Dems Are Running With Trump's Milwaukee Comment

Billboard campaign highlights 'horrible city' jab, while Trump says he loves the city
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 14, 2024 2:34 PM CDT
Dems Highlight Trump's 'Horrible' Remark in Milwaukee Billboards
The Milwaukee city skyline.   (AP Photo/Morry Gash)

Donald Trump was quoted as calling Milwaukee a "horrible city" in remarks to Republican lawmakers Thursday, and Democrats want to make sure Milwaukeeans know about it. The Democratic National Committee is launching 10 billboards around the city with Trump's face and the all-caps quote, "Milwaukee, where we are having our convention, is a horrible city," the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports. "The dislike is mutual—in 2020, Wisconsin handed Trump a one-way ticket back to exile in Mar-a-Lago and sent President Biden to the Oval Office," DNC spokesperson Addy Toevs said in a statement. "In November, they'll do it again."

President Biden's campaign has bought ads in the Journal Sentinel and the Shepherd Express weekly and is selling merchandise based on the Trump remark, the Hill reports. "I happen to love Milwaukee," Biden tweeted. Trump and his allies, meanwhile, are denying that the former president disparaged Milwaukee, the biggest city in swing state Wisconsin. Campaign spokesperson Dylan Johnson, who noted that no reporters were in the room when Trump spoke, said Trump "was explicitly referring to the problems in Milwaukee, specifically violent crime and voter fraud." Trump himself told Fox News the same, per WPR.

"I think it was very clear what I meant—I said we're very concerned with crime," Trump said in the interview. "I love Milwaukee, I have great friends in Milwaukee. But, as you know, the crime numbers are terrible, we have to be very careful." He said he also was referring to the 2020 vote and "the way it went down," reiterating his claims of a stolen election. The Republican National Convention will be held in Milwaukee from July 15 to July 18. Cavalier Johnson, the city's Democratic mayor, fired back at Trump on Thursday, the Journal Sentinel reports. "Donald Trump was talking about things that he thinks are horrible. All of us lived through his presidency. So, right back at you, buddy," he said. (More Milwaukee stories.)

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