Dan Nowicki and Ronald J. Hansen

The Arizona Republic

PHOENIX — A small, soaked crowd of die-hard Donald Trump fans braved a downpour and flooded downtown Phoenix streets to hear his running mate, Mike Pence, talk up the Republican presidential nominee at a point of turmoil in the campaign.

Pence, a conservative one-term Indiana governor and former congressman, presented Trump, the celebrity billionaire, as a "doer" not a talker, and as someone who "doesn't tiptoe those thousands of rules of political correctness" set by the media and political establishment. Trump bewilders a lot of people in Europe, and "the party in power" seems helpless to figure him out, he said.

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"Where else would an independent spirit, plain-talking leader like Donald Trump find a following, but in the land of the free and the home of the brave?" Pence told the audience of 300 to 400 people.

Pence's hour-long event — low-key in tenor and tone compared to Trump's four previous Arizona rallies — capped a series of wild developments in the presidential race between Trump and the Democratic ticket of Hillary Clinton and Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia.

As part of a campaign swing through the Southwest, Pence hosted town-hall-style gatherings at Fox Tucson Theater in the afternoon and the Phoenix Convention Center in the evening on a day that saw President Obama denounce Trump as "unfit to serve as president" and Trump, in turn, attack three members of his own party whom he apparently deemed insufficiently loyal: House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, Sen. John McCain of Arizona and Sen. Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire.

Pence's visit to Arizona also came as Trump remains engulfed in a furor over his remarks about the Gold Star parents of U.S. Army Capt. Humayun Khan.

In Arizona, Pence went on offense against Obama and Clinton.

"He (Obama) actually said that the Republican nominee is unfit to serve," Pence told the Phoenix audience. "... Well, let me say, I think that Barack Obama knows something about being woefully unprepared."

Pence took on the Obama-Clinton record, particularly related to the Middle East and the rise of the terrorist group the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. And they "instigated this disastrous (nuclear) agreement with the radical mullahs in Iran."

Clinton essentially represents a third Obama term, Pence said.

"You know, we can't have four more years of accommodating and apologizing to our enemies or abandoning our friends," he said.

Pence also took questions from the audience, including a man who expressed concerns about a Phoenix "sanctuary city" proposal that he said was coming up for a vote. The proposal, according to the man questioning Pence, would allow undocumented immigrants "to partake of taxpayer-provided services and programs. ... These programs are spreading across the nation like a cancer."

"Donald Trump has been very clear about opposing sanctuary cities," Pence replied. "We simply have to be a nation of borders again. ... But we are going to be a nation of laws, and we are going to enforce the laws of this country."

In an interview with the Washington Post published earlier Tuesday, Trump said he's not endorsing Ryan or McCain in their respective GOP primaries, and also went after Ayotte, whose tough race in New Hampshire could be crucial to Republican hopes of keeping control of the Senate.

Trump's shot at McCain came one day after McCain, who is seeking a sixth Senate term this year, issued a hard-hitting statement rebuking Trump over his comments about the Khan family.

“I’ve never been there with John McCain because I’ve always felt that he should have done a much better job for the vets,” Trump told the Washington Post. “He has not done a good job for the vets and I’ve always felt that he should have done a much better job for the vets. So I’ve always had a difficult time with John for that reason, because our vets are not being treated properly. They’re not being treated fairly.”

Meanwhile, Obama, who defeated McCain in the 2008 presidential race, took his own poke at McCain for continuing to stand with Trump despite his misgivings.

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Obama said that Trump "would attack a Gold Star family that had made such extraordinary sacrifices on behalf of our country" and "the fact that he doesn’t appear to have basic knowledge around critical issues in Europe, in the Middle East, in Asia, means that he's woefully unprepared to do this job."

After the Muslim soldier's parents, Khizr and Ghazala Khan, criticized Trump Thursday in a prime-time appearance at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, Trump responded that they had "no right."

Trump made remarks about Ghazala Khan, who stood silently by her husband as he gave an impassioned speech about their son, who was killed by a car bomb in Iraq in 2004 and was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart and Bronze Star.

