My Back-to-Back Sanders Trump Rally Albany Adventure

I saw the first Trump sign about two miles away from the center of New Lebanon, a small town on the New York/Massachusetts border, on my way to Albany to go to the Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump rallies on April 11.

Albany is a small city for New York, but large for its surroundings. Heading west on I 90 you see the tops of the city’s tallest buildings peeking over the rolling hills, their grey sharp angles contrasting with the green panorama.

The line for the Bernie Sanders rally at the Washington Avenue Armory was long. I could see it before I found parking from three blocks away. Through a fluke of luck, I was able to find a spot a two-minute walk from the press entrance. As I got dressed I heard a low rumble behind me.

Turning, I saw a maroon and midnight blue bus making its way up the hill, swaying left and right like it had had two too many drinks before setting off that morning. “Kasich” said the front of the bus. The golly-gee-aw-shucks candidate of regressive politics passed by me and headed past the Washington Avenue Armory and the Sanders crowd.

Kasich got a perfunctory boo, but also some hand waving. Kasich doesn’t inspire the same kind of vitriolic anger that Trump or Cruz do for Sanders supporters. Those in the crowd making the effort to put down the Republican seemed more motivated by duty than emotion.

I made my way inside and after a thorough pat down and search by the Secret Service found my way to a table where I sat down and got comfortable.

The mood was ebulliently hopeful inside the Armory. Sanders’ supporters are genuinely excited about their candidate and his message, no matter what the mathematical, electoral reality. Small children danced in front of the press cage to a jam rock band, the notes floating over the crowd on the backs of a slow hippie groove.

Sanders was preceded by four speakers. A representative from the New York State Nurse’s Association, called for revolution. This was met with tepid applause until she qualified it as “political revolution.” Once the possible societal disruption relegated to electoral politics and the two party system, the crowd was comfortable enough to give a shout and response cheer.

Jim Hightower introduced Sanders. Hightower gave a good speech, hitting all the notes about the liberal activism his public career has been about. His white cowboy hat bobbed and weaved as he gestured and speechified to the crowd.

Hightower wrapped up quickly and gave over to Sanders.

Sanders took the podium to raucous applause and cheers.

Sanders has better delivery in person than he does when he’s been recorded. Sanders rallies onscreen always seem canned. The Senator sounds old, tired, and cantankerous on television. By contrast, Sanders’ speeches in person are far more energetic. The candidate’s delivery is rhythmic and he seems relaxed.

The crowd helps.

Sanders’ attacks on Clinton landed blow after blow to the appreciative crowd.

“If you’re going to get 250,000 dollars for a speech, it must be an earth shattering speech.” Laughter, applause.

“It must be a speech written in Shakespearean prose” More applause, stomping.

“I’ll release my transcripts,” the Senator said wryly, “There are none.”

Sanders also spoke about poverty in African American communities across the country. He talked about how PayDay loan branches are located in these communities, not banks, and how young black men are extremely likely to go to prison at a high rate.

Sanders also addressed Native American issues, a subject that is almost never seriously broached by politicians.

The Senator made clear he sees health care as an indisputable human right.

The crowd raised deafening cheers at every applause line. Sanders had them wrapped around his finger.

If there were any doubt that Sanders’ inevitable endorsement of Hillary Clinton would deliver his voters to her, ten minutes on the rally floor will change that immediately. These people will do anything he asks.

For now, Sanders is only asking them for their support on April 19.

At the Times Union Center, a twenty-minute walk away, the mood was strikingly different. Before I even reached the doors, I could hear the protesters outside shouting at the rally’s attendees.

“A vote for Trump is a vote for white supremacy!” one woman standing behind a barrier erected to keep the two sides apart said.

“A vote for Trump is a vote against women’s rights!” yelled another.

A group of white men in their twenties almost engaged, but thought better of it.

“Join the military, do something with your life,” one of them shouted over his shoulder. He couldn’t help himself from commenting as his friends hurried him inside.

Inside the center, a predominately white crowd began filling the seats and the floor. From my table in the press area, I had a clear view of Trump’s podium (until the crowd filled in).

Twice the soundtrack transitioned from the Rolling Stones to Pavarotti. The effect was disorienting and made the tense fever dream atmosphere of the room even more surreal.

I left the pen to go get some food. The Times Union Center was filling up, but I found and scarfed down some overpriced garlic French fries and fried dough. In the time it took me to find and consume food, the floor had filled up. I returned to a packed center floor.

For all of Trump’s bluster, though, he didn’t pack the arena. The Times Union Center’s upper decks were almost completely empty. Swaths of the seating were empty. The crowd was… not diverse.

“I’ve seen more black people at a Klan rally,” a reporter told me in a conspiratorial whisper.

