Democrats pounce on sold-out Madison Square Garden rally

New York

For New Yorkers fed up with the Jets, Giants and Yankees, this weekend offered no shortage of entertainment, with former president Donald Trump returning to his hometown for a sold-out rally at Madison Square Garden, the “world’s most famous arena.”

While the election isn’t over for more than a week, Trump made what is likely his highest-profile event before Election Day in the heart of deep-blue New York City. While his speech did not deviate from his traditional remarks about the border, Vice President Kamala Harris being a “very low-IQ” person, no taxes on tips and more, it was a clear display of confidence in the home stretch of the 2024 campaign.

For non-New Yorkers, it’s hard to understand the significance of MSG as a venue and for what it means to natives of the Big Apple, like the Trump family. Tucker Carlson spoke about watching the Grateful Dead there; Howard Lutnick, who is chairing Trump’s transition, joked that finance people like him do not often perform there; and Trump’s children spoke about watching sports games there in their childhood.

Despite New York City’s deep-blue hue, the outside protests were muted; thousands of would-be attendees who failed to secure seats flocked to nearby bars to experience some of the historic event.

Trump’s MSG rally was in some ways the mirror image of Harris’s recent campaign swing in Texas — while she is unlikely to win the Lone Star State, she forced her way into national coverage for breaking from the mold of normal campaign strategy.

Some speakers, like Vivek Ramaswamy, insisted during their remarks that New York could be a swing state this year, and others, like insult comic Tony Hinchcliffe, caused ruckuses with their respective quips about Harris being a “Samoan, Malaysian, low-IQ former California prosecutor” and Puerto Rico being “a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean.”

Democrats and their media allies predictably seized on these comments, which were used to fit in with their attempts to dub Trump a “fascist.” The MSG rally itself was fodder for such claims even before Trump took to the stage because of a pro-Nazi rally held there in 1939; left unmentioned in virtually all coverage was that other events, like the 1976, 1980 and 1992 Democratic National Conventions, also took place there.

“I don’t see any stinkin’ Nazis in here,” Hulk Hogan shouted from the stage — and he wasn’t wrong.

-Matthew Foldi

On our radar

DA CHALLENGES MUSK’S MILLIONS Philadelphia district attorney Larry Krasner is suing billionaire Elon Musk for allegedly running an “illegal lottery” by giving out daily $1 million prizes to registered voters in swing states who sign a pledge to support civil liberties. 

WASHINGTON (JOB) POSTBillionaire owner of the Washington Post Jeff Bezos is reportedly asking the paper to hire more conservative opinion writers just days after he forbid editorial staff from making an endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris. 

MICHELLE’S PITCH TO MEN Former first lady Michelle Obama said during remarks at a Harris rally in Michigan that women need to “demand the men in our lives do better by us” and said “our lives are worth more than their anger and disappointment.” Barack Obama previously accused black men of having hang-ups about voting for a female president. 

Trump promises House campaign ‘secret’

Former president Donald Trump promised during his Madison Square Garden rally on Sunday night that there was a “little secret” he was keeping with Speaker Mike Johnson that would help the GOP “do really well the House.” Trump added that the secret would not become known until after the election was over. 

Some Democrats speculated that the “secret” is that Trump and Johnson have a pact that the House of Representatives will refuse to certify a Kamala Harris victory and instead install Trump as the winner of the presidential election. 

Representative Daniel Goldman said on MSNBC, “I suspect Trump’s little secret plan with Mike Johnson is that when he loses, he tries to go to the House to throw out the Electoral College and have the House under Mike Johnson overturn this election.”

Johnson refused to reveal the “secret,” issuing the following statement: 

Speaking of secrets, Harris knew Biden was physically and mentally impaired and kept it a secret. The FBI knew the Hunter Biden laptop was real and kept it a secret. They also knew Russia collusion was fake and kept that a secret too. It appears that all those secrets didn’t matter to the media because they all helped Democrats. But this one might help Donald Trump, and now they care? By definition, a secret is not to be shared — and I don’t intend to share this one.

–Amber Duke

Walz’s return to the wrong end zone

Governor Tim Walz sought to broaden the Harris-Walz campaign’s appeal to men over the weekend, employing the help of male-favorite Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The pair hopped on a live stream to play a game of Madden, the long-running football video game, and talk about politics. Unfortunately, the stunt landed about as well as Walz’s attempts to load a shotgun.

As Walz spouted off campaign talking points during NFL Sunday, the approximately 12,000 concurrent viewers were treated to perhaps the worst example of video-game football known to man. Walz and AOC called it quits at halftime, with the score tied at an amazingly bad 0-0.

Walz, hailed by Democrats as a superstar football coach that lead his team to a state championship, later sent out a tweet praising AOC for knowing how to “run a mean pick 6.” Even Cockburn knows you don’t “run” a pick 6 (meaning an interception leading to a defensive touchdown, for the unaware). Walz’s team quickly deleted the bizarre post. 

–Cockburn