Trump Closes the Midterms at the Reflecting Pool, Saying Republicans 'Gave This a Very Strong Shot.' The Honest Line Was the Best Line.
In his final major speech before Election Day, President Trump celebrated the reopened Reflecting Pool, repeated a vandalism claim his own prosecutors walked back, and conceded the president's party usually loses midterms.
The facts come first below. My opinion follows in the section marked as opinion.
President Donald Trump used his final major speech before Tuesday's midterm elections to celebrate the reopening of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, and to concede that history is not on his party's side. "For some reason, the sitting president doesn't win the midterms. But we gave this a very strong shot," Trump said Monday, CNBC reported.
A closing message about a pool
The speech lasted nearly an hour and was expected to serve as Trump's closing argument on the midterms. But he opened with more than 20 minutes of remarks focused largely on the Reflecting Pool and his administration's work refurbishing Washington-area monuments. "Today I'm thrilled to announce the official opening of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool," Trump said, according to CNBC.
A White House official had said in advance that the speech would be Trump's "closing message," but the president spent most of his remarks on the Reflecting Pool. "We've cleaned hundreds of sites of graffiti, fixed over 2,300 lighting fixtures in Washington, D.C., cleaned and renovated over 83 statues and fountains and monuments, removed hundreds of squalid homeless encampments," he said, NBC News reported.
The pool has been closed since July after its bottom coating peeled and algae tinted the water green. Trump said Sunday that it "was vandalized badly." The U.S. attorney's office in Washington charged a former Olympic canoeist with destruction of property over a June visit, then dropped the case in late July, citing information that undermined "the evidentiary basis for the indictment," NBC News reported.
U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro told a court July 31 that the damage was caused by a contractor's botched installation, and Trump has continued to claim vandals were to blame, CNBC reported.
What he said about the election
Trump's first explicit reference to the midterms came around the 23-minute mark. "The Democrat Party has nominated the most extreme and dangerous slate of candidates in American history," he said. He also repeated his claim that if Republicans win, "everybody is going to get $5,000," according to CNBC.
Trump said "personal incomes are the highest in history" and said "the poverty rate is at an all-time record low." He falsely said some Democratic candidates were jihadists or members of the Muslim Brotherhood. Asked by NBC News whether he would consider resuming strikes on Iran after the election, he said, "No," NBC News reported.
Trump closed out a 28-rally swing on Sunday, traveling 25 days in the campaign's final month and visiting 19 states, with final rallies in Kansas and Iowa, according to NBC News.
For the numbers he is up against, see Dock Line's look at the final surveys: Final Polls: Democrats Lead as Trump Disapproval Hits 60%.
Opinion: The honest line was the best line, and voters deserved more of it
The most truthful sentence in the speech was the humble one. Presidents usually lose ground in midterms, and Trump said so plainly. Saying his party gave it a strong shot is the kind of thing a man says when he respects the voters enough to tell them the odds. I wish the rest of the speech had matched it.
Instead, the president spent his last big moment before the vote on paint, pipes and a pool. Fixing up the capital is a fair thing to want. Americans should be proud of their monuments, and a clean, safe Washington is good for every visitor. But voters are not worried about the color of the water. They are worried about grocery bills, their jobs and their families. A closing argument should speak to them.
There is also the matter of truth. Federal prosecutors dropped the vandalism case, and the president's own U.S. attorney blamed a contractor. Repeating the vandal story anyway does not make it true. Neither does calling Democratic candidates jihadists. Republicans have real arguments to make about borders, taxes, life and the family. They do not need false ones, and Christians should not cheer for them.
Scripture offers a simple rule for a man at a podium: "Let another man praise thee, and not thine own mouth; a stranger, and not thine own lips." Results speak louder than self-praise. If the economy is as strong as the president says, voters will feel it. If they do not, no speech will change their minds.
Tomorrow, the people decide. That is how it should be. Vote your conscience, and pray for whoever wins.
