Trump Stops In Fort Worth Ahead Of Austin Rally
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FORT WORTH (CBSDFW.COM) - Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump was in Fort Worth on Tuesday for an invitation-only luncheon at City Club. The fundraising event kicked off before noon, where Trump was the featured guest at a roundtable discussion.
The campaign stop in Texas came just as Trump's poll numbers were starting to tick up against Democratic challenger Hillary Clinton. However, the Republican candidate still trails in all of the battleground states with just 76 days remaining before the November election.
A poll conducted earlier this month showed that Trump actually leads Clinton in Texas by 11 percentage points.
Trump has ramped up his attacks on Clinton recently, calling for a special prosecutor to investigate accusations involving The Clinton Foundation, the Democratic candidate's speaking fees and more. Clinton, in return, has been taking shots at Trump's economic plan, calling it "rigged for the rich."
Tuesday's stop in downtown Fort Worth marked Trump's fourth visit to North Texas since last September. But there were no public events planned this time around. Trump previously hosted an invitation-only fundraiser in June, followed by a public rally in Dallas.
After the Fort Worth event on Tuesday morning, the real estate mogul headed to Austin for a second fundraiser and a public rally scheduled at the Travis County Expo Center. Meanwhile, the next campaign stop for Clinton will take place on Thursday in Reno, Nevada.
Both of the North Texas party chairs weighed in ahead of Trump's stop in Fort Worth.
"The big money donors need to be questioning him," said Tarrant County Democratic Party chairwoman Deborah Peoples on the heels of a Huffington Post article which claimed that Trump quadrupled the rent on his Trump Tower headquarters when private donor money started coming in.
"If it came from the Huffington Post, I would have serious doubts about the accuracy," said Tarrant County Republican Party chairman Tim O'Hare, firing back at Trump's Democratic rival. "No one has played the game of donations, pay-for-play, better than Hillary Clinton."
O'Hare explained that the GOP businessman has played by the rules. "There are no Trump scandals," he said.
Peoples strongly disagreed, believing that some American voters have been fooled. "He's a racist. He doesn't like anyone. He's spoken out against Hispanic people. He's spoken out against blacks, Asians, Muslims, you name it," she stated. "Here's a man who's $650 million in debt, who doesn't pay his workers, who takes all of his manufacturing overseas."
Those strong words were disputed by the North Texas GOP leader. "That's a typical liberal that calls anyone a racist who says they want to do something to secure the border," O'Hare said. "They spout out things without any facts."
However, when asked about Trump criticizing others on Twitter and in his campaign speeches, O'Hare admitted, "If I were his campaign advisor, I would tell him not to do that."