Kanye West was “amazing” during his energetic Oval Office visit this week.
“We’re asking all African-American voters to honor us with their support this November,” Trump said during a rally in Lebanon, Ohio. “Get away from the Democrats. Get away from the Democrats, they’ve done nothing.”
The president mentioned the decrease in African-American unemployment and poverty figures.
“I think we’re going to get the African-American vote,” Trump said.
The president also referenced his visit on Thursday with West, who wore a red “Make America Great Again” hat during his meeting with the president and said, “When I put this hat on, it made me feel like Superman - my favorite superhero. You made a Superman cape for me."
“Kanye West, what he did, was pretty amazing yesterday,” the president said.
Other Republicans at the rally praised West.
“I never thought I’d say this, but God bless Kanye West,” Ohio Rep. Steve Chabot, running for re-election, told the crowd.
The president addressed a number of topics during the rally, calling it “horrible” how newly installed Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh was treated “unfairly” during the confirmation process. He repeatedly referred to the increasingly aggressive liberal protests as a “mob.” And he repeatedly implored attendees to get out the vote for Republicans in next month’s elections.
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He also took aim again at Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren, joking that Democrats have “have become radicalized” to the point that she now seems “mainstream.” Warren says she is considering a run for president against Trump in 2020.
“I mean Pocahontas – Elizabeth Warren – she’s becoming mainstream, you believe that one?” Trump said.
Trump has been on a campaign swing through competitive states ahead of next month’s midterm elections.
The rally took place at the Warren County Fairgrounds in Lebanon, northeast of Cincinnati. The county is a GOP stronghold, and Trump won two out of every three votes there in 2016 as he decisively carried Ohio.
Chabot, a Cincinnati Republican whose district encompasses Warren County, is in a hotly contested race with Democrat Aftab Pureval, the Hamilton County clerk of courts.
Trump's pick for the GOP nomination for U.S. Senate, Rep. Jim Renacci, is in an uphill battle to unseat two-term U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown.
Republican Attorney General Mike DeWine and Democratic former federal consumer watchdog Richard Cordray are in a tight race to succeed term-limited GOP Gov. John Kasich, a frequent Trump critic who unsuccessfully challenged him for the 2016 presidential nomination.
Former President Barack Obama campaigned for Democratic candidates last month in Cleveland. Obama carried Ohio twice.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.