New York Democrats and liberal media figures attacked President Trump for holding a campaign rally in the Bronx, New York, on Thursday, and tried to discredit the rally before it even began.
The New York Post reported that 8,000-10,000 supporters showed up at Crotona Park in the Bronx on Thursday, far more than the initial 3,500 the Trump campaign said were expected to attend. The crowd size even surprised a CNN reporter on site at the event.
However, progressive Democrats, from New York Gov. Kathy Hochul to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, along with liberal journalists on MSNBC, complained the racially-diverse, massive crowd was "fake" and shouldn't be taken seriously.
Here are five of the most bitter reactions from the left over the Bronx Trump rally.
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Hochul didn't mince words when asked about Trump campaigning in the deep-blue borough to woo Black and Latino voters.
"Well, I’ll tell you what won’t make a difference at all, Jake, and that’s for Donald Trump to be a ringleader and invite all his clowns to a place like the Bronx," she told CNN's Jake Tapper as the former president's supporters were gathering. "New York will never, ever support Donald Trump for president."
"So if he wants to spend his time doing these made-up, fake rallies and pretending there’s support here, be my guest, because while you’re doing that, Donald Trump, Joe Biden’s out there on the other side making sure he’s delivering for all Americans," Hochul continued.
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Ocasio-Cortez, a fellow New York Democrat, dismissed the Trump rally as a stunt to pay his legal fees.
"He is broke. He needs to pay these legal funds. And bussing people in, in order to get those donations so that he can funnel them to his legal fees, is kind of his business right now," she told MSNBC's Chris Hayes on Wednesday.
Ocasio-Cortez doubled down on Thursday, accusing Trump of sending in supporters from outside states to "trick" her constituents.
"But I think the Bronx knows better," she told Spectrum News NY1.
"We’ve seen a couple years ago when some of his supporters tried to shut down the Whitestone Bridge," Ocasio-Cortez said. "I think it’s important that we understand that there’s a lot of folks that may be at this park that are not from New York City, that may be from surrounding or different areas, and we just want to make sure that folks are staying safe given all of that ruckus that can come in."
MSNBC political analyst Charles Blow argued that Trump would never win New York and said rally attendees weren't really from the Bronx. He also weighed in on why the presumptive presidential nominee was rallying in an area with a heavy minority population.
"He’s trying to signal to other people, signal to people in swing states who are White, who don’t want to be thought of as voting for a racist to soften the ground and say, ‘Maybe he’s not a racist,’ and also to shave off a couple points among Blacks and Hispanic who say, ‘I don’t want to vote for a racist,’" Blow said.
"They say, ‘Maybe he’s not as racist as they say he is.’ This is signaling to other people, has nothing to do with New York, has nothing to do with the Bronx," he claimed on MSNBC's "The ReidOut" on Thursday.
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Liberal MSNBC host Alex Wagner also tried to discredit the rally on her Thursday night show.
She quoted Rep. Ritchie Torres, D-N.Y., who described the rally as full of "transplants" before she slammed it as a "fakey campaign stop."
"Sort of a weird way to court Black and Latino voters, but also, if you are Donald Trump, I get it," Wagner said sarcastically.
Her guest, Center for American Progress President Patrick Gaspard, also called the rally a "fraud."
"They imported a whole bunch of people into the Bronx. Let's be really clear here: Donald Trump ain't winning the Bronx," he told Wagner.
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Ocasio-Cortez also reacted with glee to the idea that Trump's rally would be hit by heavy rain in the region.
"God is good," the Democratic congresswoman wrote on X with a praying hands emoji in response to a post claiming that the rally would turn into a "muddy mess."
As it turned out, the rain cleared in time for the rally, where thousands of people showed up to support the former president and 2024 GOP presidential candidate.
Trump was the first Republican presidential candidate to actively campaign for the general election in New York City in decades, and, should he pull off what many expect to be an impossible feat, would be the first to win the Empire State in 40 years.
