President Trump’s midterm election rally in Texas on Wednesday was repeatedly disrupted by protesters, including during an appearance by an “angel mom” who described how two criminal illegal immigrants killed her son.
Roughly a dozen people interrupted the San Antonio event during the first 45 minutes of Trump’s speech. The president used his remarks to argue that Texas would face serious risks if Democrats defeated his endorsed candidates in November.
Trump answered the interruptions by criticizing some protesters’ appearance and claiming they had been paid to disrupt the rally.
After the first interruption, Trump said, “His mom voted for Trump.”
When another protester began shouting, the president responded, “That guy’s got to lose a lot of weight.”
Following another disruption, Trump declared, “They’re paid protesters,” adding that they were “paid by enemies of our nation.”
The interruptions continued when angel mom Marie Vega took the stage. Vega recounted surviving an armed robbery involving two illegal immigrants, an attack that left her husband wounded and her son, Border Patrol agent Javier “Harvey” Vega Jr., dead.
“Everything was going perfect until two career criminal illegal aliens decided to ambush us in an attempt to steal two four-wheel-drive trucks,” Vega said, describing the day her son was killed.
She recalled that the men emerged without warning from the stolen vehicle they were driving and opened fire. “They shot at us, killing my Harvey as he so desperately tried to protect us,” Vega said. “They shot my husband in the back and continued shooting at everyone there, including my two little grandsons and their friend.”
Vega said she grabbed the AR rifle Harvey had reached for before being shot in the chest and returned fire to defend her family.
A disturbance erupted in the crowd as Vega accused Democrats of wanting to “strip” Americans of their Second Amendment rights, forcing her to stop speaking for about a minute.
Unlike at Trump’s previous event in Texas, the president invited Republican Senate candidate Ken Paxton onto the stage Wednesday night.
Trump also refrained from mocking Paxton’s clothing or speaking style, as he has done at past appearances.
“I think he’s probably the greatest attorney general in the history of the state of Texas. He is tough. And he was with us all the way,” Trump said of Paxton.
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Trump predicted that Paxton would win decisively if voters based their choice on job performance. He called the Republican candidate “the only thing standing between you and the migrant conquest, the invasion you had two years ago.”
“I’m very proud of him and I think he’s going to be an unbelievable senator,” Trump later told the crowd.
Trump repeatedly criticized Paxton’s Democratic opponent, James Talarico, calling him “Talafreako” and a “fake” while also highlighting that the state lawmaker is vegan.
The president joked that first lady Melania Trump has urged him to pronounce the word “vegan” correctly during his rallies.
“You know, my wife told me, ‘Sir, do me a favor … it’s not vaygun, it’s vegan… Please pronounce that word properly,’” Trump said.
Trump defended his pronunciation by telling the audience, “How the hell would I know? I like steak.”
He also ripped Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas), whom he provided an eyebrow-raising pardon last year.
“I gave a full pardon at the request of his two daughters because they said, ‘Please don’t let them take my mother and father away,’” he said of the congressman and his wife, both of whom were indicted on federal corruption charges.
“But shockingly, after the pardon was given … only a few days later, he said he was going to stay and remain in the Democrat Party,” Trump fumed.
“Many consider this to be a tremendous act of disloyalty, and it certainly showed him to be an extremely ungrateful kind of a person,” he continued. “ I mean, you know, I saved him from going to jail for like, I think, 15 or 20 years.”
“He was afraid to do it,” Trump said of why Cuellar declined to switch political allegiances.
Trump also seemed to clear up comments he made at a Nebraska rally Monday about Iran blowing up Los Angeles and San Diego, which drew backlash from Democrats.
“We had no choice because we can’t let them have a nuclear weapon,” Trump said of the Iran war.
“But you want to see trauma? You want to see problems? And I said it the other day: Let them hit a missile into San Diego or Los Angeles,” he continued, before adding, “We’re not going to let that happen. We protect our cities. We protect our country. We’re not letting them.”
