Donald Trump begins final push in Tampa
TAMPA — In the final sprint before Election Day, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump made a closing argument Saturday to a crowd of thousands and restated promises of a "great wall," a secure border, a Syrian refugee ban and a stronger military.
With all eyes on Florida, and polls showing basically a tied race here, an energetic Trump again praised the FBI for its decision last week to continue an investigation into emails sent by Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton while she was secretary of state.
“That’s a treasure trove,” Trump told the crowd at the Florida State Fairgrounds. “That is going to be a lot of bad emails in there. They discovered it on Anthony Weiners’ machine. Can you imagine? Anthony Weiner probably has every classified email ever sent, and knowing this guy, he probably studied every one in between using his machine for other purposes.”
Weiner is the disgraced New York City politician and estranged husband of Clinton aide Huma Abedin who is under FBI investigation for allegations of sending indecent photos to a teenage girl.
Trump spoke of rising health insurance premiums under the Affordable Care Act, saying he would repeal the legislation and that a Clinton administration would double down.
“With Obamacare, they’re going to show you,” Trump said. “They don’t care what it takes. They’re going to show you that it works. We don’t want to be shown. It’s OK. It is catastrophic.”
The way to bring back manufacturing jobs, he said, is to tax companies that move their operatios overseas and then come back to sell their products here.
“If a company wants to fire its workers, leave the country and then ship the product back to us, we will make them pay a tax of 35 percent. Problem solved,” Trump said. “These jobs have been stolen by either very stupid politicians or corrupt politicians.”
He said would reinvest money on infrastructure projects, such as repairing the Herbert Hoover Dike on Lake Okeechobee and pay for it by cutting funding to the United Nations.
“We want really beautiful clean air, crystal clean water and we want safety,” Trump said. “Giving to the U.N. is like giving to an open pit. We’re going to keep our money here and take care of our infrastructure and our environment.”
With just 72 hours before the election, Trump is using his final days to attend rallies in swing states across the country. He left Tampa to speak in North Carolina, Nevada and Colorado on Saturday.
He has scheduled stops Sunday in Iowa, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.
He plans to be back in Southwest Florida on Monday morning to speak in Sarasota to kick off the final day of his campaign, which also will include rallies in North Carolina, Pennsylvania and New Hampshire.
Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi introduced Trump to the fairgrounds crowd. Celebrities Joe Piscopo, a "Saturday Night Live" alum, and Lou Holtz, former Notre Dame football coach, warmed up the crowd.
To strong and lasting applause, Trump called the election process “rigged” and said the media is dishonest.
He spoke proudly about the size and number of his rallies. He began the 30-minute speech by criticizing Jay Z for the language the pop star used at a Clinton rally Friday.
“We don’t need Jay Z to fill up arenas,” Trump said.
“We’re going to be doing four or five of these a day," he said. "You need a lot of energy to do this job. Hillary has no energy, she goes home.”
