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Nov. 27, 2018 / 12:40 AM GMT
By Daniel Barnes
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump dove into the tumultuous Mississippi Senate runoff in the race’s closing hours Monday, appearing at a pair of rallies in the state in support of incumbent Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith hours ahead of Election Day.
“I’m here to ask the people of Mississippi to send Cindy Hyde-Smith back to the United States Senate,” Trump told a crowd in Tupelo, his first stop of the night, calling the vote “one of the most important elections of your lives.”
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Hyde-Smith, who was appointed in April to fill the seat of retiring Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss., has been plagued by controversy, much of it race-related, in the weeks following the general election.
One firestorm followed a comment in Tupelo weeks earlier in which she complimented a supporter by saying “if he invited me to a public hanging, I’d be on the front row.”
Trump made no direct mention of that remark Monday in Tupelo, sticking largely to the national themes he used during campaign rallies in the midterms home stretch, including criticism of what he called the Russia investigation “witch hunt.”
Speaking to reporters on Monday as he left the White House for Mississippi, Trump said Hyde-Smith was an excellent senator and she “felt very badly” about the comment.
“She certainly didn’t mean that,” he said then. “And you know, it was taken a certain way, but she certainly didn’t mean it. And as I understand it, she’s already apologized and very strongly.”
“She votes for us and she votes for ‘Make America Great Again,'” Trump said of Hyde-Smith in Tupelo.
The president also blasted her opponent, former Clinton administration official Mike Espy, as “far-left,” saying the Democrat would rather protect undocumented immigrants than Mississippi residents.
“How does he fit in with Mississippi?” Trump asked.
During a brief appearance, Hyde-Smith urged attendees to vote on Tuesday, so she could continue to “stand up for the conservative values of Mississippi.”
In Elvis Presley’s hometown, the president said he did not want to sound “conceited,” but that his younger self had often drawn comparisons to the late singer.
“Other than the blond hair, when I was growing up they said I looked like Elvis,” he told the crowd. “Can you believe it? I always considered that a great compliment.”
Trump was also scheduled to appear later Monday evening at a rally in Biloxi, Miss.