OMAHA — President Donald Trump stopped here on a frigid Tuesday night to rally Republicans in Nebraska's 2nd congressional district — where a potentially critical Electoral College vote is up for grabs — a week before the Nov. 3 general election.
After rallies in Michigan and Wisconsin, key swing states in the 2020 presidential contest, Trump told Nebraskans, some of whom waited for hours in near-freezing temperatures for the outdoor rally at Eppley Airfield, they were the toughest of the bunch.
"Is there any place you'd rather be than a Trump rally on about a 10-degree day? It's cold," Trump said during his opening remarks. "It's the coldest right here."
In a wide-ranging speech that lasted less than an hour, the Republican incumbent outlined what he said was a choice between a "Trump super recovery" and a "Biden depression" as the U.S. struggles to recover from the coronavirus pandemic that continues to rage in Nebraska and a majority of other states.
To date, nearly 65,000 Nebraskans have been infected by the respiratory virus since March, while more than 600 have died, and public health experts have said the virus is spreading uncontrollably in several counties.
Trump, however, repeated the claim — without evidence — that the country was turning a corner, and predicted that cases would fall off in Nebraska and other places within two weeks, and said the media would not talk about the coronavirus after next week's election.
The president, who is polling behind former vice president Joe Biden, also told the crowd gathered on a tarmac on the eastern edge of the airport that if reelected, he would oversee explosive economic growth next year, including in manufacturing.
He also professed support for law enforcement, criticizing what he called "Democrat-run" cities that saw protests and riots this summer following the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, and offered praise to Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts.
As the sun set Tuesday, and the cold set in, Ricketts and other Republicans from Iowa and South Dakota worked to warm up the crowd by outlining the choices in this year's election and urging them to get out to vote — and to bring someone with them.
Tim Conahan, police chief for the Omaha Airport Authority, said just over 21,000 people were screened into the event. Trump said during his speech Tuesday that 29,000 people were there.
Ricketts joked that everyone in attendance needed to “go out and vote 10 times.”
“No, not the Democrat way,” Ricketts said, but rather, after everyone voted, they needed to find nine more people to support the president’s reelection campaign.
“Donald Trump has been fighting for us for four years, now we need to fight for him,” the governor said.
“Get your friends out to vote, get your neighbors out to vote, get your family out to vote,” said Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska’s 2nd congressional district. “This is going to be a turnout election.”
The race for the congressional district encompassing Omaha and Sarpy County — which polling shows is within the margin of error — between Bacon and Democratic challenger Kara Eastman, was important to shore up Trump’s support in Congress, the incumbent Republican said.
Bacon painted his opponent as “a Bernie Sanders Democrat,” referring to the Vermont senator who has run two presidential campaigns on a platform of expanding access to health care and addressing climate change.
“(Eastman) wants to take away your health care, she wants the Green New Deal, and she supports abortion up to the time of birth,” Bacon told the crowd.
Over the lunch hour Tuesday, during a Zoom call with reporters, Eastman said the Omaha district was “a blue dot before,” adding she believes it will be again.
“A lot has changed, the demographics have changed, the Republican advantage in voter registration has changed,” Eastman said. “People here have had four years to see both Donald Bacon and Donald Trump in action.
“I think people feel let down. The swamp is more populated than it’s ever been,” she added.
The Nebraska Democratic Party also slammed the state’s GOP for hosting the president for a campaign rally as new coronavirus cases and hospitalizations continue to beleaguer the Cornhusker state and elsewhere.
NDP Chair Jane Kleeb said at an early afternoon appearance in Omaha that Trump had failed as president in the response to the pandemic.
“As Democrats, we believe in science and we believe in following the guidance of public health experts,” Kleeb said. “Democrats are getting our message out today, and we’re doing it in a way that complies with the best practices set out by the CDC.”
Republicans who spoke before Trump largely focused on the economic recovery from the pandemic, supporting law enforcement and the president’s appointments to federal courts, including the Supreme Court.
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem said few people outside her state had heard her name before six months ago “when liberals started kicking me in the head” over the decisions she made in response to the COVID-19 outbreak there, where cases have gone up 36% over the last two weeks.
Nebraska Sen. Deb Fischer — who the president said was his "favorite senator from the state of Nebraska," referencing his feud with Nebraska's Sen. Ben Sasse — called Trump a straight shooter who looks people in the eye and tells them exactly what he’s going to do — a trait Nebraskans appreciate.
“We want someone who fights for us, who doesn’t fight for the elites, who doesn’t fight for the swamp,” Fischer said. “You all need to get out to vote. This is a monumental election.”
Ricketts accused Democrats of siding with “looters and rioters,” allowing them “to go out and do whatever they want." Meanwhile, Ricketts and others said, Republicans were the party that supports law enforcement.
Raising his voice, the governor sounded an alarm that a Democratic shift in Washington, D.C., would usher in an era of higher taxes and more governmental control
“Do we want a socialist America? Do we want a socialist America? Do we want a socialist America?” Ricketts asked in quick succession, as the crowd responded “No” each time in a growing crescendo. “No, we don’t!”
Trump later hit on a similar theme, telling the crowd it had a chance to defeat "anti-American radicals" and support a recovery.
He also brought up the trade deal signed between the U.S., Mexico and Canada that replaced NAFTA, a $28 billion subsidy the U.S. Department of Agriculture provided to farmers — including about $1.7 billion to Nebraska producers — to soften the blow of retaliatory Chinese tariffs on agriculture, and an executive order expanding E-15 ethanol sales.
In his closing pitch, Trump ran through a laundry list of issues that resonated with his supporters: Increasing penalties for assaults on police, defending religious liberty, defending gun rights, and ending abortion. He also said he would push for what he called "patriotic education."
While he sounded confident in his election prospects, Trump also said he didn't want to take any chances.
"Get the hell out and vote."
Photos: President Donald Trump makes campaign stop in Omaha