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Women For Trump Rally In Albany

Lucas Willard
/
WAMC

A “Women for Trump” event was held in Albany Thursday, where dozens turned out in support of the GOP presidential nominee. The rally comes as Donald Trump’s campaign is struggling to move on from damaging video of comments regarding women Trump made 11 years ago. The crowd was focused on the next four weeks.

“Lock her up! Lock her up!” 

It was Yates County Republican Committee Chair Sandy King who led the crowd of a few dozen women at Albany’s Desmond Hotel in the anti-Hillary Clinton chant heard at Trump rallies across the country.

“Lock her up! Come on, girls!”

The Women For Trump event featured guests from across the state. The rally was organized well before the outcry over Trump’s 2005 comments about women, which Democrats and other foes have called a description of sexual assault. King said interest grew after the tape was released.

The latest controversy surrounding the GOP nominee is still dominating headlines, but King dismissed it as a media stunt and, like Trump in recent days, went after the Clintons.

“Actions speak louder than works. I worked for the New York State Police for 20 years. If any one of the men that I worked with conducted himself as Bill Clinton did, he would have been dismissed from the job, he would have been arrested, he would have been in state prison. But there’s no outrage from you in the media! The hypocrisy is ridiculous,” said King.

Trump is continuing to divide the Republican Party, with a growing faction of party leaders abandoning him over his comments. Over the weekend, House Speaker Paul Ryan said he would no longer defend Trump over what the candidate and some surrogates called “locker room” talk, but Ryan did not rescind his endorsement.

New York GOP Chairman Ed Cox said Trump knows that he cannot succeed as president without Paul Ryan. Cox said he’s not worried about the fallout from Trump’s comments affecting downballot races. Already without a majority in the chamber, Republicans are desperately trying to keep control of the New York state Senate.

“I think there are bigger issues than that. At the end of last week, it came out on Wikileaks that Mrs. Clinton has said privately that she’s for open borders and open trade. She’s a globalizer,” said Cox.

Immigration, along with Second Amendment rights, and taxes, were mentioned frequently at the podium.

Donna Scannapieco came to Albany from Putnam County.

“’Cause we don’t want anyone in my America, in your America that does not get screened. We don’t want them here,” said Scannapieco.

Scannapieco told the crowd to not be embarrassed and be strong in their support for Trump.

Before the rally, Albany-area New York State Assemblywoman Patricia Fahy, a Democrat, released a statement saying it was “unfortunate” for the Trump campaign to “continue to have the support of women like Wendy Long and others rallying at the Desmond Hotel.”

Long, a Republican who is running against Democrat Chuck Schumer for U.S. Senate, said she did not think Trump’s comments would depress support among women, and like others at the rally, focused on the Clintons.

“I would think that it might disturb women even more to know that Hillary Clinton has enabled and defended a rapist and a sexual assault perpetrator in her own family,” said Long.

Also on the program were Putnam County Executive MaryEllen Odell and Trump’s daughter-in-law, Lara Trump.

Lucas Willard is a reporter and host at WAMC Northeast Public Radio, which he joined in 2011.
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