Following through on his announcement, former President Donald Trump held a rally in Aurora today at the Gaylord Rockies Resort.
The line for the event wrapped around the resort property for about two miles. Initially announced on Oct. 7, the event’s expenses and security have largely been covered by the city of Aurora, according to the city’s deputy director of communications and marketing; it does not require political campaigns to provide reimbursement to the city for the costs connected with its electoral activities.
CTR spoke with Weston Imer, a member of the Republican National Committee Youth Advisory Council. Imer told CTR that he spoke with a lot of Gen-Z and younger voters who were excited to come out and support the former president.
“Of course, what I have been doing here today is interviewing people who are Gen-Z in the audience and when I tell that there are so many I couldn’t get to them all, it’s the truth,” said Imer. “The energy here today from Gen-Z for Trump and his ‘Make America Great Again’ agenda is off the charts. The youth in Colorado have made their choice clear, they want President Trump, they want four more years of him in the White House.” Imer indicated that border security was a major issue for the people he talked to.
The former president had previously announced his intention to visit Aurora during a campaign speech in New York almost three weeks ago. In that speech, Trump doubled down on anti-immigrant rhetoric, referencing Aurora multiple times where repeated debunked claims over Venezuelan gangs “taking over” the city, echoing his September debate with Vice President Kamala Harris.
That rhetoric continued into today’s rally. Speakers at the event included U.S. Representatives Lauren Boebert (R-CO), Greg Lopez (R-CO), Harriet Hageman (R-WY), as well as congressional candidates Gabe Evans and Jeff Crank. All took swipes at Vice President Kamala Harris, accusing her of supporting an open border policy and ‘defunding’ the police. In interviews prior to the rally, Evans wouldn’t say whether or not he would attend the event. Despite being endorsed by the former president, pundits wondered whether he would want to tie his campaign to Trump considering his tight race for the 8th Congressional District against incumbent Yadira Caraveo.
Boebert got some of the biggest reactions from the crowd, excluding Trump, starting off with a string of jokes and taking swipes at the media, particularly 9News anchor Kyle Clark.
“I was going to kick things off with a joke, but then I realized, why bother because Kamala Harris has already beat me to it by running in this race. Kamala is literally the punchline trying to run our country,” Boebert told the crowd. “In Colorado, we don’t need Kyle Clark at 9News to tell us what’s happening in our own backyard. Our backyards are looking like an episode of [drug cartel TV show] Narcos.”
Boebert, along with other speakers like Aurora City Councilwoman Danielle Jurinsky, continued to amplify false claims that Venezuelan gangs had taken over apartment complexes in Aurora. “You’ve got gangs like Tren de Aragua turning apartment complexes into their own playgrounds. Venezuelan gangs are extorting and harassing people, assaulting people in their own homes,” Jurinsky said.
Boebert then took aim at reporters for continuously debunking the story.
“Meanwhile the media is out here saying, ‘It’s all in your head; it’s a feature of your imagination,'” said Boebert. “Yeah sure, there is no gang problem, the border is secure, and Joe Biden is really running the country.”
Boebert and Trump both urged rallygoers to support John Fabbricatore, a former ICE agent, in his bid to unseat Democratic Rep. Jason Crow (D-CO).
Rally organizers also invited a Colorado Springs resident, Emily, who took the stage with her two kids. Emily told the crowd, “My daughter has been struggling in school because there are boys that think they aren’t boys, there are boys that think they are girls. My daughter has been called a bully for calling a boy a boy.”
Emily’s daughter was given a microphone and claimed there were kindergartners in her school who identify as animals and defecate on the floor. There is no evidence that this has been a widespread problem within Colorado Springs Schools. “Every single day they [my kids] have to experience transgenders at their school,” said Emily. “They have to experience people that think that they’re bunny rabbits.”
When Jurinsky took the stage she claimed that police officers had told her that Venezuelan prison gangs were taking over the city, the Aurora Chief of Police has denied this.
At about 1:30 p.m., former President Trump took the stage to roaring applause. Trump’s speech went on for roughly one and a half hours, and he once again pushed falsehoods over gang takeovers in Colorado cities. “I will rescue Aurora and every town that has been conquered. You have to explain that to your governor — he doesn’t have a clue. We will put these vicious and bloodthirsty criminals in jail or kick them out and we will be very effective in doing it.”
Trump announced later in his speech that, if re-elected, he plans to carry out what he calls “Operation Aurora,” where he would target migrants for deportation and mass arrest using the Alien and Sedition Acts. The set of 1798 laws gave the president a broad set of powers to detain and expel foreign non-citizens during times of war.
Multiple speakers, from Trump to Boebert, Jurinsky, and Evans all claimed Biden-Harris immigration policy was letting in violent criminals. Trump claimed, “They’re coming here from prisons and insane asylums.” However, numerous studies have indicated that undocumented immigrants actually commit less violent crime than native-born U.S. citizens.
The last time Trump was in Colorado was at a high-dollar, Aspen fundraising event in August where, according to reporting from The Guardian, he railed against immigration.
However, the last rally Trump held in Colorado was back in 2020 when he came to Colorado Springs. At that rally, The Proud Boys, an organization that has been designated as an extremist hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), joined the crowd in their support of Trump.
People also assembled outside the Gaylord Resort to protest the former president and his false statements about both Aurora and Springfield, OH. One of the groups that worked to organize the protest was the Denver branch of the Party of Socialism and Liberation (PSL Denver).
Katie Leonard, an organizer with the PSL told CTR: “Trump has come to Aurora. He’s been demonizing immigrants on a national stage because of the false rumors that Venezuelan gangs have been taking over apartment complexes here. We have been intimately involved with organizing with those tenants, many of whom are from Venezuela, and we’ve known what the true story is from the beginning,” Leonard said. “It’s important that we’re out here opposing this racist rhetoric because we know what is really happening in Aurora is that there’s a slumlord trying to use immigrants to scapegoat his own negligence. APD reported that none of the people in the video that went viral were affiliated with a gang.”
Leonard also took issue with Jurinsky and Trump’s characterization that gangs had taken over The Lowery complex in Aurora. “She [Jurinsky] is incorrect. APD reported that none of the people in the video that went viral were affiliated with a gang. These [Lowery] tenants are dignified members of our community who work from sun up to sun down, her rhetoric has not only caused many of them to be at risk of eviction but it’s also resulted in right-wing vigilantes patrolling their apartment complexes. Many of these people have received death threats that have been rooted in these racist, anti-immigrant things that Danielle Jurinsky, Trump, and the right-wing have been spewing.”
Another protestor, Danielle Edwards, who was not affiliated with Denver PSL, came out to show his support for Vice President Kamala Harris and said she was against Trump being here today.
“I’m disgusted with the way he has lied about our cities and the violence he claims is out here that just isn’t,” said Edwards. “Originally being from Ohio and having friends and family in Springfield telling me, I used to be a fan of his, but this needs to stop, this is killing us. I wanted to stand up and fight back.” Edwards volunteers with the Parasol Patrol, a group that shields children and young people from protesters at LGBTQIA+ events. Edwards indicated that while some of the rallygoers have been very civil with the protestors, others have got in their face and shouted profanities. Edwards reported being called a “B—” and a “C—”.
There was one rallygoer walking around the protest who was calling the protesters the N-word and calling queer protestors “F—–”.
