Trump holds Arizona rally, talks up wall

He digs at media in rehash of Charlottesville response

President Donald Trump pats the fuselage of a drone Tuesday during a tour of U.S. Border Patrol operations and equipment at the Marine Corps air station in Yuma, Ariz.
President Donald Trump pats the fuselage of a drone Tuesday during a tour of U.S. Border Patrol operations and equipment at the Marine Corps air station in Yuma, Ariz.

PHOENIX -- President Donald Trump blamed the media Tuesday for the widespread condemnation of his response to a Charlottesville, Va., protest organized by white supremacists that led to the killing of a counterprotester.

Trump began his rally in Phoenix with a call for unity, saying, "What happened in Charlottesville strikes at the core of America, and tonight, this entire arena stands united in forceful condemnation of the thugs that perpetrated hatred and violence."

But he quickly trained his ire on the media, saying he "openly called for healing unity and love" in the immediate aftermath of Charlottesville and that the "very dishonest media" had misrepresented him. He read from his three responses to the violence, getting more animated with each one.

Democrats and fellow Republicans had denounced Trump for placing blame for the Charlottesville violence on "both sides."

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Trump spoke Tuesday after Vice President Mike Pence and others called repeatedly for unity.

Housing Secretary Ben Carson and Alveda King, the niece of civil-rights activist Martin Luther King Jr., were among the rally openers. Franklin Graham, son of the evangelist Billy Graham, led the rallygoers in prayer, saying, "We're divided racially, and we're adrift morally."

Outside the Phoenix convention center, shouting matches and minor scuffles broke out between hundreds of Trump supporters and protesters. Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton had asked Trump to delay his political event to allow for more time of national healing after the Charlottesville violence.

Authorities said no one was arrested at the protests. Phoenix police said they lobbed pepper spray at protesters who threw rocks and water bottles at them as the rally broke up. There were no immediate reports of injuries.

A few protesters were treated for heat exhaustion. Temperatures reached 107 degrees in the afternoon.

Eager to capitalize on his hard-line stance on immigration, Trump teased that he might pardon former Sheriff Joe Arpaio. The crowd cheered. The former Maricopa County sheriff is awaiting sentencing after his conviction in federal court for disobeying court orders to stop his immigration patrols.

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"So was Sheriff Joe convicted for doing his job?" Trump asked. "I'll make a prediction: I think he's going to be just fine."

He added that to avoid controversy, he wouldn't do any pardoning Tuesday evening.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said earlier in the day that Trump wouldn't discuss or take action on a pardon "at any point today." Trump had suggested on Fox News last week that he might issue the pardon while in Phoenix.

Touting one of his most popular campaign vows, Trump threatened to shut down the federal government unless Congress provides funding for his promised border wall.

He told the rallygoers that he has a message for "obstructionist" Democrats, whom he also accused of putting American security at risk for not supporting the proposal.

"If we have to close down our government, we're building that wall," he said.

Neither of Arizona's two Republican senators appeared with Trump at the Phoenix rally.

Republican Sen. Jeff Flake, a conservative, has been a frequent target of Trump's wrath. The president tweeted last week: "Great to see that Dr. Kelli Ward is running against Flake Jeff Flake, who is WEAK on borders, crime and a non-factor in Senate. He's toxic!"

Flake has been on tour promoting his book that says the Republican Party's embrace of Trump has left conservatism withering.

Ward planned to attend Trump's rally.

Arizona's other senator, John McCain, is undergoing treatment for an aggressive form of brain cancer. Trump has been critical of McCain for voting against a Republican health care bill.

A stop at the border

Trump began his Arizona visit with a brief trip to a Marine Corps base along the U.S.-Mexico border, where he highlighted his pledge to curb illegal immigration.

At the base in Yuma, which serves as a hub of operations for the U.S. Border Patrol, Trump ventured into an airplane hangar, where Border Patrol officials showed him a Predator drone, a helicopter and a boat that are used to scour the countryside near the border for people entering the country illegally.

The officers also displayed items, including a fire extinguisher with a hollow canister and a Coca-Cola carton with a false bottom, that they said drug traffickers used to smuggle narcotics into the United States.

Administration officials showcased the stretch of border near Yuma as Exhibit A in the value of a border wall. The more than 60 miles of fencing there predates the Trump administration, but officials said that wall had helped drive down the number of arrests for illegal crossings by more than 40 percent.

The area saw a 46 percent drop in apprehensions of people attempting to illegally enter the U.S. between Jan. 1 and July 31, compared with the same period in 2016, they said. None of the officials, who were briefing reporters on the trip, agreed to be identified by name.

Trump's team and his supporters are using such statistics to make the case to Congress for funding a wall along the entire Mexican border. Some Senate Republicans are balking at the idea, and Trump's political advisers worry that failing to deliver on this signature campaign promise would hurt him with his political base.

"What he's done so far has worked," Thomas Homan, the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, told reporters traveling with Trump. "We need funding to make it permanent. We need to build a wall."

Homan said the executive orders on immigration signed by the president had helped stanch the flow of illegal crossings.

But the measures he and other officials cited -- such as electronic sensors along the border fences -- were put in place well before Trump took office. And immigrant traffic around Yuma has dramatically slowed over the past dozen years. Once a hotbed for illegal immigration, the Border Patrol sector covering Yuma now ranks among the lowest in the Southwest for apprehensions and drug seizures.

There were about 138,000 apprehensions in 2005. The number had dropped to 14,000 by last year.

After the tour of the base, Trump spent about 20 minutes greeting service members in the 106-degree heat, signing caps with his "Make America Great Again" campaign slogan and posing for selfies on the tarmac just steps from Air Force One.

Trump was traveling with Stephen Miller, the senior policy adviser who is a prime advocate for hard-line immigration policy, and John Kelly, his new chief of staff, who was brought on from the Department of Homeland Security.

Kelly, a retired Marine Corps general who ran the military's Southern Command, also favors a tough approach on immigration.

Trump on Tuesday sought to shift the focus to his core campaign theme of getting tough on immigration. He rankled some of his most loyal supporters with his decision, announced Monday, to maintain a U.S. military presence in Afghanistan. Some also are unhappy about the recent ouster of conservative Steve Bannon as White House chief strategist.

Bannon had made it his mission to remind Trump of what his most fervent supporters want from his presidency, and some conservative strategists have openly worried that without Bannon around, Trump will be too influenced by establishment Republicans on issues such as Afghanistan policy.

Information for this article was contributed by Julie Bykowicz, Jill Colvin, Darlene Superville, Alan Fram, Josh Hoffner, Jacques Billeaud and Clarice Silber of The Associated Press; by John Wagner, Jenna Johnson, Danielle Paquette, Lourdes Medrano and Philip Rucker of The Washington Post; and by Maggie Haberman and Mark Landler of The New York Times.

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AP/ALEX BRANDON

Marines wait to greet President Donald Trump on Tuesday as he leaves their base on the U.S.-Mexico border in Yuma, Ariz. Trump spent about 20 minutes with service members in the 106-degree heat, signing “Make America Great Again” caps and posing for selfies on the tarmac.

photo

AP/MATT YORK

A protester shouts Tuesday outside the Phoenix Convention Center as supporters and opponents of President Donald Trump face off before a Trump rally.

A Section on 08/23/2017

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