President Donald Trump shied away from his usual rally tactic of heaping praise on the hosting state on Wednesday night—instead telling a crowd in Louisiana that they had the highest murder rate in the U.S.
However, he attempted to temper the blow slightly by explaining to the Keep America Great rally in Monroe that he didn't want to say the murder rate there was high and telling the press to turn off their cameras.
"Louisiana has the highest murder rate—I hate to say this, please turn off those television cameras immediately, I don't want to say it," the president said.
"But you have the highest murder rate anywhere in the United States—I didn't know that, I didn't want to say it," Trump continued, pointing at the press and adding: "I'm sure they turned it off because they really listen."
Louisiana has had the highest murder rate per capita of all the states in the U.S. for the past 30 years, according to data from the FBI released in 2018 (the last available data collected).
Trump's comments marked a stark difference between his approach to Kentucky in his Monday night rally, when he told the crowd: "Kentucky is thriving like never ever before, and America is stronger than ever before. True.
"The far left wants to impose their authoritarian ideology on the nation, telling you what to think, what to believe and how you should live. They want to erase our traditions, our culture, our history, and our heroes. They want to subjugate you and break you to their will, but Kentucky will never be broken. Kentucky can't be broken. You're too strong and you're too smart," he added.
But it wasn't all bad news for Louisiana, with the president telling the crowd that they were the elites, despite the state receiving a lower than average household income compared with the rest of the U.S.
During the Wednesday rally in Louisiana, the president also appeared to suggest that he hadn't made much effort to help Republicans in the 2018 midterms, deflecting the GOP loss of the House away from himself.
"I didn't run in 2018, you know they keep forgetting, I didn't run," Trump said. "I said 'go out and vote, go out and vote' but a lot of people said 'I'm not going to vote until Trump runs,' OK that's nice, I love those... I love the people," he continued to cheers from the crowd.
"But they see what we're doing, but I didn't run in 2018. But people forget, we picked up two seats in the senate, they never want to talk about that."
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
