Trump rally Dallas: Watch live stream as President Donald Trump holds a re-election campaign rally in Dallas, Texas today – CBS News

President Trump targeted who he called “hateful” and “enraged” Democrats leading the impeachment inquiry and his Texas 2020 challenger Beto O’Rourke during a campaign rally in Dallas on Thursday. Mr. Trump’s rally was held one day after a tense meeting with Democratic congressional leaders where House Speaker Nancy Pelosi walked out after he called her a “third-rate politician.” 

Mr. Trump kicked off the rally by touting the new Louis Vuitton plant that he visited early in the day. But he quickly pivoted from that store’s opening to an attack on the Democratic party.

“The more America achieves, the more hateful and enraged these crazy Democrats become,” Mr. Trump said, drawing boos from the crowd. 

“At stake is the survival of American democracy itself,” he added. “They are destroying this country, but we will never let it happen.”

It didn’t take Mr. Trump long to discuss the impeachment inquiry against him. He defended what he called a “perfect” July phone call with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, and accused House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff of “outright fraud.” “Shifty Schiff makes up my conversation, which was perfect, so he made up a ‘totally false’ conversation with the Ukrainian president,” Mr. Trump said.

And while Mr. Trump didn’t spend much time discussing allegations that he threatened to withhold foreign aid in a quid-pro-quo with Ukraine, he zeroed in on what he called the “terrible foreign corruption of the Bidens.”

Just miles away, 2020 presidential contender O’Rourke was hosting a counter rally called the “Rally Against Fear.” O’Rourke said on Twitter that the rally was intended to show that Trump’s “hatred, racism and division does not belong in Texas.”

O’Rourke was the first Democratic candidate Mr. Trump targeted during the rally. Trump called O’Rourke “a very dumb Democrat for president,” and tore into the presidential contender for his stance on guns and his proposal to end tax exemptions for religious organizations that oppose same-sex marriages.

“Beto, in a few short weeks, got rid of guns and got rid of religion,” Mr. Trump said.

O’Rourke held a counter-rally about 20 miles away Thursday night. His campaign said there were over 5,000 in attendance for the rally, called the “Rally Against Fear.” O’Rourke called out what he described as the “false, bullsh*t fear of Donald Trump.” 

Richard Snowden of Las Vegas was first in line for Mr. Trump’s rally. He said he traveled across the country to see the president.

“This is my 57th,” Snowden said. “We give back to him the love and the support contrasted with all the negative attacks made on him by his enemies.”

Before the evening rally, the president will hold a fundraising luncheon in downtown Fort Worth, then attend a ribbon-cutting in Keene in Johnson County for a manufacturing plant for Louis Vuitton, an upscale line of women’s handbags, luggage and other accessories.

This is the president’s sixth visit to Texas this year alone.

Southern Methodist University political science professor Cal Jillison says Mr. Trump still maintains an advantage in the state, which has been reliably Republican for years. But he says Texas will be in play in future election cycles, and that Democrats will continue to make inroads in Texas, as they did last year. 

“We saw the Democrats win two Texas Republican-held House seats and 12 Texas House seats,” said Jillson, according to CBS DFW. “So Trump knows he’s going to have to work hard to turn out his base because his base isn’t as solid as it was for previous Republican presidents.”