RALEIGH, N.C. _ Donald Trump blasted rival Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server at a packed rally at Raleigh's Memorial Auditorium on Tuesday evening, saying the FBI's recommendation not to pursue criminal charges shows "the system is rigged."
Tuesday's rally is Trump's second visit to North Carolina since he became the presumptive Republican nominee in a presidential race that is expected to be closely contested in the Tar Heel State.
The billionaire spoke on the same day Clinton, the former secretary of state, held her first campaign appearance with President Barack Obama in Charlotte.
"Essentially, I thought, everybody thought, she was guilty," Trump said of Clinton, speaking inside the auditorium at downtown's Duke Energy Center for the Performing Arts. "It turned out that we're not going to press charges. It's really amazing. We have a rigged system, folks."
Trump criticized Obama's decision to campaign with Clinton. "Why was she campaigning on the plane of the United States _ that very, very expensive plane?"
In an interview with The News & Observer ahead of the rally, Trump voiced support for North Carolina's voter ID law and said the state's House Bill 2 should be left up to state leaders.
Portions of the voter ID law are set for their first use in a general election this November. The law requires photo identification, reduces the number of days for early voting and eliminates preregistration of teenagers before their 18th birthdays. It eliminated out-of-precinct voting and stopped letting people register to vote and cast a ballot on the same day. Republican state lawmakers said the law was needed to guard against voter fraud, while critics argued it disenfranchised black, Latino and young voters who often vote Democrat.
Lt. Gov. Dan Forest spoke briefly before Trump took the stage, touting the state's economy and tax policy.
North Carolina Supreme Court Chief Justice Mark Martin and U.S. Rep. Renee Ellmers of Dunn, the first woman in Congress to back Trump, greeted the candidate backstage.
Several protesters disrupted the Republican presidential candidate's rally and were quickly escorted out by police. Before Trump took the podium, an organizer told people in the crowd to yell, "Trump, Trump, Trump" if they were near a protester to help police find the culprit.
Logan Smith, a spokesman for the liberal advocacy group Progress N.C., was thrown out of the rally after he stood up and yelled, "Trump has small hands!"
First in line to see Trump was William Shore, 20, of Raleigh, who said he arrived at 5 a.m. _ 12 hours before the doors opened.
Shore is not the typical Trump supporter. He'd previously supported Democratic Sen. Bernie Sanders' candidacy, and he said he recently joined the "air horn orchestra" protest of House Bill 2, the North Carolina state law that restricts local governments from passing anti-discrimination laws protecting LGBT people and requires people in government facilities to use the bathroom matching the gender on their birth certificates. But he agrees with Trump on issues like trade and immigration.
"There's more similarities between Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump than Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton," Shore said. "Illegal immigration is one form of corruption we have. It's a form of corruption that leads to other corruption."
Shore says he's not troubled by Trump's incendiary comments that some have characterized as racist or sexist. "I think he treats everyone equally and everyone fairly," he said. "He's not going to hold back on someone because they're a minority."
The Rev. William Barber, president of the state chapter of the NAACP, read a letter at a news conference Tuesday morning to outline his frustrations with Trump.
"So far, your candidacy does not resonate with our highest values and best traditions," the letter says, "but instead offers an eerie representation of hate, meanness and xenophobia that has not been so blatantly broadcast on the national landscape since George Wallace's presidential campaigns of 1968 and 1972."
While Clinton was joined earlier Tuesday at a Charlotte rally by Democratic gubernatorial candidate Roy Cooper and Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Deborah Ross, some top North Carolina Republican leaders missed Trump's Raleigh event.
U.S. Sen. Richard Burr was in Washington instead. "After multiple terror attacks associated with the Islamic State this week, Sen. Burr is attending to his duties in Washington as Senate Intelligence Committee chairman," campaign spokesman Jesse Hunt said.
And Gov. Pat McCrory was out of the state. "The governor's office said yesterday that he will be heading out of state today for a long-scheduled trip with the first lady, so he's unable to attend tonight's event with Mr. Trump," spokesman Ricky Diaz said.
Outside the Trump rally, 24-year-old Carlo Piantini of Chapel Hill and 17-year-old Christopher Burkey of Raleigh debated illegal immigration and whether Trump's rhetoric is divisive.
"Trump is strong-willed," Burkey said. "No one else will say what he says. He's almost like a version of Eminem. He does not censor himself. He speaks what he believes, and all of his views for the most part, I believe in."
The pair did agree that neither liked Clinton.
"More than anything in this election cycle, people have realized the electoral system does not work at all whether you're a liberal, whether you're a conservative," Piantini said.
