Photo by Quentin Young, Colorado Newsline.
The following updates were posted on Colorado Newsline on October 11, 2024.
Rep. Lauren Boebert, other GOP speakers address Trump crowd
By Sara Wilson – 12:25pm
A series of speakers has addressed the growing crowd of Trump supporters, including state Rep. Gabe Evans, a Republican running for Colorado’s 8th Congressional District, Republican U.S. Rep. Greg Lopez, who represents Colorado’s 4th Congressional District, and Republican U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, who represents Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District but is running for election in the 4th district.
Aurora City Councilwoman Danielle Jurinsky, who helped elevate claims about a Venezuelan gang taking over Aurora apartment complexes, also spoke.
The theme has overwhelmingly been the criminal danger they see posed by immigrants.
“Trump, back in 2016, warned us that they’re not bringing their best,” Boebert said, referring to comments Trump made about Mexican immigrants at the start of his first presidential campaign. “Everyone lost their minds. But let me tell you — he was right.”
Trump takes the stage at Aurora rally
By Chase Woodruff – 1:53pm
Former President Donald Trump took the stage at his campaign rally in Aurora just before 1:45pm on Friday.
“It’s great to be back in this beautiful state with thousands of proud, hardworking American patriots. That’s what you are,” Trump told a cheering crowd.
“What the hell is happening with our country?” he continued, before thanking a list of Republican speakers who addressed the crowd earlier in the day. “What are they doing? What are they doing to Colorado? They’re ruining your state.”
Trump repeats false claims about Aurora
By Chase Woodruff – 2:22pm
Half an hour into a rambling speech at his rally in Aurora, former President Donald Trump has doubled down on debunked claims that the city “invaded and conquered” by the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.
“Members of the gang now beat down doors with hammers and engage in open gun battles with rival groups in this once peaceful, beautiful, pretty crime-free community,” Trump said.
Crime rates in Aurora and the Denver metro area have been on a sustained decline since late 2022.
Trump also blasted Democratic Governor Jared Polis, whom he called “weak and ineffective,” and complained about the effort last year by a group of Colorado voters who sued to keep him off the presidential ballot under the “insurrection clause” of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution.
“The Supreme Court, very brave and very brilliant, actually voted nine to nothing that I should be on the ballot,” Trump said.
Polls have shown a commanding lead for Vice President Kamala Harris in the battle for the Centennial State’s 10 electoral votes. But Trump called the presidential race in Colorado “very close” and predicted victory here in November.
“I hope that Colorado will show a tremendous protest vote for what they did to try and keep me off the ballot,” he said.
Digressions and interrupted thoughts
By Chase Woodruff – 3:01pm
Former President Donald Trump’s speech at his rally in Aurora has entered its second hour.
Trump, who has bragged during the speech about his lack of dependency on his teleprompter — “I haven’t looked at these stupid things in about 15 minutes,” he said at one point — is frequently interrupting himself and indulging in long digressions.
“On day one of the Trump Organization — Trump Organization, when I founded it, it was nice, but now it’s great,” he said just after 2:40pm. “But I want to get back to the Trump administration. Because the Trump administration is going to do things — is going to do things, like has really never been done. We’re going to clean this thing out.
“The good thing about this four year period — it’s a horrible period, it’s a shame it happened, it should have never happened, it shouldn’t have happened — but they’ve done so badly that we’ll be able to do it, and we’ll be able to do it with cheers, because people see how bad it is and how bad it’s been run,” he continued. “And that’s why there’s far more enthusiasm for this movement — the greatest movement ever, it‘s — there’s — and by the way, if it wasn’t, the fake news would be, headlines: ‘Donald Trump lied.’
“When Biden would get up and he’d say, ‘We’re going to stop MAGA, we’re going to do something about MAGA’ — remember, with the pink wall, he looked like the devil, right?” Trump asked the crowd. “Remember the pink wall? ‘We’re going to stop MAGA. I think it’s called MAGA. We’re going to stop MAGA.’ And I said, ‘Joe, it’s called Make America Great Again.’ And he wants to stop it. He wants to — ‘We’re going to stop that.’ But the border will be sealed.”
Aurora residents, community groups react to Trump’s speech
By Sara Wilson – 6:12pm
Outside 1218 Dallas St. in Aurora, one of the apartments at the center of alleged gang activity, residents and community organizers pushed back on Trump’s speech that linked violent crime with migrants called for a mass deportation of undocumented immigrants.
“We’re here in the community where the rumors and the hate that he’s spreading originated from, and if you look around, it’s a it’s a normal community with residents — some who are immigrants, some who are not — who live here and are just looking to have normal lives with their families,” said Henry Sandman, the co-executive director of the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition.
Veronica, a Venezuelan immigrant who has lived at the apartment since March, said the Trump visit created a bad energy in the community.
“It is not a good example to represent the presidency,” she said through a translator. “There is so much defamation about who we are. I’ve lived here with my family with no problems, and I’ve been living in tranquility.”
Trump’s visit fell on the day that Colorado county clerks are authorized to begin mailing ballots to all registered voters in the state. Voters should expect to receive their ballots in the coming days.