Trump says Joe Biden 'will turn Minnesota into a refugee camp'

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President Trump told a crowd of supporters in Bemidji, Minnesota that Joe Biden "will turn Minnesota into a refugee camp."

The president hit refugees, in particular Somali nationals, who committed crimes in the U.S. There are 43,000 Somalis living in Minnesota.

“Biden has promised a 700 percent increase in the importation of refugees from the most dangerous places in the world,” Trump remarked. “Biden will overwhelm your children's schools, overcrowd their classrooms, and inundate your hospitals in the middle of a global pandemic.  Biden has even pledged to terminate our travel ban on jihadist regions - opening the floodgates to radical Islamic terrorism.”

"My Administration is keeping terrorists, extremists and criminals OUT of our country.  Just today, we deported dozens of Somali nationals charged or convicted for grave crimes - including rape, assault, robbery, terrorism charges, and MURDER,” he continued.

Trump also described his opponent Joe Biden as “wholly-owned and controlled by the left-wing mob,” noting that he’d opposed sending in the National Guard.

“Biden said nothing when the Minneapolis City Council voted to abolish its police Department,” Trump told the crowd. “After Congresswoman Ilhan Omar called the Minneapolis Police a ‘cancer’ that is ‘rotten to the root,’ Biden proudly accepted her endorsement."

Minneapolis City Council members, who just two months ago moved to eliminate the police department, sounded the alarm during a Wednesday meeting about a surge in crime seen by their constituents.

"These are Democrat-run disasters. Look at Chicago, look at Portland, look at you with Minneapolis," Trump said. "Are they still trying to get rid of their police force in Minneapolis? They never learn."

Trump accused Biden of supporting “every disastrous global sellout for half-a-century - including NAFTA, TPP, South Korea, and China's entry into the World Trade Organization.”

“If it were up to Joe, bin Laden and Soleimani would still be alive, ISIS would still be on the rampage, Iran would control the Middle East, and China would now be the dominant power in the world,” Trump continued. In his next term, he promised to make the U.S. the “manufacturing superpower of the world” and end reliance on China.

Trump made the lofty promise to “provide school choice to every parent in America.” Expansion of vouchers, tuition tax credits or similar forms of choice have thus far in his presidency failed to make it out of Congress.

Trump said Biden is "too weak to control his people," and "couldn't put two sentences together.

He hit his opponent for spending much of the pandemic at home, and holding small, socially distanced events when he's in public.

"You know why he does the circles? He can't draw a crowd he has like four or five people in a circle that way he doesn't have to be embarrassed."

Trump pivoted to his former opponent, Hillary Clinton, and a "lock her up chant broke out amongst the crowd. "She deletes her emails aoc gets rid of $2 million nothing happens," the president said. "Pelosi goes out says you know i think ill have my hair done," he added, referring to the San Francisco hair salon controversy. 

A solidly blue state for the past half century, Minnesota became an unquestioned presidential battleground on Friday as President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden fought for working-class voters in dueling events that marked the beginning of early voting.

Trump touted that he had “rescued” the Minnesota Range after his opponent “wiped out” and gave the jobs to foreign countries.

The candidates steered clear of the state’s most populated areas near Minneapolis to focus on blue-collar voters, some of whom shifted to Republicans for the first time in 2016.While Trump was in Bemidji, Biden campaigned in a suburb of Duluth, on the banks of Lake Superior and close to the Wisconsin border.

“Seven plants were idled and more than 2,000 workers were laid off. After I put tariffs on foreign steel, the Iron Range came roaring back to life,” he said. “Our miners are back on the job - and wages have increased by as much as 50 percent. Nine Democrat mayors of cities in the Iron Range have endorsed me over Joe Biden-because they know Biden will shut down the Iron Range forever.”

Biden, in addition to hitting Trump over his coronavirus response, emphasized his plans to boost American manufacturing.

“It’s time to reward hard work in America and not wealth,” he said at a carpenter’s union training hall.

“When the government spends taxpayers’ money, we should spend that money to buy American products made by American workers and American supply chains to generate American growth,” Biden said. He promised to invest $400 billion in federal money over his first term to ensure more products are made in America.”

Since narrowly losing Minnesota in 2016, Trump has emphasized the state in hopes that a victory this year could offset losses in other states. He has visited regularly and kept a close eye on issues of particular importance to rural corners of the state. He’s reversed an Obama administration policy prohibiting the development of copper-nickel mining and has bailed out soybean, corn and other farmers who have been hurt by trade clashes with China.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.