Lucy Gellman Photo
The Donald.
Milford, N.H. — As I negotiated my way into Donald Trump’s welcome-back-to-New Hampshire rally Tuesday night, a staffer motioned me to a holding pen, a set of cramped risers and desks near the back of a capacious room where cameramen scrambled on top of each other to get a good angle.
At other events I’ve been covering this week, credentialed reporters with cameras have been free to roam around, interview people, approach the candidate — as long as they don’t get on stage or do anything to wacky and wild.
At the Trump rally, the reporters and camera people were herded to the fenced off media-pen. We were ordered to stay there; anyone who left, even to go to the bathroom, would not be allowed in.
The Crowd.
When Trump took the stage, our purpose in the pen soon became clear: to serve as a prop for the Republican presidential candidate to use to whip up the hatred of his fans.
Covering the rally from the pen, I got to experience firsthand what it’s like to serve as an enemy target of a candidate who sought to salvage his campaign for the presidential nomination by continuing his attacks on easy targets like immigrants, refugees, a Canadian Cruz … and the press.
“Immigrants rape and kill!” Trump told the crowd of 2,500 or 3,000 gathered Tuesday night inside the Hampshire Hills Sports & Fitness Club, a large building designated by a shaft of white light and clusters of Milford police, burly security guards and secret service members, as the final week’s lead-up began to New Hampshire’s Feb. 9 first-in-the-nation presidential primary.
“I’m going to send ‘em all back!” he vowed, in reference to Syrian refugees.
Then he pointed to the pen — and blamed the media for the widespread narrative that he lost his invincible footing by finishing second, and only slightly ahead of Marco Rubio, in Monday’s Iowa Republican caucus.
“How come the guy that comes in third” is written up, he mused to the audience before getting aggressive. “Isn’t this typical reporters? The media … the worst people ever! What the cameras don’t have and the press will never, ever ever report the crowds. They’re very dishonest. They’re just very dishonest.”
Rubio’s third-place finish — and his emergence as the leading hope for more establishment Republicans — was just the beginning of it. Speaking to the dishonesty and folly of personalities like Fox News’ Megyn Kelly, the “disrespect” that Fox had paid him the week before in Des Moines when he pulled out of a GOP debate, Trump kept the focus on the media for a good first 20 minutes of the 45-minute rally.
“They’re the worst!,” he cried, launching his arms into the air as the crowd shook its fists and jeered at the cluster of media in the rear of the room.
When I caught up with attendees after the speech, they were friendlier. Yes — they said they are voting for Trump because he struck them as someone “who won’t back down” as much as the other Republican candidates, and that they liked that he would “beat the shit out” of anyone who dared attack the United States … but they also wished me a safe drive home in New Hampshire’s inclement weather.
The media pen.
That didn’t extend to his staff.
“You can leave,” one campaign worker said to us as we descended the risers and rummaged for our voice recorders. “Don’t think of going near the stage. Get out. Right now.”
Lucy Gellman and Thomas Breen are spending the week in New Hampshire with canvassers, campaign staffers and volunteers, and candidates. To listen to some of the voices from the Trump camp, click on or download the audio above. This is the fourth installment in a Soundcloud playlist of many political voices from the road.
Thomas Breen contributed reporting to this story.
Live tweets from the rally follow:
