Donald Trump tears into 'dirty cops' and 'dishonest scumbags' at the FBI during Phoenix campaign rally and mostly lays off Democrats as they pound each other in Las Vegas

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President Donald Trump railed against ‘dirty cops’ and ‘dishonest scumbags’ in the FBI at a Phoenix campaign rally Wednesday night after an extraordinary week where his attorney general admonished him for commenting on criminal cases.

He made the comments at another one of his energetic campaign rallies, which his campaign team scheduled in part to counter-program the Democratic debate. But the president seemed more interested in blasting the people who oversaw what he calls the Russia 'hoax' in his meandering hour and 22 minute speech. 

'I'm not going to criticize them tonight,' he told the crowd, after sparingly doling out insults against his potential rivals.  

It was the officials who kicked off the Russia probe that drew most of Trump's ire. 'They spied on my campaign,’ Trump told a cheering crowd of supporters in Phoenix, referencing surveillance on a former campaign advisor.

‘And after they spied we won … It’s never happened before. And we can’t let that happen. We can never ever excuse it. We can never let them get away with that,’ Trump said.

‘The ones at the top they were absolute scum,’ Trump said.

President Donald Trump blasted 'dirty cops' at the FBI, about a week after his attorney general pleaded with him to stop commenting on criminal cases

He said if FBI officials had done what the authorized against his campaign to liberal Democrats, ‘They’d be in jail for 50 years.’

It was among his harshest language of his rally, save for repeated attacks on the ‘Fake News.’ The president commented only tersely about Democrats who were simultaneously debating in Las Vegas.

He even reserved a long riff for wealthy hedge funder Tom Steyer, who didn’t meet the criteria to be on the debate stage for the Democratic slug-fest.

Trump insulted Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, but saved his harshest language for senior FBI officials

Trump also tore into astronaut Mark Kelley, who is running against Republican Sen. Martha McSally. 'He wants to raise your taxes open your borders give away free health care to illegal immigrants and he wants to obliterate your second Amendment,’ Trump said of Kelly

Donald Trump Jr. received cheers of '46' and tossed out Trump hats to the crowd

Supporters cheer as U.S. President Donald Trump holds a campaign rally in Phoenix, Arizona, February 19, 2020

‘Impeach the president! This guy spent a fortune on this stuff,’ Trump said of the impeachment-driven campaign pushed by Steyer.

Trump repeated a well-worn riff about former Vice President Joe Biden drawing small crowds.

‘I hear he’s getting pounded tonight,’ Trump said of Biden. Earlier, his son Donald Trump Jr. tore into Hunter Biden’s work in Ukraine – which featured in the Democratic impeachment effort that resulted in Trump’s acquittal in the Republican-controlled Senate.

But he didn’t stray beyond his usual insults of ‘Crazy Bernie’ and ‘Pocahontas’ – the slur he attaches to Sen. Elizabeth Warren.

‘I’m not going to criticize them tonight. Let them keep going,’ Trump said.

But it wasn't for lack of interest. On the later flight to Las Vegas 

He mocked Democrats for botching the Iowa vote count, and raised doubts about how the election will go in Nevada Saturday.

‘I hear that in Nevada, I’m hearing bad things about their vote count.

‘I heard a lot of bad things are happening,’ Trump said, forecasting problems.

A week ago Attorney General Bill Barr admonished Trump for tweeting about criminal cases, after he inveighed against prosecutors working the trial of Roger Stone.

Barr said such comments make it 'impossible' for him to do his job, but Trump kept tweeting. Attendees at the rally changed 'lock her up' at Trump's mention of 'crooked' Hillary Clinton, just as they did in 2016. 

About 80 minutes into his speech, Trump brought up an infamous Phoenix airport tarmac meeting between Bill Clinton and former Attorney General Loretta Lynch – an episode criticized for showing the appearance of conflict. Clinton and Lynch denied talking about the Hillary Clinton email scandal during their visit.

‘What do you think he was doing with the attorney general?’ Trump asked.

‘Lot of crooked stuff going on,’ he suggested. ‘She was a real beauty,’ he said dismissively of Lynch.

Trump touted a roaring stock market and employment gains to hammer home his message that the country won’t vote for change.

‘The country’s had the best year it’s ever had – oh let’s get a new president, let’s bring in Crazy Bernie,’ Trump said, earning laughs and cheers from his loyal followers.

President Donald Trump greets supporters after arriving at Palm Springs International Airport in Palm Springs, Calif., en route to a fundraiser in Rancho Mirage, Calif., Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2020

‘We’re going to have a big, big election victory,’ he promised. ‘I don’t think the Republian Party has ever been more unified than it is right now,’ Trump said.

Trump also tore into astronaut Mark Kelley, who is running against Republican Martha McSally, who herself accused Democrats of having an ‘agenda of socialism.’

‘He wants to raise your taxes open your borders give away free health care to illegal immigrants and he wants to obliterate your second Amendment,’ Trump said of Kelly.

As his son Donald Trump Jr. did before him, he saluted two rally attendees who used a fireman's hold to carry a World War II vet to his seat.  

Trump repeatedly overstated the size of his crowd. He said there were 25,000 people there, when the arena only holds 14,000. He said there were 21,000 people turned away outside. The fire marshall told DailyMail.com there were long lines to get in, but even as Trump spoke there were banks of empty seats in the back of the arena.

‘We haven’t had an empty seat since your great first lady came down the escalator,’ Trump told the crowd.

Earlier, Donald Trump Jr. warmed up the crowd to chants of ’46!’ from the crowd. He ridiculed Bloomberg, and contrasted the ‘billionaire from New York’ with his father. He said Trump ‘made it with workers’ whereas Bloomberg built his empire ‘with computer screens.’

He mocked an analysis from early in Trumps’ presidency that found he used school-age vocabulary in most of his speeches. ‘No, he just doesn’t have to pretend to be the high falutin’ schmuck that all these are people are,’ he said.

He saluted a pair of attendees who did a fireman’s carry to get a World War II veteran to his seat for the rally.

Trump’s attacks followed days of extraordinary developments inside the White House and in the Democratic race.

The president repeatedly railed against the Mueller probe ‘hoax’ and defied Attorney General Bill Barr’s admonition that his tweets about criminal cases make it ‘impossible’ for him to do his job.

Trump responded with still more tweets – including a call for Stone, who was found guilty of lying to Congress about his contacts with WikiLeaks as well as witness tampering, to get a new trial. 

Thousands of Trump supporters lined up to back the Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix, which seats 14,870 – though not the 25,000 he said he flew to address. 

The event came after Trump had spent days tormenting Bloomberg, mocking him as 'mini Mike' and calling his news service 'corrupt.'

In preceding days Trump lashed out at enemies, used his pardon power on jailed former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, and blasted prosecutors who proposed jail time for advisor Roger Stone. He also continued his post-impeachment purge with the forced resignation of a top Pentagon planner who had certified Ukraine's eligibility to get U.S. military aid.  

Even before Wednesday, Democrats stepped up attacks on each other – with candidates piling on Bloomberg, who has seen his polls rising, for trying to 'buy' the election.