Trump rallies supporters in Rock Hill
Leading GOP candidate packs Winthrop Coliseum
Several protesters, including at least one from Charlotte, forcibly removed
Kicks off a week of presidential activity in the Palmetto State
BY JIM MORRILL
January 8, 2016
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/new...E_960/TRUMP_06
ROCK HILL
Calling the presidential election one of “competence not niceness,” Republican Donald Trump Friday night ripped into President Barack Obama, Democrat Hillary Clinton and even Washington Republicans.
“We can no longer be the stupid country,” he said to more than 6,000 people who packed Winthrop Coliseum. “We’re led by – I used to say incompetent – we’re led by stupid people.”
Trump blamed Obama and Clinton, the former Secretary of State, for fostering the rise of the so-called Islamic State, or ISIS. He promised a different approach.
“We’re going to kick the sh-- out of ISIS,” he said to loud applause. “And it’s going to happen fast.”
The appearance by the New York billionaire came seven weeks before South Carolina’s Feb. 27 primary. Polls show him leading all other Republican candidates in the state.
Trump was interrupted several times by shouting protesters. One was Jibril Hough, a Muslim and spokesperson for the Islamic Center of Charlotte, who was forcibly removed by police and security.
Trump spoke for nearly an hour, his remarks seemingly stream of conscience. “Somebody asked me if I had a speech,” he said. “I don’t have one. I speak from the heart. And the brain by the way.”
Supporters began lining up as early as 8 a.m. for the 7 p.m. event. Trent Galloway took the day off from his job as a high school teacher in Athens, Ga.
“He’s the first candidate in my voting days who’s saying what we all feel,” said Galloway, 30. “I feel like the other candidates pander to the crowd. He would be the strongest leader of all of them.”
Like several other supporters, Rocky Barrett, 60, a Rock Hill car dealer, said Trump “doesn’t believe in political correctness.”
“Political correctness has brought this country to its knees,” he said.
‘He’s brash’
Trump’s appearance came as the presidential race picked up steam in the Carolinas.
Dr. Ben Carson drew over 100 people to a fundraiser Friday at Charlotte’s Myers Park Country Club. He campaigns in Columbia Saturday. Cruz plans to stump in Fort Mill and elsewhere in the state next week.
And all the GOP candidates will be in North Charleston Thursday for a debate sponsored by Fox Business Network. Democratic candidates debate in Charleston Jan. 17, on NBC.
Trump, who drew 8,000 to Raleigh’s Dorton Arena and 4,000 to Aiken S.C. last month, was expected to pack the 6,000-seat Coliseum Friday.
Republican U.S. Rep. Mick Mulvaney said Trump is attracting South Carolinians for one main reason.
“Folks are angry,” he said. “They’re angry at President Obama. They’re angry at the Republican establishment. They’re looking for the angriest (candidate).”
Trump drew supporters like Swain Sheppard, a 65-year-old CPA from Rock Hill.
“He’s himself, he’s brash, he’s just something the country needs now,” said Sheppard. “We need a wake-up call. Same-old same-old just isn’t going to cut it anymore.”
LuAnne Cox, a retired teacher from Rock Hill, bristled at some characterizations of Trump supporters. “I don’t like the fact that they say the only people voting for Trump are uneducated,” she said, “because I’m educated.”
A Winthrop University Poll last month showed Trump with the support of 24 percent of likely Republican voters. U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas was next with 16 percent. That’s consistent with other surveys. Real Clear Politics shows him with an average lead of 11 points in S.C. polls.
State Rep. Ralph Norman of Rock Hill supports former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who polls show mired in single digits in the state.
“Everybody kept thinking Trump is going to start sliding in the polls,” Norman said. “It just hasn’t happened.”
Norman said like others who are backing other candidates, he’ll support Trump if he wins the nomination.
“That’s pretty much the feeling,” he said. “Anybody but Hillary.”
Trump’s first appearance in Rock Hill came a night after he spoke at a rally in Burlington, Vt., where he was interrupted by protesters. Protesters gathered in Rock Hill as well.