Trump also invoked a Muslim stereotype by suggesting that Ghazala Khan, who stood silently by her husband at the convention, was not allowed to speak.

"If you look at his wife, she was standing there, she had nothing to say, she probably — maybe she wasn't allowed to have anything to say. You tell me," Trump told ABC News.

"I think what's been interesting is the repeated denunciations of his statements by leading Republicans, including the speaker of the House and the Senate majority leader, and prominent Republicans like John McCain," Obama said during a news conference in the White House East Room. "And the question, I think, that they have to ask themselves is, if you are repeatedly having to say in very strong terms that what he has said is unacceptable, why are you still endorsing him? What does this say about your party that this is your standard-bearer?"

McCain did not attend either Pence event but did meet with the Indiana governor in the late afternoon.

"Upon scheduling a trip to Arizona, Governor Pence's office reached out to John McCain to request a meeting," Lorna Romero, McCain's campaign spokeswoman, said in an email to The Arizona Republic. "John McCain was happy to welcome Governor Pence to Phoenix, and they enjoyed a very friendly meeting, during which they discussed a variety of issues.”

Romero declined to comment on Trump's comments about McCain to the Washington Post.

Kelli Ward, a former state senator from Lake Havasu City and McCain's best-known primary opponent, worked the crowd at the Pence event before its start.

The Ward campaign issued a statement earlier in the day in which she claimed the "unofficial endorsement" of Trump. At the Pence event, she talked about keeping the Senate in Republican control.

She dismissed the clash in recent days between the Trump campaign and the Khan family as "a Democrat-manufactured controversy that they all decided to pile on, and John McCain decided to pile on as well."

"Mr. Khan, unfortunately, politicized his own son's death," she said. "I don't think Donald Trump attacked the Khans."

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio also brushed aside the Khan controversy, saying, "Donald Trump is a big supporter of the military."

Obama's comments, however, were troubling, Arpaio said. "He said that at the White House. Why is the president of the United States using the White House for political comments?"

The Trump campaign has signaled that Arizona is one of the states it is targeting in the November general election, despite its long history as a presidential red state. Obama lost Arizona in 2008 and 2012, respectively, to McCain, R-Ariz., and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, but polls have indicated that Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton has a fighting chance in the state. Bill Clinton in 1996 became the only Democrat to carry Arizona in a presidential race since Harry Truman did so in 1948.

Heavy rain pelted early arrivals at the Phoenix Convention Center for the Pence event. The summer monsoon storm also deterred protesters and vendors, who planned to set up outside the center.

As the program began at 7 p.m., a crowd of a few hundred Trump-Pence fans had assembled in the Phoenix Convention Center ballroom.

Elyse Buscema and Alex Billesbach were among those unfamiliar with Pence and happy to hear from a man they see as a Christian with a son in the Marines. "I don't know much about Pence, but I wanted to check him out," said Billesbach, a Missouri resident working in Sierra Vista.

Buscema said the economy and fighting the Islamic State are at the top of her agenda. She scoffed at Obama's comments about Trump being unqualified for the White House. "It doesn't bother me. His opinion doesn't matter to me," she said.

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Dean Holmes of Livingston, Mont., said Pence seemed a good contrast to Trump's blunt political style and the ticket is a needed alternative to Hillary Clinton. "I've never been a solid party man, but you could run the devil himself against the Clintons," he said.

As many as 50 people arrived after 7 p.m. and weren't allowed inside. Security told them the Secret Service said no one could come in late.

Among the people kept outside were a half-dozen Millennials who were trying to attend their first political event. Some said they were hoping it would help them decide their vote.

“This was going to be our first political event, and we were so excited," said Ricky Casler. "It’s a close election and we wanted to learn more information to share with our friends.”

Contributing: Macaela Bennett, The Arizona Republic. Follow Dan Nowicki and Ronald J. Hansen on Twitter: @dannowicki and @ronaldjhansen