Ryan: Trump Will Distract. Munroe: He’ll Speak to ‘Real Americans’
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – President Donald Trump’s planned rally at the Covelli Centre next Tuesday is an attempt to distract voters from his failure to fulfill – or even act on – promises he made during the campaign, U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan says.
No, it’s not, says Mahoning County Republican Party chairman Mark Munroe. The president is coming here to connect with “real Americans for a change.”
The congressman held a conference call with reporters Thursday as part of the opposition run-up to the rally. The county GOP chairman was asked to respond to the congressman’s comments.
Ryan, D-13 Ohio, told reporters Trump wouldn’t have much to discuss during the rally because he has “gone against everything he told people during the campaign. He’s obviously a showman and he likes the pomp and circumstance of a big event, and wants to shade over what’s actually going on.”
Six months into his presidency, Trump has done nothing to advance bills on infrastructure or boosting jobs and wages, he continued. Contrary to his pledge to “drain the swamp” in Washington, D.C., “He peppered his cabinet with Goldman Sachs executives.” Meanwhile the investigation into Russian interference in the presidential election reportedly is expanding into the finances of Trump and his family.
“Trump is a master of the shiny object — look over here, don’t look where he doesn’t want us to look,” Ryan remarked. “The campaign-style events are trying to distract us from what really is going on.”
Trump made deep inroads into the Democratic Mahoning Valley. Ryan isn’t convinced that local voters who cast ballots for Trump are strongly in his column but instead were willing to give him a chance because they were fed up with traditional Democrats and Republicans.
“He’s going to come here and put a show on,” he said. “The reality of it is he has to deliver on his promises.”
Munroe said Washington “has become a foreign place, almost unrecognizable as America,” and “is filled with politicians, bureaucrats, lobbyist, too much money and large buildings filled with people trying to control every aspect of our lives.
“Between the Washington Democrats who can’t get over the fact that Hillary [Clinton] lost, the mainstream media that is doing its best to undermine the president and beltway Republicans who can’t quite figure out what to do with Trump, the president probably would like to connect with some real Americans for a change,” Munroe said.
“In the Mahoning Valley, there is no shortage of enthusiasm for this president who was elected with the help of large numbers of Democrats and unaffiliated voters who are yearning for someone to shake Washington to its core.”
The county GOP chairman added that Ryan has “no idea” of what Trump will talk about at Tuesday’s rally.
“As for not accomplishing much, the president’s term is young, and the Democrats have made it clear they are going to block Trump at every turn,” he said.
Democrats, as a counter to Trump’s 7 p.m. rally at the Covelli Centre, will stage a rally at 5:30 p.m. on Central Square downtown. Speakers at the event had not been announced as of last night.
Copyright 2024 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
