Trump Campaign Holds ‘Witch Hunt’ Halloween Party in Pennsylvania
Trump Campaign Holds ‘Witch Hunt’ Halloween Party in Pennsylvania
(Bloomberg) -- Joyce Bollini, in a tall black witch hat, gestured at her yellow T-shirt when asked why she and her friend Cynthia Lane, attended a Trump campaign Halloween “Witch Hunt Party” in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, on a drizzly Wednesday evening.
The T-shirts worn by Bollini and Lane had the words “Good Witches Love Trump” in bold black letters.
“That’s why I wore this,” said Bollini, 70, of Berwyn, Pennsylvania. “He’s a man that promises something and does it. I’m just unhappy with some of the hardship and blocking that he’s faced.”
â Mario Parker (@MarioDParker) October 31, 2019
She spoke on the eve of a scheduled U.S. House vote to support the impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump.
Bollini, like Lane, said they had both voted for Trump in 2016 and that they will vote for him again next year. Lane, a 61-year-old fitness instructor from Malvern, Pennsylvania, said that Democrats have been trying to impeach Trump since he won the last presidential election.
“I think it’s been a witch hunt. The whole Russia collusion and anything before it and anything after it,” said Lane, who also wore a black hat. “It’s the swamp versus him. It’s the elite, the deep state.”
The inquiry began over a July 25 phone call between Trump and Ukraine’s new president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in which Trump asked Zelenskiy to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter.
Pennsylvania, a battleground state with 20 electoral votes, is crucial to the president’s re-election hopes.
In 2016, he narrowly defeated Hillary Clinton by 1.2 percentage points. In Lancaster County, he won 57.3% of the vote. Still, polls have shown Trump trailing Democratic presidential candidates, including Joe Biden, who was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, by a double-digit margin.
Wednesday’s event was hosted by Matt Schlapp, the chairman of the American Conservative Union, and his wife, Mercedes Schlapp, who worked in the Trump White House; and Trump supporters and social media stars Diamond and Silk. It was held in an upstairs room at the Spooky Nook Sports recreation center in Manheim.
Ruth Hessen said that Diamond and Silk drew her out.
“I love Diamond and Silk. They’re straight shooters just like Trump,” Hessen said, wearing a pink Trump 2020 hat and T-shirt that said “Trump 2020, Ivanka Trump 2024, Pro Life.”
Not everyone at the party was a Trump voter.
Travis Jackson, who said he’s a writer and motivational speaker, bills himself as an independent. He said he didn’t vote in 2016, doesn’t know who he’ll vote for next year, and that none of the Democratic candidates appeal to him so far.
“I have concerns, we’re so divided as a country,” said Jackson, 55. “Lancaster County is a special place. It’s a testing ground.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Mario Parker in Chicago at mparker22@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alex Wayne at awayne3@bloomberg.net, John Harney
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