Colorado governor, senator, representatives announce plans to "slam Trump" hours before Donald Trump's Aurora rally
Friday will be a very busy day in politics in Colorado. Former president Donald Trump will be visiting the state and holding a campaign rally in Aurora in the early afternoon. On Wednesday evening Vice President Kamala Harris's presidential campaign announced that several Democratic leaders will hold a news conference in Aurora a few hours before Trump's rally. The Harris campaign says the goal will be to "hold Trump accountable for spreading misinformation about the Aurora community."
Wednesday's media advisory from the Harris campaign was titled "Ahead of Visit, Governor Polis, Congressman Crow to Slam Trump." It states that the following elected representatives will speak in the Friday morning press conference:
- Gov. Jared Polis
- Sen. John Hickenlooper, Colorado's junior senator
- Rep. Jason Crow, who represents Colorado's 6th Congressional District
- Rep. Diana DeGette, who represents Colorado's 1st Congressional District
Trump first began talking publicly about Aurora in the presidential debate last month. He claimed a criminal gang from Venezuela is causing widespread chaos in the city.
"(They're) taking over towns, they're taking over buildings," Trump said.
It turns out those claims have been greatly exaggerated.
"The concerns about Venezuelan gang activity have been grossly exaggerated. The incidents were limited to several apartment complexes in this city of more than 400,000 residents," Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman, a Republican, said in a statement this week.
Earlier this week when they announced Trump's Friday's visit the Trump campaign wrote "Violent criminals are destroying the safety and security of Aurora's apartment complexes, and yet, the Harris-Biden administration continues to allow illegal immigrants to cross the borders unchecked. ... Kamala Harris' open-border policies are turning once-safe communities into nightmares for law-abiding citizens."
The Harris campaign says Colorado's governor and the other Democratic elected leaders will also speak about how, according to the campaign, Trump used his influence to "kill the toughest bipartisan deal to secure the border in decades." They say the deal was endorsed by the Border Patrol Union.
The start time for the Democrats press conference is 9 a.m. on Friday. The location within Aurora hasn't been revealed so far.
Trump's rally will be held at the Gaylord Rockies Resort & Convention Center, and it scheduled to start at 1 p.m.