Trump rally in Uniondale, Long Island draws big crowds, tight security
NASSAU COUNTY, Long Island (WABC) -- Former President Donald Trump addressed a packed crowd inside Nassau Coliseum for a campaign rally Wednesday night -- his first on Long Island.
He leaned heavily on his message on immigration at his rally in Uniondale, Long Island, focusing the bulk of his remarks on the subject.
"We're just destroying the fabric of life in our country. And we're not going to take it any longer. And you got to get rid of these people. Give me a shot," Trump said.
He ripped into Democratic leadership in New York City and state, blaming them for homeless people living in what he called "horrible, disgusting, dangerous, filthy encampments," and even the conditions on the New York City subway, which he called "squalid and unsafe" and promised to renovate.
"What the hell do you have to lose?" he said in asking for their votes.
Trump has promised to carry out "the largest deportation operation in the history of our country" if he's elected in November. He has offered no details on how such an operation would work.
Trump has focused on immigration as a top campaign issue and made it a key focus of his remarks Wednesday.
"Look at what's happening," he told his crowd in New York. "Businesses that are fleeing, money draining out of your state and hundreds of thousands of illegal migrants sucking your public resources dry."
The big rally came just days after the second apparent attempt on the former president's life in Florida over the weekend.
Ahead of the rally, NewsCopter 7 showed big crowds gathering in the afternoon amid tight security. Many of them got to the rally 11 hours before the Trump took the stage.
More than 60,000 tickets were requested for the big event even though the facility only seats 16,000. And while tens of thousands of his supporters couldn't get inside the venue, they stuck around just to be near the Republican presidential nominee, and watched his address on large screens outside.
"It's wonderful because of the camaraderie," said Trump supporter Pam Wissmamn. "It's all American. It doesn't matter if you're Black, you're white, you're Asian or Latino it's just everybody coming together."
However, the rally drew not only supporters, but also a counter protest by Haitian American community members outside the Coliseum.
"He has taken patriotism and tried to convert it into hatriotism," said one protester.
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Trump said he plans in the next two weeks to visit Springfield, Ohio, which has been the center of false accusations from the former president and his running mate JD Vance that members of the city's Haitian community are abducting and eating cats and dogs.
As for security before the event, law enforcement officials knocked down social media posts falsely reporting that explosives had been found in a car near the planned rally on Wednesday morning.
Nassau County Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder said police questioned and detained a person who "may have been training a bomb detection dog," near the site of the rally and "falsely reported explosives being found."
Lt. Scott Skrynecki, a spokesperson for the county police, said in follow-up messages that the person, who police have not yet identified, was a civilian and not a member of a law enforcement agency.
He also said the person was not working at or affiliated with the event.
The rally was Trump's first on Long Island, a suburban area just east of New York City, since 2017.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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