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President Donald Trump dialed up the temperature on his core 2018 campaign themes Monday, launching into his final rallies of the midterm elections with a dark vision of the future following a GOP loss.
“The Democrat platform is a 2018 socialism, open borders edict,” Trump told a crowd in Cleveland on Monday afternoon, repeating his false claim that “Democrats are inviting caravan after caravan” into the country.
“Have you seen the pictures? They try and play it down like its not that many people,” Trump said of Democrats to rally-goers, sparking a chant of “Build the wall!”
How will Trump's rhetoric impact the midterms?
Nov. 5, 201816:37At Trump's first two campaign events on Monday, he warned, without evidence, that Democrats were encouraging illegal immigrants to vote.
“As we speak, Democrats are openly encouraging millions of illegal aliens to break our laws, violate our borders and overrun our country," Trump said in Fort Wayne, Indiana. "And they want to sign them up for free welfare, fee healthcare, free education and most importantly the right to vote. They want them to vote.”
Trump expressed similar concerns before leaving for his first rally of the day Monday.
"All you've got to do is go around, take a look what's happened over the years and you'll see," Trump told reporters before departing Joint Base Andrews for Ohio. "There are a lot of people ... that try and get in illegally and actually vote illegally, so we just want to let them know that there will be prosecution at the highest level."
Experts have repeatedly concluded that voter fraud is extremely rare. Even the president's own defunct voter fraud commission uncovered no evidence to back up his claim that millions voted illegally in the 2016 presidential election, according to an analysis of commission documents released in August by a former member.
The president again engaged in electoral expectations-setting, saying in Ohio that Tuesday could be a difficult day for Republicans.
“We’re at a disadvantage,” Trump said pointing to history as an indication that presidents have often lost power in Congress during their first midterm election. "But let's see what happens."
How will Trump's talk impact the Latino vote?
Nov. 5, 201810:52Later Monday, Trump downplayed any concern about the potential political and legal perils of a Democratic Congress.
"No, I don't care," Trump told reporters when leaving Ohio for Indiana when asked if he was at all worried about a Democratic House going after his tax returns, which he has yet to release. "They can do whatever they want, and I can do whatever I want."
He told the Fort Wayne crowd he would one day bring the country together — but not quite yet. "I do want to eventually unite, but the fact is we are driving [Democrats] crazy," Trump said. "Hopefully it is all going to come together one day, like a beautiful puzzle."
For the moment, he said, voters should "unite behind our proud and righteous destiny as Americans” by voting Republican.
The president planned to make his last official stop of the 2018 campaign season in Rush Limbaugh's hometown of Cape Girardeau, Missouri Monday night.