The only black man I saw was proudly wearing a tee-shirt with an unflattering picture of the candidate on it. I asked him for a picture and he obliged.

The first speaker was Carl Palladino, former and failed Tea Party candidate for governor in 2010. The women with him led the crowd in the Pledge of Allegiance and a rousing rendition of “God Bless America.” And then another rendition of “God Bless America.”

Jennifer Crisafulli, a former Apprentice contestant and noted lover of Judaism, spoke after Palladino. Her talk focused on herself, with occasional asides about Donald Trump.

Palladino took the stage again. He tried unsuccessfully to get the crowd to chant for a young girl to his right (not for the first time). The New Yorker tried a different tack.

“Are we gonna build a wall?” Cheers, etc.

“Is Mexico gonna pay for it?” Screams of yes, yes.

“Are we mad?” Yeah!

“A-va, A-va, A-va!” Silence.

Palladino’s speech was a good explanation of why he isn’t the governor.

On one of his applause lines, a man in front of me, now identified as Kevin Hertzl, from Clifton Park, lifted a homemade sign saying “Not Another Jewish Revolution.” It had the Israeli and Communist flags on it and pictures of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, USSR leader Vladimir Lenin, and Sanders on it. Before I could take a picture, one of Trump’s media handlers took the sign from him.

It was necessary for Trump’s people to make an announcement before the candidate made his way to the podium that they were not to harm any of the protesters.

Trump got to the podium to cheering and applause.

“We have New York values,” he said, referring to the state’s bounce back from 9/11.

A Trump rally is pretty predictable. We don’t win anymore, big military and good better things than what Obama did are typical of Trump speeches. Make America Great Again. Also screaming at the media.

Trump called the media the most dishonest institution in the United States. The crowd booed lustily. I heard some friendly things hurled our way from the crowd.

Trump made a play for Sanders’ supporters.

“Bernie keeps winning, and the media says he’s losing!” the billionaire said before being interrupted by a protester.

“Get him out,” he said. “But don’t hurt him.”

I stood on a chair and saw that it was our friend from earlier with the tee shirt.

Trump moves from applause line to applause line. That’s the only method to his madness. Where Sanders refers to abstracts and nuance when he channels his supporters’ anger, Trump is more direct and personal. It shows in the crowd.

Trump tied drug abuse and immigration as another black protester was forcibly ejected while being hit repeatedly.

The white Trump supporters screamed and shook their fists as security escorted the young man out.

Sanders became the topic of discussion again. Trump said both candidates have a similar problem, fighting the rigged system of the party.

Trump moves from subject to subject without any apparent logic. Next was ISIS, Iraq, and Yemen. Trump said that ISIS wants Yemen for the border with Saudi Arabia so they can get the oil…. I think? It was hard to follow.

The fifth interruption for Trump’s speech was followed by a soliloquy on the dishonest media by the candidate. He said that his rallies are, of course, the safest. And that he loves his people.

The speech’s conclusion was… interesting, as Gawker’s Ashley Feinberg found when she looked at the transcript:

You are going to be so proud of your country. Because we’re gonna turn it around, and we’re gonna start winning again! We’re gonna win so much! We’re going to win at every level. We’re going to win economically. We’re going to win with the economy. We’re gonna win with military. We’re gonna win with healthcare and for our veterans. We’re gonna with every single facet.

We’re gonna win so much, you may even get tired of winning. And you’ll say, “Please, please. It’s too much winning. We can’t take it anymore. Mr. President, it’s too much.” And I’ll say, “No, it isn’t!”

We have to keep winning We have to win more! We’re gonna win more. We’re gonna win so much. I love you, Albany! Get out and vote. You will be so happy. I love you. Thank you. Thank you!

Then Trump asked the crowd to make the infamous pledge to vote for him.

“But mind the arms. Don’t raise them too much,” he said.

When we left the rally, we saw that outside of the Times Union Center, the situation was chaos. From our perch above the street, we watched as a young crowd shouted at the departing rally attendees.

The situation seemed destined for violence until the mounted police came and broke up the crowds.

I made my way up State Street in the midst of the anti-Trump protesters. Across the road, a contingent of Trump supporters lobbed obscenities at the protesters.

The protesters, mainly young women, were unimpressed with Trump. They represent #FuckTrumpPride, they said.

“Fuck Trump,” one woman said, “He was saying straight fuckery.”

Finally the two crowds separated and the protesters made their way westward out of downtown.

It wasn’t quite over- a car stopped at a traffic light asked if anyone was voting for Sanders. Hearing yes, he proceeded to tell the group to “read a fucking book” because “communists are Nazis.”

A woman in a van stopped nearby gave us the hand heart sign. The light changed and they moved on.