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Trump
complains
about
teleprompters
at
scorching
Las
Vegas
rally
By
JONATHAN
J.
COOPER
and
ADRIANA
GOMEZ
LICON
apnews.com
LAS
VEGAS -
Former
President
Donald
Trump
rallied
voters
in the
scorching
heat of
Las
Vegas,
at
points
telling
his
supporters
to ask
for help
if
needed
and
appearing
irritable
with the
teleprompters
that he
said
were not
working.
The
presumptive
GOP
nominee’s
campaign
hired
extra
medics,
loading
up on
fans and
water
bottles
and
allowed
supporters
to carry
umbrellas
to an
outdoor
rally
Sunday
in Las
Vegas,
where
temperatures
exceeded
100
degrees
Fahrenheit
(37.8
degrees
Celsius).
The
Clark
County
Fire
Department
said
most of
the
medical
calls
were
related
to the
heat,
and six
people
were
sent to
a
hospital
and 24
others
were
treated
on site.
“I don’t
want
anybody
going on
me. We
need
every
voter. I
don’t
care
about
you. I
just
want
your
vote,”
he said,
adding
that he
was
joking.
Earlier
in his
speech,
he said
the
campaign
would
offer
help to
people
who were
feeling
tired
and
joked
that
“everybody,”
including
the U.S.
Secret
Service,
was
worried
about
the
safety
of the
crowds
and not
about
him.
“They
never
mentioned
me. I’m
up here
sweating
like a
dog,” he
said.
“This is
hard
work.”
Trump
returned
to
Nevada,
one of
the top
battleground
states
in the
November
election,
for his
second
rally
since he
was
found
guilty
in a
hush-money
scandal.
The
unprecedented
conviction
of a
former
president
has
juiced
Trump’s
fundraising
and
galvanized
his
supporters,
but it
remains
to be
seen
whether
it will
sway
swing
voters.
Trump is
scheduled
to be
interviewed
by New
York
probation
officials
via a
video
conference
Monday,
a
required
step
before
his July
sentencing.
What to
know
about
the 2024
Election
Democracy:
American
democracy
has
overcome
big
stress
tests
since
2020.
More
challenges
lie
ahead in
2024.
AP’s
Role:
The
Associated
Press is
the most
trusted
source
of
information
on
election
night,
with a
history
of
accuracy
dating
to 1848.
Learn
more.
Read the
latest:
Follow
AP’s
complete
coverage
of this
year’s
election.
Temperatures
in the
Southwest
have
cooled
since
reaching
historic
highs
late
last
week but
remain
above
normal
for this
time of
year and
topped
100
degrees
Fahrenheit
(38
degrees
Celsius)
at the
rally,
which
took
place at
a park
with
little
shade
next to
the
airport.
Well
into his
speech,
Trump
said it
was “not
as bad”
as he
thought
it would
be, and
said he
was
angrier
with the
teleprompters
not
working
well,
even
when he
used to
mock
President
Barack
Obama
for
relying
on that
device.
“I pay
all this
money to
teleprompter
people,
and I’d
say 20%
of the
time,
they
don’t
work,”
he said,
adding
he would
not pay
the
vendor
who
provided
the
prompters.
“It’s a
mess.”
Campaign
organizers
handed
out
water
bottles
as
supporters
waited
in line
to be
screened
by
security
officers.
Inside
the
venue,
large
misting
fans,
pallets
of water
and
cooling
tents
were
placed
around
the
perimeter.
“This is
a dry
heat.
This
ain’t
nothing
for Las
Vegas
people,”
Nevada
GOP
Chair
Michael
McDonald
said.
“But
what it
symbolizes
for the
rest of
the
United
States —
we will
walk
through
hell” to
elect
Donald
Trump.
McDonald
and five
other
Republicans
have
been
accused
of
submitting
certificates
to
Congress
falsely
declaring
Trump
the
winner
of
Nevada’s
2020
presidential
election
and
their
trial
has been
pushed
to next
year.
Trump
said the
rioters
who
stormed
the
Capitol
on Jan.
6, 2021
to
contest
the
election
were
“victims”
of a
“set
up.”
“They
were
really,
more
than
anything
else,
they are
victims
of what
happened.
All they
were
doing is
protesting
a rigged
election.
That’s
what
they
were
doing.
And then
the
police
say, go
in, go
in, go
in, go
in,” he
said.
“What a
set up
that
was. A
horrible,
horrible
thing.”
The
conspiracy
theory
that the
Jan. 6
rioters
were
encouraged
by law
enforcement
is
widespread
on the
right
but has
no basis
in fact.
Many of
those
who were
at the
Capitol
on Jan.
6 have
said —
proudly,
publicly,
repeatedly
— that
they did
so to
help the
then-president.
Federal
and
state
election
officials
and
Trump’s
own
attorney
general
have
said
there is
no
credible
evidence
the 2020
election
was
tainted.
The
former
president’s
allegations
of fraud
were
also
roundly
rejected
by
courts,
including
by
judges
Trump
appointed.
The
campaign
paid for
additional
EMS
services
to be on
site in
the case
of
emergency.
The
Secret
Service
made an
exception
to allow
people
to bring
in
personal
water
bottles
and
umbrellas.
“You
know
what?
It’s
worth
it,”
said
Camille
Lombardi,
a
65-year-old
retired
nurse
from
Henderson
in
suburban
Las
Vegas
who was
seeing
Trump in
person
for the
first
time.
“Too bad
it
wasn’t
indoors,
but
that’s
OK.”
During a
Trump
rally in
Arizona
on
Thursday,
the
Phoenix
Police
Department
said 11
people
were
transported
to
hospitals,
treated
and
released
for heat
exhaustion.
Many of
Trump’s
supporters
waited
in line
for
hours
and some
were
unable
to get
inside
before
the
venue
reached
capacity.
The
temperature
reached
a record
113
degrees
Fahrenheit
(45
degrees
Celsius)
that
day.
Trump’s
Nevada
rally,
his
third in
the
state
this
year,
came on
the tail
end of a
Western
swing
that
included
several
high-dollar
fundraisers
where he
was
expected
to rake
in
millions
of
dollars.
Democrat
Hillary
Clinton
won
Nevada
in 2016
as did
President
Joe
Biden in
2020,
but
Nevada
was the
only
battleground
state
where
Trump
did
better
against
Biden
than
Clinton.
In the
2022
midterms,
Nevada
Gov.
Steve
Sisolak,
a
Democrat,
was the
only
incumbent
governor
who did
not win
reelection.
Trump
hopes
his
strength
among
working-class
voters
and
growing
interest
from
Latinos
will
push him
to
victory
in the
state.
In a
play for
Nevada’s
massive
service-sector
workforce,
Trump
said
he’d
seek to
eliminate
taxes on
tips, a
major
source
of
income
for food
servers,
bartenders
and
others
who
power
glitzy
Las
Vegas
hotels.
The
Culinary
Union
Secretary-Treasurer
Ted
Pappageorge
criticized
Trump
for
making
that
promise,
a
measure
he said
the
union
has
fought
for
decades.
“Relief
is
definitely
needed
for tip
earners,
but
Nevada
workers
are
smart
enough
to know
the
difference
between
real
solutions
and wild
campaign
promises
from a
convicted
felon,”
he said
in a
statement.
Trump’s
campaign
announced
a
renewed
push for
Hispanic
voters
ahead of
the
event
with a
Latino
Americans
for
Trump
Coalition.
Four of
the
speakers
who
warmed
up the
crowd
before
Trump
took the
stage
were
Hispanic
immigrants.
Gomez
Licon
reported
from
Miami.
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