CNN correspondent Kristen Holmes told anchor Anderson Cooper that she was surprised by the massive support the former President Trump drew at a rally in the Bronx on Thursday.
“Certainly a bigger crowd than I think Democrats would like to see, particularly given this is one of the bluest counties in the entire country,” Holmes said when asked what the energy was like at the rally.
“I wasn’t sure what to expect,” she said.
“I’ve gone to a lot of these rallies across the country, and there are often people who travel hundreds of miles to see Donald Trump and they’re not necessarily part of the community,” she added. “However, one of the things that I found was that there were a lot of people here that were actually from the Bronx.”
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Holmes said that voters that she spoke to outside of Trump’s historic rally, held at Crotona Park in the Bronx, were mixed about the former president.
“You had people saying he doesn’t belong here,” she said. “But you also had a number of voters who told me that they had supported Biden in 2020. They were very unhappy, particularly with the state of the economy and they were looking for alternatives, namely former President Donald Trump.”
Trump rallied a crowd of what his campaign estimated to be 25,000 supporters on Thursday, far more than the initial 3,500 it said were expected to attend. Those numbers appeared to also include those lined up outside the event – who waited hours for a shot at getting inside even after the event began.
During his speech, Trump praised the history of New York, but lamented that it was “now a city in decline,” referencing homeless encampments that have gone up across the city.
He also boasted it was a “love fest.”
Earlier on CNN, Holmes said that Trump was “remarkably on message here talking about things that do matter to New York voters, talking about helping with infrastructure, helping with jobs.”
The decision to hold the rally in the racially diverse, heavily Democratic borough was derided by his critics in sometimes personal terms. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul drew heat Thursday when she referred to Trump’s supporters as “clowns,” while Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., celebrated online when it appeared bad weather may disrupt the event. However, it ultimately held off.
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The thousands of people gathered to see the former president were a diverse group, including what Fox News Digital noted were Black, Hispanic, White, Asian and Muslim supporters. A number of attendees traveled from as far as Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Connecticut. Many said they were from the Bronx, Brooklyn or Queens.
Trump won less than 10% of the vote in the Bronx when he ran in 2016. His support in the Bronx edged up to 16% in his 2020 re-election defeat, with Biden winning 83.5% of the vote, but current polls suggest the former president is making more gains with Black and Hispanic voters.
New York has not voted for the Republican candidate in a presidential election since 1984, when Ronald Reagan won 49 states.
The Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.
Fox News’ Brandon Gillespie, Paul Steinhauser and Michael Ruiz contributed to this report.
