Several dozen supporters and volunteers for President Donald Trump gathered at a north Phoenix office complex Friday morning to cheer on the Trump bus as it made a stop in the Valley.
Onboard the bus were Jeff DeWit, former state treasurer and current chief operating officer of the president's re-election campaign, current state treasurer Kimberly Yee and Matt Whitaker, former acting U.S. attorney general.
In an interview with The Arizona Republic prior to exiting the bus and hosting a small rally with their supporters, all three officials expressed their excitement for the campaign and confidence that they would prevail on Nov. 3.
"We have the most incredible ground game in the history of politics," DeWit said.
He said the stop also had the purpose of rewarding volunteers who have done "wonderful work" to aid the president's re-election campaign. The trio recognized some of them during the gathering outside of the bus, handing out signed merchandise as an emblem of their gratitude.
DeWit said throughout the bus tour, which visited spots in northern Arizona on Thursday, they've been met with crowds much larger than expected, which he said "invigorates my soul."
He said that's representative of the vigor that Trump supporters have heading into the tail end of the campaign.
"What I see as I go around the country is an enthusiasm for President Trump that's just not being replicated on the left for ... Biden," he said. "I think this is just a really good way for people like myself and other surrogates to connect with the folks that are going to be knocking on doors and making the phone calls and for them to understand how important everybody's role is in this campaign."
And Yee said things have not slowed down for the campaign despite the coronavirus pandemic, which as of Friday had infected 196,899 Arizonans and killed 4,688 others.
"The Republican party is a party of innovation," she said. "We go with the flow and we make things work and we get it done and we have not seen a slowdown of our turnout for volunteers — in fact, it has grown."
She expressed concern for a nation under Biden's leadership, a sentiment that was echoed by both DeWit and Whitaker.
"People that are supporters of President Trump understand the consequence of this election in 2020," Whitaker said. "Everyone admits that this moment in time is probably going to set the course for a lot of our country's future and the future of our republic. I think that that feeling and the importance of this fall, this election, is what is generating excitement."
Both in speaking to The Republic and to the dozens of supporters outside, the trio described what they believed would happen to the nation both in the event of a Trump victory and a Biden one.
They praised the president for his support of the pro-life movement and the Second Amendment, saying that Americans would lose those and other protections under a Biden administration.
Biden is pro-choice and in June was endorsed by the Planned Parenthood Action Fund. He has also said that, if elected, he would ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, require background checks on all gun sales and close gun sale loopholes.
DeWit, Yee and Whitaker described the scenes of unrest happening in cities such as Portland and Seattle in the wake of George Floyd's killing, saying that discontentment and violence would only increase if the president is not re-elected.
"...That is what you get with Joe Biden — you get destruction, you get chaos, you get rioting," Whitaker said to the crowd. "But with President Trump, you get law and order."
The supporters at one point erupted into chants of "Four More Years!" while holding up signs backing the president and other Republican politicians up for re-election this fall.
DeWit, while speaking to The Republic, also compared the number of campaign events held by the Trump and Biden camps, stating that he felt enthusiasm for Trump is much higher than that felt for the former vice president.
"There's a reason that Biden is staying in his basement and not holding rallies and not doing any of these things - because he can't get the people there, he doesn't have the enthusiasm," he said.
DeWit said he does not believe the lack of campaign events by Biden is purely a function of the ongoing pandemic and urges by health officials to refrain from large gatherings.
"Have you ever seen a Joe Biden rally that pulls even a tenth of the support of a Trump rally?" he said. "Maybe even a fiftieth of a Trump rally. I don't know if I've ever seen Joe Biden fill an arena. Donald Trump can not only fill an arena, but can have three times as many people waiting to get in the arena all the way down the street."
Supporters praise Trump's "Christian values," anticipate landslide victory
Among those who showed up Friday was 41-year-old Lisa Jolivet, who attended the event with her husband and children.
Jolivet's husband is Black and her children are biracial, and she said they are all completely in support of the president and his stances toward the Black Lives Matter and Antifa movements.
"It's important to teach the children the exact truth of our country and what's going on," she said. "I want them learning from their parents and not their teachers or anyone else within the society, because we're very big on the truth and we're big on biblical beliefs."
She praised the president's "Christian values" and said she expected he would win "by a landslide" on election day.
Also at the event was 81-year-old Richard Ammon, who said he was passionate about the same things as the president and feared the United States becoming a socialist country.
He's gone to campaign events for the president in the past, but said he wanted to come on Friday to see, once more, the enthusiasm for Trump held by like-minded people.
"I'm not prejudiced to anybody — I need to express my love for this country and the president," he said.
Like Jolivet, Ammon said he was confident that the president would secure a second term.
"I believe when people pray, God intervenes — just like He did when he didn't expect to win the first time," he said. "But we have to support him — freedom isn't free, neither is liberty, neither is anything that we've gained in our country."
Reach the reporter at bfrank@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-8529. Follow her on Twitter @brieannafrank.
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