Trump tells Denver crowd he will win Colorado, presidency
DENVER – Donald Trump said Friday that he would build a wall, but he also boasted about how well he does with evangelicals and how well he’ll do in Colorado without a “rigged” caucus system in place for the presidential election.
Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, was talking to about 3,000 of the West’s most conservative voters to kick off a three-day summit put on by the Centennial Institute, a think tank run by Colorado Christian University.
In a nod to his Western Conservative Summit audience, Trump talked about his relationship with Dr. Ben Carson, a strong Christian conservative who won a straw poll at the 2015 summit by a wide margin.
“The other thing we have to talk about is the evangelicals that have been so amazing to me,” Trump said. “We had an event the other day in New York, right? Any evangelicals in the room?”
The Denver Convention Center crowd, which included a number of students from Colorado Christian University, cheered loudly.
Trump then boasted about the record-setting turnout he had when he spoke to Liberty University. Trump was recently endorsed by the president of the Virginia Christian university – although a member of the school’s board resigned over the move.
But the crowd in Denver on Friday received Trump well, applauding and laughing on cue.
Tickets for a single day to the event were $120, and security was tight. The entire front side of the convention center – a large facade of glass windows where a giant blue bear sculpture peaks in – was closed, and barricades kept people off the expansive sidewalk out front. Conference attendees had to enter through a side door and wind through the conference hall before passing through security a second time.
About a hundred protesters carried signs that called Trump a racist, a fascist and other choice words. When Trump finished his 50-minute speech, Jeff Hunt, director of the Centennial Institute, said there had been fights outside and a few people had been arrested.
ProgressNow, a progressive group particularly active in Colorado on immigration issues and protecting abortion rights, built a wall of boxes in Civic Center Park.
Among those helping to decorate the wall was Celia Reyes-Martinez, a 27-year-old who is active with Denver immigration reform groups that push for voter registration and activism.
“In Colorado, we have no place for hate. The message that he brings is all about hate and tearing families apart and tearing communities apart,” Reyes-Martinez said. “We stand for love and respect and dignity.”
Trump did mention his wall when he was talking about how he’d address terrorism.
“What’s going on now is unbelievable,” Trump said. “People that shouldn’t be allowed in. People that shouldn’t be here, and we’re going to have strong borders, folks. We’re going to have strong borders. We’re going to have the wall, and we’re going to let people come into our country that should come into our country and they are going to come into our country legally. And we want them.”
Trump also touched on the fact that he’ll repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, said he’s “number one on the economy” and pledged to appoint Supreme Court justices who “you are going to be very happy with . justices who are going to uphold the Constitution of the United States.”
But mostly he talked about foreign policy and winning – how he is going to win in November and how America will win if he is elected president.
He bashed Hillary Clinton, his likely Democratic rival in November, and her husband’s meeting with Attorney General Loretta Lynch despite an ongoing investigation.
Trump also spent quite a bit of time addressing his conflict with Colorado. He said Colorado was part of the “rigged system” that tries to take power away from voters.
He accused the state Republican Party of eliminating the straw polls held at caucus during presidential years when Trump was polling well in the state. Members of the state Republican board voted in August 2015 to cancel the vote because the GOP changed its rules so any state holding a straw-poll had to bind delegates to the results. At the time, Steve House, chairman of the Colorado GOP, said it would free up Colorado’s delegates at the convention, something that looked very appealing before Trump secured enough delegates to push his Republican rivals out of the race.
Trump sounded like he was still a little bitter about not winning a single delegate at the Colorado assembly.
“You know what? In the end, it doesn’t matter. Here we are,” Trump said. “I think we’re going to have a tremendous victory here.”
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Contact Megan Schrader: 286-0644
Twitter @CapitolSchrader
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during the opening session of the Western Conservative Summit, Friday, July 1, 2016, in Denver. The summit, which brings together Republicans from across the West, runs through Sunday. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
Donald Trump protesters chant outside the Western Conservative Summit on Friday, July 1, 2016, in Denver. Three people were arrested after clashes between Trump supporters and opponents. Police moved in outside the summit after a man grabbed pro-Trump bumper stickers from a woman selling them outside the city’s convention center, ripped some and threw them in her face. A pushing match followed and people spilled into the street. (Michael Reaves/The Denver Post via AP)
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during the opening session of the Western Conservative Summit, Friday, July 1, 2016, in Denver. The summit, which brings together Republicans from across the West, runs through Sunday. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump steps up to speak during the opening session of the Western Conservative Summit, Friday, July 1, 2016, in Denver. The summit, which brings together Republicans from across the West, runs through Sunday. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)