What to Know Ahead of Trump’s Rally in Arizona

“Several anti-Trump demonstrations are planned for Phoenix, according to social media postings by local activists”.

Meanwhile, a couple hundred Trump supporters were lined up at the Convention Center, with some arriving before dawn for the 7 p.m. rally.

“I don’t think the Phoenix Police are going to stand down and throw us out in the wind”, she said.

“I am disappointed that President Trump has chosen to hold a campaign rally as our nation is still healing from the tragic events in Charlottesville”, Mayor Greg Stanton said in a statement last Wednesday.

Mnuchin was responding to a letter from fellow alumni of Yale University, calling on him to resign in the wake of Trump’s comments.

Rumors rumbling that Trump will consider pardoning former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio have fed fears the rally could erupt into violence.

In Phoenix, law enforcement officials expect massive protests and are preparing to avoid a repeat of what happened in Charlottesville, where one woman was killed and many others were injured when a vehicle mowed down a crowd of people protesting white supremacists.

Meanwhile, one of the state’s four Democratic House members plans to lead a Trump protest and a second plans to meet with opponents before the event.

Mr. Trump has since said he is “seriously considering” granting a pardon to Arpaio, an early supporter of his presidential campaign.

Joe Arpaio, the former Maricopa County, Arizona, sheriff found guilty last month of criminal contempt for disregarding a court order in a racial profiling case, said he won’t be attending President Donald Trump’s rally Tuesday in Phoenix. He’ll be visiting Yuma earlier in the day.

It will also be Trump’s first rally without the guidance of his long-time chief political strategist, Steve Bannon, who was sacked last week after repeated clashes with various White House advisers over the president’s first seven months in office.

“He’s not in a position where he can have another big failure publicly, and that’s the big risk”, he said.

He also said he didn’t want to cause a “commotion” by attending, and that he still supports the president. Jeff Flake, who is facing a primary challenge and has been openly critical of Trump, and John McCain, who is battling brain cancer and cast a decisive vote against Senate Republicans’ health care plan. Flake has become the poster child for Republicans who buck the president’s agenda and feel his wrath on Twitter.

Stanton asked Trump last week to reconsider coming to Phoenix so quickly after a neo-Nazi protest in Charlottesville, Virginia on August 12 turned violent.

In a modest but telling swipe at Ward and, by extension, at Trump, the Senate Leadership Fund, a political committee closely aligned with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, is spending $100,000 on digital ads that say of her, “Not conservative, just insane ideas”.