FLORENCE — Former President Donald Trump fired broad shots at his two South Carolina targets in Congress, asking his supporters to throw Republicans Nancy Mace and Tom Rice out of office in the June 14 GOP primary — his birthday.
"Unfortunately for the patriots of South Carolina, you currently have two atrocious RINOS — they're bad people in the House," Trump told thousands at his Save America rally March 12 at the Florence Regional Airport.
Mace and Rice "went to Washington and sold you out and partnered with the Democrats to stab the Republican Party, and frankly to stab our country in the back," he added.
The call to action came as Trump returned to South Carolina for his first rally here since February 2020, at a time when he appeared in North Charleston and down-played the impact of the pending COVID-19 pandemic.
This time his targets were the two GOP members of Congress from the state who have been most outspoken against him: Mace, of Charleston, for criticizing his role in sparking the Jan. 6 riot, and Rice of Myrtle Beach, for voting to impeach him over it.
"Tom Rice is a disaster, he's respected by no one," Trump charged as he went on to reiterate his support for Rice challenger state Rep. Russell Fry, R-Surfside.
He called Mace "crazy Nancy Mace," whom he wants replaced with former Summerville state Rep. Katie Arrington.
"Thankfully, this June you have the chance to dump these grand-standers and losers and replace them with rock-solid America first champions," he said.
The rally contained the continuing Trump talking points the former president has hit on since losing the 2020 election but also some new ones in light of current events: that the 2020 election was rigged against him, President Joe Biden is "physically and mentally challenged" and that the Russian invasion of Ukraine would not have happened if he were in office.
He warned the Ukraine fighting could lead to World War III, and that with his administration out of office, the U.S. relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin has no place to go.
"You had someone to talk to him with me," Trump told the crowd who'd braved the night's 40-degree cold.
He also gave a shout out to close ally Gov. Henry McMaster, who has no announced GOP re-election competition this year.
"Any Republican that goes after Henry, I'm going after that Republican," he told the crowd, adding "Nobody's so stupid."
Other South Carolina-based comments came in support of the state's 2020 election results here, which he won.
"I love this state. We had a big victory and we actually had an honest vote count," he said.
Another target, which came without mentioning him by name, was former Charleston congressman Mark Sanford, who lost to Arrington in the 2018 GOP primary for the 1st District nomination. He referenced Sanford as "Mr. Argentina" for his trip there as governor to see his mistress.
A spectacle of the season
Enthusiasm for Trump was apparent even before the speech.
Hundreds of cars lined the muddy aisles of the rally’s makeshift parking lot hours before the rally was even set to begin. Some were grilling hot dogs and drinking beer, sheltered from the cold rainy conditions by pop-up tents and generators.
Many of the rally’s attendees were conspicuous on the highways entering town with American and yellow Gadsden flags waving furiously in the wind or with bumper stickers featuring slogans like “Let’s Go Brandon” or “If I die, don’t let me vote Democrat.”
Attendees came from all over. License plates could be seen from states as far away as New York, Pennsylvania and Texas, and some vendors for the day’s event came from as far away as Michigan.
Major names in South Carolina conservative politics like S.C. Reps. Gil Gatch and Stewart Jones milled about in VIP tents with the candidates and their supporters, and Greenville-area pastor and congressional candidate Mark Burns and media personality Graham Allen were spotted walking the grounds.
Former University of South Carolina football coach Lou Holtz, who both backed Trump in 2016, was there as well.
“So I trust him completely, when he says something take it to the bank,” Holtz told the crowd during his speaking moment, adding later “every decision he made wasn’t to help him personally, it was to help this country.”
MyPillow founder Mike Lindell – who has repeatedly pushed unproven claims of systemic fraud in the 2020 presidential election – made surprise appearances at Arrington and Fry’s VIP tents to endorse them. Between speeches, video rolled of Arrington and Fry’s campaign ads.
For most of the general public who attended, the expectations were the same. Those interviewed by The Post and Courier expressed dissatisfaction with the Biden administration’s performance in securing the nation’s Southern border after migrant encounters there reached a 21-year high last August.
Most spoke of their dissatisfaction with current gas prices, which have spiked as oil prices globally spiked amid new sanctions on Russia.
Generally, all wanted Trump to run again in 2024, and still see him as the leader of the modern GOP.
“Trump’s not going to save us from Biden,” said Michelle Chandler, a Florence resident. “But I sure hope he’d help us out. The only people who can do that is us, and that’s by educating people and talking to people and listening to people.”
A fight for the right
While Trump was the main event, Arrington, Fry and other conservative candidates saw the day as an opportunity to cement themselves among voters as the “true conservatives” in a primary campaign to unseat incumbents they claimed to be part of the same establishment they believed Trump sought to overturn.
Arrington and Fry, who have echoed Trump's claims of massive election fraud, peppered their speeches with policy positions Trump had championed: energy independence, secure borders, a more muscular foreign policy and an opposition to mask mandates.
Most of all, they underscored why they were worth supporting: Trump endorsed them.
“Donald Trump has made his choice,” Fry said onstage. “Have you?”
They also sought to tear down their opponents.
Fry called Rice a creature of Washington, D.C. who despite his conservative voting record sided with majority Democrats when he voted to impeach the former president.
“For years, he talked conservative at home but as soon as he crawled back to Washington and the swamp, he sided with Nancy Pelosi,” he said. “He broke our trust. He sided with Nancy Pelosi deciding to impeach. That implies why Tom Rice-a-Roni is the next San Francisco treat.”
Arrington painted Mace, who was attending the SXSW festival in Austin, Texas on March 12, as the “Liz Cheney of the South.” She described her as a disinterested representative for the Lowcountry district she represents, and criticized her efforts to decriminalize marijuana federally, her numerous pieces of animal welfare legislation and her highly publicized visit to Trump Tower after Trump endorsed Arrington.
“She flipped on the Republican Party,” Arrington said in an interview. “She flipped on every person in the district who voted for her when she voted to certify the results of the election and blame Trump for Jan. 6. It’s easy to go to the right of that. She’s a moderate.”
While Mace and Rice drew ire for their votes against Trump — Rice to impeach him, Mace to certify the results of the 2020 election — several attendees interviewed by The Post and Courier described a more complicated political landscape in their respective 1st and 7th congressional districts.
“I think Tom Rice has been doing a decent job, but I’m also for term limits,” Florence resident Brad Hill said. “People get there and they just get complacent. People like Russell Fry, we just need new blood in there, some new perspective.”
Others pondered a change in direction for the contemporary GOP, which has faced ongoing conflicts between the Trump wing of the party and the traditional, establishment candidates who have been seen as at-odds with his populist vision, and whether a more conservative candidate would be able to triumph in a competitive district like Mace's coastal 1st District.
“Is it the right time to be fighting against each other? Probably not,” said Fran Podlesney, another rally attendee, from Myrtle Beach. “But does it need to be done? Probably.”
Schuyler Kropf contributed to this report.
