NEW YORK_President Donald Trump keeps kicking defeated Rep. Joe Crowley while he's down, this time to supporters at a North Dakota campaign-style rally.
The gloater-in-chief jabbed the 10-term Bronx-Queens lawmaker for losing the Democratic nomination while bragging that a handful of his endorsed candidates _ including Rep. Dan Donovan of New York _ made the Republican ticket.
"One of my biggest critics, a man named Joe Crowley, got his ass kicked by a young woman who had a lot of energy," jeered Trump, using an insulting quip that prompted an uproar of cheers and applause from an audience in Fargo on Wednesday.
Trump did not name Crowley's victorious challenger, 28-year-old Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a political novice and member of the Democratic Socialists of America.
"She had a lot of energy. I guess he didn't see it," Trump said.
Trump tweeted schoolyard insults at Crowley moments after his surprise upset loss Tuesday night to Ocasio-Cortez, musing he could have won the votes had he been "nicer, and more respectful, to his president."
To the crowd of thousands in Fargo's Scheels Arena, Trump suggested a self-serving silver lining in Crowley's loss. He won't succeed Minority House Leader Nancy Pelosi should the Democrats take back Congress in November.
"He was going to take her place, I think," Trump said. "Now he's looking at us and saying, 'Darling, what happened?' Politics is a mean game."
He sarcastically urged voters to keep Pelosi and Trump foe Rep. Maxine Waters in office, as if to help his right-wing cause.
"Please keep Maxine Waters on the air, as your face and your mouthpiece for the Democrat Party," Trump added.
Earlier in the rally, the president falsely accused the California lawmaker of urging activists to "assault" his supporters and members of his Cabinet.
