Democratic debate: 2020 race heats up as frontrunner Joe Biden comes under fire
Donald Trump has doubled down on his attacks on a group of Democratic congresswomen, claiming the party was now led by “four-left wing extremists who reject everything that we hold dear”.
At a rally for supporters in Cincinnati, Ohio, the crowd did not break into racist chants as happened two weeks ago in Florida when the president referred to the four women of colour.
But it did start chanting “lock her up” when he referred to Hillary Clinton, who he beat in the crucial state of Ohio in 2016, on his way to winning the White House.
“While Republicans are working every day to build up our country, the rage-filled Democrat Party is trying to tear America apart,” said Mr Trump.
“The Democrat Party is now being led by four left-wing extremists who reject everything that we hold dear.”
Mr Trump claimed he was seeking to avoid “controversy”, which is perhaps why he did not spend too long talking about the congresswomen, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ayanna Pressley, Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib.
Last month, he was widely criticised and his tweets formally condemned as racist by the House of Representatives, after tweeting and commenting that the the women should “go home”. Three of them were born in the US, while the fourth, Mr Omar came here 20 years ago after her family escaped from Somalia as refugees.
On Thursday, one of four Republican members of congress who voted in favour of the House bill condemning the president’s remarks about the progressive women, announced he was not seeking reelection.
Will Hurd, who represents Texas’s 23rd congressional district and is the only black Republican in the House, had condemned Mr Trump’s remarks as racist and xenophobic.
“Look, I'm the only black Republican in the House of Representatives. I go into communities that most Republicans don’t show up in order to take a conservative message,” he told CNN last month.
“This makes it harder in order to take our ideas, and our platform, to communities that don't necessarily identify with the Republican Party.”
Mr Hurd made his announcement while Mr Trump was on stage attacking Democratic mayors, across the country, including the mayor of Cincinnati, John Cranley.
He claimed the crowd at the US Bank Arena had broken records, and he alleged it was “Democrats” who for health and safety reasons had not allowed more people inside.
If you want to see how Mr Trump energised the crowd, please see what was our live coverage below
Now he making fun of windmills, saying fossil fuels are the only way forward. He claims he has put American miners back to work, a claim that is only partly true
Interestingly, I had been watching the rally on Fox News. But shortly after Tucker Carlson's show came on at 8pmEST, he cut to a discussion about last night's Democratic debate. Can't imagine Trump will like that
"No one has paid a higher price for the far-left destructive agenda than Americans living in our nation's inner cities," says Trump, in his latest attack on Democratic mayors
Now Trump is mocking former special counsel Robert Mueller's purported confusion on display during his testimony on Capitol Hill. "He was sharp, wasn't he," he says sarcastically. "He was sharp as a tack!"
Trump now talking about Elizabeth Warren and her decision to have a DNA test to prove Native American ancestry. Is this who he thinks he's gonna go head to head with in 2020?
“Those people were standing so far to the left, I thought that stage was going to flip over,” he says of candidates who took part in Democratic debates
Hello everyone. Thanks for joining us. This is Andrew Buncombe in Seattle. I'm going to be keeping you up to speed with the most dramatic and important details of the president's latest rally
