Donald Trump tore into The New York Times, the “corporate media" and Hillary Clinton at a rally Thursday afternoon in West Palm Beach.
On Wednesday, the Times reported that two women said Donald Trump had inappropriately touched them. The Republican presidential candidate denied both claims.
“The same two discredited writers, who should have been fired from the New York Times for what they did, tell another totally fabricated and false story that supposedly took place on an airplane more than 30 years ago,” said Trump. “Another ridiculous tale, no witnesses, no nothing.”
Trump didn’t mention that The Palm Beach Post published a similar story Wednesday evening about a Palm Springs woman who accused him of groping her at Mar-a-Lago, his resort in Palm Beach County, 13 years ago. The paper reported she did not disclose the incident to the authorities.
Without pause, he attacked another The New York Timespiece that detailed another woman who came forward. He said she was “another individual who has been discredited.”
Trump said he was preparing a lawsuit against the New York Times for its coverage of sexual harassment allegations against him. “Third rate journalism,” he added.
The allegations did not dismay his followers, who showed up at the South Florida Expo Center to support him.
“Men talk a lot of nonsense, especially if they are around other men,” said Evalyn Crosser, a Cuban-American from Fort Lauderdale. “And men like to brag about our sex. But I don’t think he’s a dishonorable man.”
Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who spoke almost half an hour before Trump came on stage, summarized his speech with his final words: “Don’t trust the media.”
Between the pre-programmed speakers and Donald’s Trump’s arrival, the crowd chanted and played the Backstreet Boys’ “I Want It That Way” on the loudspeakers, more than once.
After Trump singled out the Times, he dove into, albeit briefly, what he says the election is all about: “being crushed by Obamacare, defeating ISIS and the Supreme Court pick.”
“I will not allow the Clinton machine to turn our campaign into a discussion of their slanders and lies, but will remain focused on the issues facing the American people,” he said.
Trump did not share the specifics of those issues on stage. Instead, he continued on about Hillary Clinton and her “media allies,” claiming her campaign negatively influences his press coverage.
“The only thing Hillary Clinton has going for her is the press,” he said to a cheering crowd. “Without the press, she is zero. This is not presidential material, believe me.”
Doris Dorsey, a Palm Beach County resident, believes Trump. She’s a member of the Red Hat Club, a self-described “old-time Republican” and doesn’t dispute Trump’s claim that The New York Times basically works for Clinton.
“Of course. They’re all together, the news media. I don’t believe a thing they say,” she said, while admitting she reads the Palm Beach Post, the Sun-Sentineland the Wall Street Journal. “They can say anything and I will have to look it up to make sure that it is true.”
“I’m not out to attack anyone. I’m simply here for the safety of our country,” said Dorsey.
Miami-native Darell Raines says Trump would improve national security and the economy.
“I want our inner cities to get stronger. Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again,” he said. “And we black folks have been doing the same thing, supporting the same party, over and over again, but ain’t getting nothing out of it for our money.”
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