With Trump’s position in the polls continuing its downward slide, The Donald winkingly suggested to his “second amendment people” at a rally today that they could, you know, assassinate her if (when?) he loses the race.
This is probably not news to anyone reading this, but if you haven’t watched the video itself yet, it’s even creepier than a mere transcript. He and his apologists have tried to spin this one away but there is no credible way to “explain” this as anything other than a call for the literal assassination of a political rival.Â
We need to do everything possible to keep this man from being elected. Do we also need to prepare for what might happen if (when?)Â he loses? How exactly, I’m not sure. Obviously the solution to Trump supporters with guns is not Hillary supporters with guns.
Discuss. No MRAs/Trump apologists/calls for revolution, etc.
I’m really worried about this election. Trump has already suggested that if he loses it’s because the election is rigged against him, and now he’s putting the idea of violence against his opponents into people’s minds. And people aren’t even voting in the primaries! We’ll never get anything done if we don’t get more politicians in there who want things to change and that will never happen with the sad turnout we’re seeing.
I’ve said it elsewhere and I’ll say it here.
Trump is not an anomoly. Trump is the natural result of a political party continuously stoking the fear and anger of a population for over 40 years for their own benefit. Eventually, these people get tired of subtle dog whistles and will turn to someone who speaks directly to their basest instincts which have been cultivated for generations.
That is Trump. America’s Id personified.
The thing that reassures me is that Mrs. Clinton has been around Secret Service security before and knows the drill cold. If they say move, she’s gonna move.
The thing that scares me is that an idiot can get a lucky shot off once.
And yes, I think he did knowingly call for the assassination of a political rival. And yes, he should pay the price for that, if we are indeed a nation of laws.
I miss three weeks ago, when I was scared of the idea that Trump might win, not terrified of what will happen when he loses.
I interpreted it as a call to shoot the Supreme Court justice/nominee, but either way, it’s terrible.
His campaign is claiming it was about the passion of second amendment supporters and blah blah. Considering not making that claim would be campaign suicide, I’m not buying it.
On the one hand, I really shouldn’t be surprised that the rotten orange is truly rotten to the core, but on the other hand, to actually hear the presidential nominee of a major party call for the assassination of a rival politician is a bit… weird, to say the least. This isn’t how Americans are supposed to politic, I would have thought.
Trump has well-documented links to organized crime. I’d honestly be shocked if he hasn’t had inconvenient people murdered before, but I think he has such a poor understanding of how the world works outside of his little bubble that he doesn’t understand that Clinton being killed wouldn’t work in his favor. Even if he never faced any legal consequences for his incitement, he’d lose by the biggest landslide in U.S. history.
Yeah… I am wondering if he genuinely thinks that, well, if he kills the president, he becomes the president. Or he thinks that his support base is strong enough to install him in a coup. Or there’s no prior thought involved at all and he just spontaneously spitballed murdering his rival in an address to the public.
Oh pfft. I’m not scared. A trillion and one conservatives and neo-Nazis have been threatening to murder Obama every day for the past 8 years. Have they actually done it? Or have they actually gone their own way? Or gone Galt? Or seceded from the Union? No. Because to do that would require them to get up off their asses and do something other than rant on Breitbart, Return of Kings and World Net Daily. Why should this time be any different? Hell; I think it’d be a joy to watch someone like Milo or Roosh or Forney or Alex Jones just try to get within 50 feet of Clinton before being promptly tackled to the ground by the Secret Service, like one of those sovereign citizen dipshits trying to mess with the police, leaving them to alternately rot in prison or sulk to their fanboys on Twitter.
Here’s a good article about some of the (bad) things we can expect to see after he loses (from about a week ago, so doesn’t account for his calls to have Hillary shot):
http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/08/03/welcome-to-donald-trumps-america/
I’ll admit, I’m pretty scared myself of what will happen in the immediate aftermath. Not to put too fine a point on it, but a lot of our country’s angriest and most-unkind people really want him to win, and will be deeply disappointed when he (likely, hopefully) loses.
Oh and to be clear: I’m not so worried about what will happen to Clinton and other higher-ups (though that is a concern) but more like what will happen in communities across the country when Trump fans find themselves overwhelmed with disappointment and rage.
https://valerietarico.com/2015/11/28/christianist-republicans-systematically-incited-colorado-clinic-assault/
Mike:
Yes. This completely.
From that foreignpolicy.com article…
Why are anarchists always “self-proclaimed”? Why weren’t the neo-Nazis “self-proclaimed”? Is there an official ideology registration board that’s issued papers to everyone but the anarchists? And what colours were the neo-Nazis wearing (oh, I’m sorry – “clad in”) – seeing as that apparently matters so much?
What he said exactly is probably not a crime because it can be interpreted as a joke made in bad taste or a poor choice of words for what his apologists say he intended. It’s still careless at best and some people will take it seriously, perhaps as justification for physically harming people on the left or social liberals generally. There are lots of people in conservative evangelical circles with violent tendencies even if evangelical leaders disown violence. It was probably a cynical attempt to appeal to the more radical socially conservative voters.
