Trump rallies base in Arizona speech

President Donald Trump delivered a campaign-style speech to a convention center full of supporters in Phoenix, Ariz., Tuesday night, attacking unfavorable media and taking jabs at combative Republicans. In a wide-ranging address that lasted well over an hour, Trump blamed the media for misrepresenting his comments on the recent violence in Charlottesville, Va., and implicitly attacked Arizona’s two Republican U.S. senators. He never mentioned Sens. John McCain or Jeff Flake by name, but the boisterous crowd easily followed along. “Obamacare is a disaster and think, just think, we were just one vote away from victory after seven years of everybody proclaiming, ‘Repeal and replace.’ One vote away,” Trump said. McCain voted against the GOP healthcare reform plan in July, which helped to table the effort indefinitely. “And nobody wants me to mention your other senator, who’s weak on the border, weak on crime,” the president said, referring to Flake, who recently wrote the Trump-bashing book Conscience of a Conservative. Trump rekindled his talking points from the 2016 presidential campaign, vowing to create more jobs and boost the economy. He even suggested he might shut down the government unless Congress works with him to build a wall at the U.S. southern border. The president also demanded that Republicans kill the Senate filibuster rule, which he said thwarts his agenda. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has repeatedly said there’s no appetite in the party to nix the rule.