In Carson City, Trump says red wave is coming to Silver State

President Trump vowed Sunday evening in Carson City to turn the Silver State red.

Trump, the Republican incumbent told about 10,000 supporters at the Carson City Airport a red wave is coming to Nevada.

"Sixteen days from now, we're going to win the state of Nevada, we're going win four more years in the White House,” Trump said.

A Republican hasn’t won Nevada and its 6 electoral votes since 2004.

Trump narrowly lost in 2016, by 27,202 votes to Hillary Clinton (47.92 to 45.50 percent). In Carson City, Trump won by 3,515 votes (52.47 to 38.42 percent) in 2016.

“Get out and vote. This is the most important election we've ever had ... They call it the red wave,” Trump said.

Trump took the stage at 4:20 p.m. and walked off just about 90 minutes later. He covered a wide-range of topics and spent the first part of rally talking about Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and California. He also talked about Clinton, the NFL, the NBA and water management.

When he did turn to the Silver State, he said that challenger Joe Biden’s policies would be damaging to Nevada’s residents.

Discussing COVID-19, Trump asked, “Do I look OK?” To which the Capital crowd roared “yes” in response to the President's recent battle with the coronavirus.

He claimed the country would be in a depression if Biden was elected.

“He'll listen to the scientists. If I listened totally to the scientists, we would right now have a country that would be in a massive depression,” Trump said.

Once a vaccine is rolled out, Trump said, “the Nevada tourism and hospitality industry, which is fantastic, will come roaring back."

Nevada’s unemployment rate is currently the highest in the nation.

He said Biden’s polices would “annihilate Nevada's economy" with a "draconian, unscientific lockdown."

Under that lockdown Trump suggested Carson City would become a “ghost town” and Christmas “would be canceled.”

Trump last campaigned in Northern Nevada on Sept. 12 at the Minden-Tahoe Airport.

Trump with a look of disbelief in his eye, asked "How the hell can we be tied?” in the polls. “What’s going on? ... We get these massive crowds. He gets nobody.... It doesn’t make sense!”

In the polls, FiveThirtyEight, CBS News, New York Times/Siena and Fox News all have Biden leading, but Trump pointed out how wrong the polls were in 2016, when Clinton was a favorite heading into election day.

“I was down in 9 states, the day of the elections … I won all 9 states,” Trump said. “Other than that, they (polls)were quite accurate.

“This time they are much better.”

Though Trump lost Nevada in 2016, he performed better than Mitt Romney in 2012 or John McCain in 2008.

Adding to Trump’s optimism is that since the spring, Republicans have consistently added more voters to their rolls than Democrats each month, narrowing their voter registration deficit in September to 5 percentage points. However, the race will be decided by Nevada’s 409,000 nonpartisan voters.

Trump gave a shout out to Rep. Mark Amodei, 2018 governor candidate Adam Laxalt. Both, along with Republican Chair Michael McDonald spoke to the crowd before Trump’s arrival. He also called on Laxalt and Nick Trutanich, U.S. attorney for Nevada, to keep an eye on “bad things” during voting. Laxalt the former Attorney General has no part in ensuring voter safety. That job falls to Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske, a Republican.

Air Force One landed at Reno Tahoe International Airport at 3:19 p.m. Trump exited Air Force Once at 3:32 and talked to the traveling press corps before leaving for Carson City at 3:34. The motorcade arrived in Carson at 4:08 p.m.

Trump said at the rally that thousands were lining the roadways as he arrived from Reno.

At 6:35 p.m. Carson City re-opened all of the streets that were closed for the rally.

"The Carson City Sheriff’s Office would like to extend gratitude and many thanks to our neighboring agencies and City departments for a successful operation. It was the collaborative efforts of responding agencies that safeguarded the community, residents and visitors. Thank you to all the businesses and residents living within the area for your cooperation and patience throughout the duration of the event. All streets are currently open," Sheriff Ken Furlong said in a release.

Temperature checks were taken before entering, the crowd was mostly unmasked and the crowd sat elbow-to-elbow.

"I know some will take this as a political statement, but let me be clear: as the Governor of the great State of Nevada, I have the responsibility of protecting all residents - regardless of their political affiliation. I take that seriously," Gov. Steve Sisolak tweeted. "And right now, that responsibility includes telling the President of the United States that hosting a large gathering without adhering to guidance from his own CDC requirements developed by State health officials is reckless and dangerous.

"Because unlike the President, not every Nevadan and American who is infected with COVID-19 has access to Walter Reed medical center, countless doctors and treatments."

As of Sunday, Nevada has more than 90,000 coronavirus cases and more than 1,700 deaths. Nationwide, about 220,000 deaths had been reported.

On Monday, speaking to campaign aides on a conference call, the Associated Press reported that Trump said he believes he's going to win, allowing that he didn't have that same sense of confidence two weeks ago when he was hospitalized with COVID-19. One week since returning to the campaign trail, where his handling of the pandemic is a central issue to voters, Trump blasted his government's own scientists for their criticism of his performance.

“People are tired of hearing Fauci and all these idiots," Trump said of Fauci, declaring the government's top infectious disease expert “a disaster.” But Fauci is both respected and popular, and Trump suggested firing the doctor would only create greater controversy. Trump's rejection of scientific advice on the pandemic has already drawn bipartisan condemnation.

Fauci, in an interview with CBS's “60 Minutes” that aired Sunday, said he was not surprised that Trump contracted the virus after he held large events with few face coverings. Fauci also objected to the president's campaign using his words in a campaign ad.

“I was worried that he was going to get sick when I saw him in a completely precarious situation of crowded, no separation between people, and almost nobody wearing a mask,” Fauci said of the president.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.