Lots of people threaten the president all the time. People are typically only prosecuted if they’re taking steps to carry out the threat.
abars01,
Sovereign citizen dipshits kill police, at least every now and then. And see Ichthyic’s link for the comparison with anti-abortion violence, which also every now and then kills people, and burns down buildings, and etc. Nobody’s gotten to Obama, thankfully, but plenty of angry white dudes have up and killed plenty of people. A threat like that has to be taken seriously (at least by the folks who don’t want it to happen).
And of course the whole point of the “stochastic” part is so the people who do want it to happen get to deny any responsibility, condemn the violence when it does happen, and say “who could ever have forseen this tragedy?”
This dovetails very snugly with all those Internet threats we’re always reading about around here.
Whelp…this about sums it up.
Mike’s article articulates a lot of what I’m thinking too. The standoff in Oregon was a huge inconvenience and horrible thing for the locals. What I’d hate to see is a similar situation that carries more rage, less strategy (such as it was in Oregon), and closer proximity to some unsuspecting community.
Reposting this from the previous thread:
https://storify.com/5thCircAppeals/on-trump-just-joking
Also this:
http://www.npr.org/2016/08/08/489256795/gop-sen-susan-collins-says-she-cant-support-donald-trump
Not the 1st to denounce him, hopefully not the last. Maybe, next time, it’s some Republicans actually running for reelection, hint, hint. The longer the GOP ‘leadership’ keeps weakly denouncing his statements while still supporting him, the more instigating the murder of one’s political rivals becomes their cross. Hope it (figuratively) crucifies em
History Nerd,
As better people than me have pointed out, Trump is supposed to be the straight talker. Now, when he says words that make complete but extraordinarily disturbing sense, we’re supposed to get all interpretive. Maybe (as, again, somebody smarter than me said already) The New York Times should call their body language experts back in the room.
The “joke” story is the same as it always is. Like the kids at my school: “You’re ugly! Jay kay!” Joking is an action that you perform, in front of people, for reasons. What was this joke for? Hmm, stochastic-terrorism-cough-cough.
Ninja’d with THOROUGH ENTIRETY by Axecalibur on the joking business.
“We love Trump because he says what he means!”
“Maybe second amendment lovers should do something about this…”
“He didn’t mean that!”
In other news: Some twitter people are pointing out that this kind of rhetoric has always lead to someone getting shot. For instance, Gabby Gifford got shot after Palin talked about “targeting” democrats.
This kind of talk ALWAYS leads to someone taking it “that way”, regardless of the ever-changing intention of the person who said it.
Intention isn’t fucking magical. You can not want people to get shot, but you still fucking implied it.
@ramen I agree. I mean that he probably has a legal defense since threat laws are relatively lax and the legal system is bad at dealing with threats or interpersonal violence.
Some angry white sovereign citizen-type guy probably interpreted it as a call to go and kill some police. Lots of domestic abusers are angry about having to pay child support after being ordered (for good reasons) to not see their ex or kids and wouldn’t mind killing some police (like some people in my family). But there’s more outrage when the person who kills or wants to kill police is Black or Latino.
Even if one was to give Trump’s quote the benefit of the doubt to the point of absurdity (“He didn’t mean it THAT way…” or “What he MEANT to say was…”), it still ends at the conclusion that he is utterly unfit for the presidential office. You can’t speak first and think second in that job. You can’t spectacularly fail to communicate what you “really meant” in that job.
And of course, the much more likely case of him really “saying what he thinks”, and he thinks that it would be awesome if someone gunned down his opponents, definitely disqualifies him from such an office.
I *grew up* around hardcore conservative people, and I usually understand the thought process behind what they vote for, but not this time. I cannot fathom how his approval rating is higher than single digits.
The minute traditional news media starts calling white supremacists and other anti humanity groups as terrorists, rather than the “lone wolf” narrative, I think more people would be aware of what these people do, its systemic. It only disgusts me how Sovereign Citizens and the like can get away with murder and other hate crimes, and the worst they get from the media is “lone wolf” or some other bs.
Aside from a legal standpoint this won’t stick, unless someone starts to do something lethal. I honestly think Trump is running out of attention supply, look at how something as blatant as this, compared to the other awful stuff he said. With the racist remarks it was the subliminal messaging that was always around the GOP, brought to blatant light for everyone to see. With those comments inciting violence, that takes it to a personal level, something that is a threat to his power high. I believe he knows that his days are numbered, the polls and the media buzz has lessened have proof enough of that.
I am interested – in Finland it’s a crime to “arouse” people into harmful actions. Is this the same in the USA? (for the Finns here, kansankiihotus – how does that translate other than my literal and possibly weird translation?)
I have seen so many videos of Trump supporters harassing PoC and people they suspect are “illegals”. This cannot be seen as anything else than a direct result of a person claiming authority who stands strongly behind bigotry. Now all the grass roots bigots have a feeling of being vindicated to spew their hatred. It’s incredibly irresponsible of Trump to perform in this manner and I cannot see any end result that justifies his means.
While people might not “get off their asses” to shoot candidates or judges, to even pass this sentiment on is not without a risk! And surely all of this should be unlawful.
@Leda Atomica
My sides, he looks exactly what I think a young trump supporter looks like hahahahahhahah.
All I ask is for them to get humiliated by the FBI like the Oregon standoff incident. If you can’t harm them at least you can set their movement back a few decades by making them a laughing stock.