WS Chronicle

Photos by Todd Luck

BY TODD LUCK 

THE CHRONICLE

Donald Trump Jr. rallied the faithful at the Forsyth County Republican Party office last week.

Trump Jr.– who appeared with Benghazi survivor Mark Geist –stopped by the office on Thursday, Oct. 13, to thank volunteers who were making calls in a phone bank for his father, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. He said Trump’s business expertise and lack of political experience are what Washington needs. He said it was patriotism that drove his father to run.

“If there’s one person who doesn’t need this job, it’s him,” said Trump Jr. “But he’s doing it because he loves this country.”

Trump Jr. did not specifically mention the recently released 2005 tape of his father bragging about groping women. Trump Sr. has denied having actually done the things he talked about, though several women have come out and accused him of sexual assault.

Trump Jr. did say the media “picked sides a long time ago” and is against Trump Sr.

“It’s not a fair fight, it never will be because we’re not just campaigning against a candidate. It would be over by now if we were campaigning against that candidate [Hillary Clinton], especially with her record,” said Trump Jr.

Studies have shown that Trump got as much coverage in the primary as all 16 of his opponents combined. Trump relied on that coverage, instead of buying ads and other forms of traditional campaigning, to soundly win the nomination.

The intensive coverage of Trump hasn’t yielded the same results in the General Election, as he’s tended to trail Democrat Hillary Clinton in most national polls. The Trump campaign started major fundraising initiatives and ad campaigns in recent months. Trump Jr. still described it as a “lean campaign” versus Clinton’s “big machine.”

Trump Jr. criticized the media for not giving enough coverage to the revelations about Clinton in the emails recently released by WikiLeaks. The Clinton campaign is not authenticating the emails, and keeps asking if there’s a connection between Trump and Russia, who U.S. intelligence officials believe is responsible for the email hacks. Trump Jr. denied any connection between his father and Russia.

Trump Jr. said the enthusiasm for his father is being underreported. He said that it’s not a campaign, but a “movement,”

He called the election a “referendum for change.” The standing room only crowd at the office was very receptive to Trump Jr. as he talked about eliminating “insane and disgusting” regulation on businesses.

He also said if Clinton was elected, she would appoint liberal justices that would turn the country toward socialism.

Geist, a member of the security team that fought at the Benghazi diplomatic annex, blamed Clinton for the attack, which happened when she was secretary of state. He accused her of putting people in harm’s way for personal gain.

“She did it so she could have a foreign policy win, come 2016 to become the next president, and she lost lives doing it because she didn’t care,” he said.

Numerous congressional investigations into Benghazi determined there were  failures on the part of the State Department, but didn’t find Clinton culpable.

Attendee Reggie Reid said Trump Jr. was a great surrogate for this father. He said the phone banking for Trump has been going well.

“I think he’s getting a lot of local support even with the so-called allegations,” said Reid.

Local GOP Vice Chair Linda Petrou said that though they’ve had no shortage of volunteers for their phone banks, she was glad to see Trump Jr. fire up the local base.

“When people get an opportunity to meet someone like that, they get much more enthusiastic,” said Petrou.