Trump's Coliseum rally a big day for GOP on LI

Daily Point

Local Republicans look for some magic momentum

Long Island Republicans were out in force at former President Donald Trump's rally Wednesday at Nassau Coliseum.

Flanked by Suffolk County GOP chairman Jesse Garcia, state chairman Ed Cox started the show by warming up the crowd, blaming President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump's Democratic foe, for the wars that began in their first term and for trashing the economy.

Suffolk County Executive Ed Romaine cited a sign he saw outside the Coliseum: "broken borders, broken country, broken world." Praising Trump, Romaine recalled when the then-president came to Long Island in 2017 to prioritize cracking down on the MS-13 gang; Romaine said Trump wants for the country what Romaine wants for Long Island — affordability and safety.

Garcia spoke of making Long Island "red" and his Nassau counterpart, Joe Cairo, belted out: "Red wave! Red Long Island! Let’s get it done, let’s keep it going!"

Rep. Anthony D'Esposito, whose 4th CD hosted the visit and who is locked in a tough reelection battle with Democrat Laura Gillen, shouted, "Ladies and gentlemen, are you ready to elect Trump!" And he taunted Democratic Party state and Nassau County chair Jay Jacobs for allegedly having few people attend the party's counter-demonstration.

CD1 Rep. Nick Lalota spoke of Democrats prioritizing migrants over Americans and said Trump will bring back the state and local deductions on federal income taxes known as SALT without mentioning it was Trump who signed a cap on those deductions.

The fever had been building all day.

It wasn't yet 1 p.m. when Arthur Walsh, the chief deputy for Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, was walking among early arrivals at the Coliseum. He was seen and heard schmoozing outside the entrance during a work day with a couple of rallygoers with whom he had mutual friends. That’s not surprising or even thought unusual. Wednesday’s Trump rally, a plainly partisan event, was clearly a matter of official business for Team Blakeman, too — even the political side of it.

After all, Blakeman used his official county ‘X’ account for a partisan tout of the visit by the GOP nominee: "It’s an honor to welcome @realdonaldtrump, guardian of American values, here to #nassaucounty. This will be the launch pad of a tremendous outpouring of support from suburbs all throughout America!"

Spotted were Jill Nevin, the county commissioner of human services, and her husband, Brian Nevin, spokesman for the Town of Oyster Bay. Also from TOB was tax receiver Jeff Pravato. From the Town of Hempstead came chief of staff Jack Liebert.

Also on the scene: Blakeman’s predecessor as Nassau County executive, Democrat Laura Curran, who confirmed via text that she had not joined the GOP. She was there as a correspondent for WOR/710 AM radio.

Earlier in the day, former U.S. Sen. Alfonse D’Amato was giving interviews while current GOP Senate candidate Mike Sapraicone was making the rounds hoping to catch the same magic in a bottle that D’Amato did in 1980.

Outside the arena, many in attendance seemed aware that "their president" initially was scheduled to be sentenced Wednesday in Manhattan on his felony fraud conviction in the Stormy Daniels case before that was postponed to postelection. T shirts on sale defiantly included "I’m voting for the felon" and references to the assassination attempts such as "you missed!" There was also "Trump that bitch!" among other misogynistic signs.

A cap vendor had a lighter sense of humor. "Buy a MAGA hat! Don’t be a Democrat," he chanted with a smile. One fan who didn’t give his name looked around at the sprawling jammed parking lot and said: "Maybe the Democrats won’t be able to cheat again."

The myths and the magic are alive on Long Island.

— Dan Janison dan.janison@newsday.com

Pencil Point

Gunning for cellphones

For more cartoons, visit www.newsday.com/0904nationalcartoons

Final Point

Gillen takes swipes at Trump over Haitians, D'Esposito over missing House vote

As Long Island Republicans and supporters of former President Donald Trump were gathering at Nassau Coliseum Wednesday, Democrats were holding multiple protests, hoping to galvanize their own voters.

Democrat Laura Gillen, who is running for Congress in hotly contested CD4 — which includes the Coliseum and the communities around it — joined the chorus during her endorsement interview with the Newsday editorial board Tuesday. Gillen drilled down on Trump’s debunked commentary during last week’s debate with Vice President Kamala Harris, in which he falsely claimed Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio were eating pets.

"I think especially in light of the remarks he recently made about Haitian immigrants, where this is a district that hosts a large Haitian population, I think he has some audacity coming here after he’s insulted a lot of people in my district," Gillen said. "Instead of celebrating this community that has contributed a lot, he’s vilified them, demonized them, [and] his vice president said it’s OK to just make up stories if it gets across a point."

"Obviously I want him to be safe while he visits the district but that’s the way I feel about it," Gillen concluded.

By Wednesday, Gillen was targeting her opponent, Rep. Anthony D’Esposito, for missing a House vote on a continuing resolution to fund the government in order to attend the Trump rally.

"Anthony D’Esposito is taking the night off to appease his extreme party leadership," she said in a statement.

Gillen targeted D’Esposito throughout her interview with the editorial board, including during a conversation about former GOP Rep. George Santos, who represented nearby CD3, when she noted D’Esposito’s connections to the fraudster.

"If D’Esposito did not know that Santos was a fraud, I guess he’s the worst detective NYPD has ever had," Gillen said.

— Randi F. Marshall randi.marshall@newsday.com

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