President Donald Trump pulled out all the stops at a Thursday rally in Great Falls, Montana.
He made fun of Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and the #MeToo movement in one fell swoop, praised Russian President Vladimir Putin, attacked ailing members of his own party and repeatedly brought up the failed nomination of his VA Secretary candidate Ronny Jackson, placing the blame with Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT).
In one of his favorite talking points, Trump went after Warren for her claims of Native American ancestry, making a confusingly sinister joke about using a genetics testing kit to force the Senator to validate her lineage.
“We will take that little kit, but we have to do it gently because we’re in the #MeToo generation, so we have to be very gentle, and we will very gently take that kit and we will slowly toss it,” he said to laughter per an AP report.
Warren shot back on Twitter.
Hey, @realDonaldTrump: While you obsess over my genes, your Admin is conducting DNA tests on little kids because you ripped them from their mamas & you are too incompetent to reunite them in time to meet a court order. Maybe you should focus on fixing the lives you’re destroying.
— Elizabeth Warren (@elizabethforma) July 5, 2018
Back at the rally, Trump alighted on Russia and his upcoming summit with Putin.
“Putin’s fine,” Trump said per the New York Times. “He’s fine. We’re all fine. We’re people. Will I be prepared? Totally prepared. I’ve been preparing for this stuff my whole life.”
Trump then took aim at Tester, calling him a “liberal Democrat” and maligning him for “shameful, dishonest attacks on a great man, a friend of mine,” referring to Jackson whose confirmation was sunk when accusations came out from former employees of harassment, drunkenness on the job, and unethical medicine distribution.
A Trump rally would not be complete these days without an attack on Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), a task which he takes to with great enthusiasm.
“I said it the other day, yes, she is a low-IQ individual, Maxine Waters. I said it the other day,” he said. “I mean, honestly she is somewhere in the mid-60s. I believe that.”
Trump then turned his attention to his own party, targeting in turns former President George H. W. Bush and Sen. John McCain (R-AZ).
In a meandering digression, Trump took aim at the ailing former President’s slogan, popularized in his 1988 nomination speech.
“Thousand points of light,” Trump said, per CNN. “What does that mean? I know one thing. Make America Great Again we understand. Putting America first we understand. Thousand points of light, I never quite got that one. What the hell is that? Has anyone ever figured that one out? It was put out by a Republican wasn’t it.”
He then attacked McCain, again bringing up his vote that helped kill the Republicans’ attempt to repeal Obamacare.
The President made a bit of news en route to the freewheeling rally as well, teasing to reporters on Air Force one that he had narrowed his Supreme Court candidates “down to four people and I think of the four people, I have it down to three or two.” He added that he would decide by Sunday and announce Monday, per the Hill.
