President Donald Trump excited tens of thousands of supporters on Monday night in New Hampshire by reading “The Snake,” a popular poem that he often used during his 2016 campaign to highlight the dangers of illegal immigration.
“I used to do this a lot and people couldn’t get enough of it to be honest with you and I haven’t done it for a while and I thought I would do it tonight because you’re on the eve of giving us an opponent and all of these people want open borders,” Trump said. “They want open borders and don’t want open borders, we want very strong closed borders and we want people to come into our country but they want to come in through merit and we want them to come in legally. Through merit and legally.”
WATCH:
Referencing illegal immigration, Trump brought back “The Snake” poem tonight at the #TrumpRallyManchester
“You knew damn well I was a snake before you took me in.” pic.twitter.com/dX6CQeqvcx
— Courtney Holland 🇺🇸 (@hollandcourtney) February 11, 2020
Trump’s comments prior to reading “The Snake” were in reference to the New Hampshire Democrat primary, which takes place on Tuesday.
Heading into the race, socialist Bernie Sanders leads the field by 8 points, according to a new Quinnipiac poll released on Tuesday afternoon.
The poll found the following:
- Sanders 25%
- Biden 17%
- Mike Bloomberg 15%
- Elizabeth Warren 14%
- Pete Buttigieg 10%
- Amy Klobuchar 4%
- Everyone else was at 2% or less
In terms of the percentage change since its last poll, Quinnipiac found:
- Sanders +4%
- Biden -9%
- Bloomberg +7%
- Warren -1%
- Buttigieg +4%
- Klobuchar -3%
“Biden scrambles to bounce back in frigid New Hampshire after an icy slide to 17 percent, his lowest national number,” Quinnipiac University Poll Analyst Tim Malloy said. “Is the Bloomberg camp prepping the white horse for him to ride to the rescue? Maybe not yet, but without setting foot in Iowa or New Hampshire, he is suddenly a looming shadow over the primary field.”
Here are the lyrics to the poem, “The Snake,” that Trump read on Monday night:
On her way to work one morning
Down the path alongside the lake
A tender-hearted woman saw a poor half-frozen snake
His pretty colored skin had been all frosted with the dew
“Oh well,” she cried, “I’ll take you in and I’ll take care of you”
“Take me in oh tender woman
Take me in, for heaven’s sake
Take me in oh tender woman,” sighed the snake
She wrapped him up all cozy in a curvature of silk
And then laid him by the fireside with some honey and some milk
Now she hurried home from work that night as soon as she arrived
She found that pretty snake she’d taken in had been revived
“Take me in, oh tender woman
Take me in, for heaven’s sake
Take me in oh tender woman,” sighed the snake
Now she clutched him to her bosom, “You’re so beautiful,” she cried
“But if I hadn’t brought you in by now you might have died”
Now she stroked his pretty skin and then she kissed and held him tight
But instead of saying thanks, that snake gave her a vicious bite
“Take me in, oh tender woman
Take me in, for heaven’s sake
Take me in oh tender woman,” sighed the snake
“I saved you,” cried that woman
“And you’ve bit me even, why?
You know your bite is poisonous and now I’m going to die”
“Oh shut up, silly woman,” said the reptile with a grin
“You knew damn well I was a snake before you took me in
“Take me in, oh tender woman
Take me in, for heaven’s sake
Take me in oh tender woman,” sighed the snake