One was Edith Garwood of Cabarrus County. Active with Amnesty International, she said Trump evokes unsettling comparisons.
“When I hear how Trump speaks and how he uses his words to play on people fears and insecurities and ignorance, really it hearkens back to the days of Germany in the 1930s when Hitler was getting started,” said Garwood, 52.
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/new...e53836300.html
Trump in South Carolina: From China to El Chapo
David Jackson, USA TODAY 9:21 p.m. EST January 8, 2016
http://www.gannett-cdn.com/-mm-/393b...P-78721126.JPG
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign stop at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, S.C. (Photo: AP)
ROCK HILL, S.C. -- Stumping the key state of South Carolina, Donald Trump campaigned Friday by attacking Chinese economics, mocking protesters, talking college football -- and hailing the re-capture of Mexican drug lord El Chapo, who had threatened to kill the Republican front-runner.
"The rumor is he didn't like me," Trump said of El Chapo during his remarks at the Winthrop University Coliseum.
In his typical, near-stream-of-consciousness speaking style, Trump pledged to fight currency manipulation by China as he argued that its economic problems could infect the United States.
Saying that "the biggest problem we have is currency manipulation," Trump warned the crowd at the nearly-filled 6,100-seat arena: "That's going to make it impossible for your businesses to compete."
On a lighter note, Trump cited a rally in Alabama and added that "they do have a good football team, whether we like it or not" -- a reference to the University of Alabama Crimson Tide, which plays South Carolina-based Clemson on Monday night for the college football championship.
As Clemson fans in the crowd booed (jokingly), Trump quickly retreated and said they, too, "have a good football team."
There were also the near-obligatory hecklers, though they were hard to heard as the crowed chanted Trump's name and "U-S-A" to drown them out. "Was there somebody up there?" Trump asked at one point.
As police escorted another heckler out of the building, Trump said: "So rude, right?" He added: "Isn't a Trump rally more fun?"
Police also removed a Muslim woman wearing a hijab after she stood up in a silent protest; some Trump backers heckled the woman on her way out.
The woman, Rose Hamid, 56, a flight attendant who sat in the stands behind Trump, told CNN: "The ugliness really came out fast and that's really scary."
Hamid said one person yelled at her, "you have a bomb, you have a bomb."
Throughout his speech, Trump rattled off a familiar litany of issues, including the proposed wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, a temporary ban on Muslims coming into the United States, a pledge to defend gun rights, and the current crop of "incompetent" and "stupid" leaders.
He also said "we're going to knock the s--- out of ISIS," using the acronym for the Islamic State.
The New York businessman blasted Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton ("she lied"), President Obama ("we have a president who wants to kill the Second Amendment"), Secretary of State John Kerry ("a stiff"), and some of his Republican primary opponents ("Rand Paul -- did he drop out today?").
Paul and other Republicans have returned the favor, calling Trump totally unqualified for the presidency, without sufficient knowledge of foreign and domestic politics.
In an interview with NBC's Meet The Press Daily, Paul denounced Trump's "empty bombast," and predicted that in the end voters will not be with him.
"I think there's a very good chance he does not win in Iowa, that the polls are inaccurate," Paul said. "And then there's a chance that if he doesn't win New Hampshire that he fades into obscurity."
During his remarks at Winthrop, Trump cited his leads in a series of Republican polls. That includes those in South Carolina, which holds a pivotal primary on Feb. 20. It will be the third Republican nomination contest, following the Iowa caucuses on Feb. 1 and New Hampshire primary on Feb. 9.
Members of the crowd began lining up more than three hours before the event, and many predicted that Trump would prevail in the Republican race.
"Look at the turnout and the support he has," said Carolyn Hood, 64. who owns a paint company with her husband in Rock Hill. "That's proof."
Roseann Cantore, 70, who moved from Brooklyn to South Carolina in 1990 with her husband, was less certain about the billionaire's prospects.
While a fan of Trump -- "he speaks his mind, and he means what he says" -- Cantore said South Carolina Republicans like their candidates to be "nice" and more political.
"Down here they want polish," she said. "He's brash."
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/p...hrop/78526004/
