President Trump on Friday night warned his crowd in Bemidji, Minnesota, that former Vice President Joe Biden would flood the state with refugees from the world's most dangerous countries. Mr. Trump made the remarks in a state that has a large population of Somali refugees.
"One of the most vital issues in this election is the subject of refugees. You know it, perhaps better than almost anybody," Mr. Trump said before questioning how Minnesota Representative Ilhan Omar won her reelection in August.
"How the hell did she win the election? How did she win? It's unbelievable," he said. "Every family in Minnesota needs to know about Sleepy Joe Biden's extreme plan to flood your state with an influx of refugees from Somalia, from other places all over the planet."
Mr. Trump narrowly lost Minnesota in 2016 and polling shows him trailing Biden. The president was in neighboring Wisconsin on Thursday night where he trumpeted his administration's work on the coronavirus and criticized Biden and his running mate, Senator Kamala Harris.
The president announced billions in aid to Puerto Rico right before the election, claimed 100 million doses of coronavirus vaccines would be available by the end of the year and said he thinks he knows better than his own experts much of the time.
"We've done more for Puerto Rico than anybody," Mr. Trump said of an island he once called "one of the most corrupt places on earth." Mr. Trump for years rejected the idea of additional aid for Puerto Rico.
Asked why he's pushing for the aid package now, so close to the election instead of a year ago, the president replied, "because what we're doing is we've been working on it for a long time."
Many Puerto Ricans live in Florida, where polls show Mr. Trump is toe-to-toe with Biden.