A resource for journalists and for shutting down your crazy uncle.
The leader of the free world went after individual anti-racism protesters on Saturday.
Trump escalated his war on protesters by posting “attempt to identify” wanted posters of protesters who allegedly vandalized a statue of former President Andrew Jackson.
The statue is in Lafayette Square, which was the scene of the gassing of peaceful protesters so Trump could hold a photo-op posing with a Bible.
At a time when our nation is facing an epidemic of mass shootings, supporters of President Donald Trump showed a violent depiction of a fake Trump massacring members of the news media using a gun and other weapons at a conference held at one of the president’s resorts, the New York Times reported Sunday night.
American Priority, a group that supports the president, hosted the conference at Trump National Doral Miami. Former White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the president’s son Donald Trump Jr. and Florida Governor Rick DeSantis were all scheduled to speak at the event. But Huckabee Sanders and a source close to Trump Jr. denied either saw the video.
Bloomberg technology reporter William Turton surfaced a video matching the description from the Times on YouTube. The video appears to have been uploaded by YouTube account TheGeekzTeam in July 2018, and the account has posted other videos doctored to make it look like Trump is violently killing his enemies. Although Turton said he has not yet been able to confirm the YouTube video was the same one played at the conference, the details in the video as described by the Times line up, although portions like the Barack Obama interview at the end of the video were not reported to have been shown.
In the video,a man with Trump’s head superimposed on his body goes into a building labeled the “Church of Fake News” where people inside are labeled with logos of major news outlets including Vox, Politico, the Washington Post, HuffPost, ABC and NBC covering their heads. Trump then opens fire, killing numerous media outlets including Vox, Politico and NPR, in addition to activist group Black Lives Matter. The fake Trump begins his rampage using a gun but later switches to a wooden stake and a knife. Also in the video are Hillary Clinton, Maxine Waters, Bernie Sanders, Barack Obama, John McCain and Rosie O’Donnell — all of them are slaughtered by the killer Trump. The mass murder ends with the president driving a wooden stake into the head of a person depicted as the church’s minister with a CNN logo covering their face as DJ Khaled’s “All I Do Is Win” plays in the background.
The footage, the Times said, was taken and doctored from a church massacre scene in the dark comedy “Kingsman: The Secret Service.”
Trump’s presidency has been marked by criticism of the news media, and recently he has even been vocally critical of his beloved Fox News. The president himself has shared a video depicting himself as violent toward the media, tweeting out a doctored video of him body slamming a man with a CNN logo over his head in 2017. Trump has also turned his ire toward reporters during his political rallies, spurring his supporters to taunt and threaten members of the media covering him.
When we are barely a year out from the tragic Capital Gazette shooting in Maryland that killed five of the newspaper’s staff not to mention other recent mass shootings in churches, synagogues and mosques, videos like this are particularly dangerous, especially when they are broadcast at events even loosely affiliated with the president and on property he owns.
Donald Trump’s attorney general said Tuesday the Justice Department will limit its use of a tactic employed aggressively under President Obama — suing police departments for violating the civil rights of minorities.
“We need, so far as we can, to help police departments get better, not diminish their effectiveness. And I’m afraid we’ve done some of that,” said Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
“So we’re going to try to pull back on this,” he told a meeting of the nation’s state attorneys general in Washington.
Sessions said such a move would not be “wrong or insensitive to civil rights or human rights.” Instead, he said people in poor and minority communities must feel free from the threat of violent crime, which will require more effective policing with help from the federal government.
While crime rates are half of what they were a few decades ago, recent increases in violent crimes do not appear to be “an aberration, a one-time blip. I’m afraid it represents the beginning of a trend.”
Sessions said he will encourage federal prosecutors to bring charges when crimes are committed using guns. Referring local drug violations that involve the use of a firearm, for example, to federal court can result is often a stiffer sentence than would be imposed by state courts.
“We need to return to the ideas that got us here, the ideas that reduce crime and stay on it. Maybe we got a bit overconfident when we’ve seen the crime rate decline so steadily for so long,” he said.
Under the Obama Administration, the Justice Department opened 25 investigations into police departments and sheriff’s offices and was enforcing 19 agreements at the end of 2016, resolving civil rights lawsuits filed against police departments in Ferguson, Missouri; Baltimore, New Orleans, Cleveland and 15 other cities.
On Monday, Sessions said he is reviewing the Justice Department’s current policy toward enforcing federal law that prohibits possession of marijuana, but has made no decision about whether to get tougher.
His opposition to legalization is well known, and he emphasized it during an informal gathering of reporters . “I don’t think America will be a better place when more people, especially young people, smoke pot.”
States, he said, can pass their own laws on possession as they choose, “but it remains a violation of federal law.”
The current policy, spelled out in a 2013 memo from former deputy attorney general James Cole, said federal prosecutions would focus on distribution to minors, involvement of gangs or organized crime, sales beyond a state border, and growing marijuana plants on federal land.
(h/t NBC News)
Protesters brought Trump’s rally in Erie, Pennsylvania to a brief halt, carrying signs demanding that the GOP candidate release his “tax forms.”
As the protesters were calmly escorted out of the stadium, Trump did not respond, besides quipping that Bernie Sanders‘ protesters had a lot more passion.
One reporter tweeted that there were Black Lives Matter protesters in the venue as well. Trump responded, “Go home to mom! And your mother is voting for Trump! She’s voting for Trump!”
Trump has repeatedly refused to release his tax returns, citing on ongoing audit. Experts have pointed out that there is no reason why an audit should preclude him from releasing his returns. Trump has even refused to release returns prior to those years that he claims are currently under audit.
(h/t Mediaite)
Normally “yo mama” jokes are meant as an insult.
Trump to protester in PA: "Go home to mom! And you’re mother is voting for Trump! She’s voting for Trump! True." https://t.co/ul5b7cQNE7
— Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) August 12, 2016
During two separate discussions of Black Lives Matters protests on Tuesday, Donald Trump claimed that people have called for moments of silence for Micah Johnson, the gunman who killed five police officers in Dallas and injured nine others, without specifying who or where.
On an O’Reilly Factor segment filmed earlier in the day, Trump expressed disgust with the actions of the officers who shot Alton Sterling and Philando Castile and said it “could be” that police treat African-Americans differently, but criticized the Black Lives Matter movement as “dividing America.” Trump then said:
“I saw what they’ve said about police at various marches and rallies. I’ve seen moments of silence called for for this horrible human being who shot the policemen.”
Asked by the Fox News host if there was a divide between blacks and whites in America, Trump used this as an example of how “there would seem to be.” Then Trump went on to say:
“It’s getting more and more obvious and it’s very sad, very sad. When somebody called for a moment of silence to this maniac that shot the five police, you just see what’s going on. It’s a very, very sad situation.”
Trump repeated the claim Tuesday night, saying at a rally in Indiana:
“The other night you had 11 cities potentially in a blow-up stage. Marches all over the United States—and tough marches. Anger. Hatred. Hatred! Started by a maniac! And some people ask for a moment of silence for him. For the killer!”
(h\t Gawker)
No news reports appear to corroborate his claim and on social media, news agencies have reached out to the Trump campaign for comment and have not yet heard back.
This is not the first time Donald Trump has made false claims of ethnic groups praising a tragedy.
In November 2015, Trump repeatedly defended his debunked claim that thousands of Muslims were celebrating in the streets of New Jersey after 9/11. Of course this also turned out to not be true.
Full speech, 7/12/16
In a video released this week, a police officer is seen telling a group of black people that Donald Trump’s campaign has banned them from a rally in Boca Raton — while a white man, who admits he is a protester, is allowed to enter.
In the video, an officer Sgt. John Sluth explains to a group of black attendees — including a woman wearing a head covering — that they are not welcome to enter the event, but he says they can voice their opinions in “an area on the other side of the street.”
“We have tickets to the event,” the woman explains.
“That does not matter,” the Sgt. Sluth replies.
“But you don’t even know that we’re here to protest,” the woman notes.
“Does not matter,” the officer insists.
“So, she’s black and she’s wearing something on her head and she has tickets and you’re not letting her in?” Smith interrupts.
“Where did you hear me say that?” the officer asks. “The campaign has told us they don’t want them on the property.”
“What if I have tickets?” Smith presses. “I’m here to protest. And I have tickets.”
“Okay,” the officer shrugs.
“So he gets to go in?” the woman says as Smith walks past the officer into the Trump event.
The Trump campaign singled out a group of black people from entry into their event, while allowing a white man who identified himself as a protester to walk right by.
When questioned by reporters, law enforcement said it was on request of the Trump staff, and the Trump staff claimed the removal was initiated by law enforcement. The officer in the video makes it clear the Trump campaign singled out the group. If they were really the ones who tried to prevent protesters from entering the event they would have stopped the white guy as well. Logical dictates that the request came from the Trump campaign to refuse entry to the African-Americans.
It is important to note that, since Donald Trump is not the United States government, the First Amendment does not apply. Even though it was on public property, when the government leases public property for an event space, the private lessee may legally exclude individuals. Individuals can be ordered off the property and be arrested for trespassing if they do not comply. The Trump campaign was well within their legal rights to exclude whoever they wish. What is concerning however, is the Trump campaign requesting public law enforcement to remove peaceful citizens based off of the color of their skin.
This was not the only recorded event of non-white attendees being removed for no reason other than not being white. Sun Sentinel columnist Michael Mayo also recorded his removal.
https://www.aclu.org/know-your-rights/what-do-if-your-rights-are-violated-demonstration-or-protest
http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/assembly-on-private-property
Black Lives Matter protesters were ejected from Donald J Trump Rally in New Orleans LA.
http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2016/03/protesters_crash_donald_trumps.html
A large group of black students attending a Donald Trump rally at Valdosta State University Monday were escorted out by law enforcement before the event started.
The young people said they had planned to sit in silent protest, but were escorted out by security officials before the presidential candidate began speaking. The incident was recorded on video by several attendees. (Some of the footage can be found here, here and here.)
“We didn’t plan to do anything,” Tahjila Davis, a 19-year-old mass media major, told The Des Moines Register. “They said, ‘This is Trump’s property; it’s a private event.’ But I paid my tuition to be here.”
Brooke Gladney, a 22-year-old marketing and business management major, said: “The only reason we were given was that Mr. Trump did not want us there.”
News reports placed the number of students escorted out at about 30.
Kicking out anticipated protestors isn’t an uncommon practice for Trump events, but this was one of the largest groups so far in his campaign. It occurred hours after a Secret Service agent choke-slammed a Time magazine photographer attempted to capture images of #BlackLivesMatter protesters at an event in Virginia.
Though at least one outlet reported the students were kicked out based on a request by the Trump campaign, the campaign denies that was the case.
“There is absolutely zero truth to that,” says campaign spokeswoman Hope Hicks.
MSNBC‘s Chris Hayes did some digging and no only were the kids there not to protest:
But Capt. Stryde Jones from the Lowndes County Sheriff’s Dept. went on record and told MSNBC:
“A member of the [Trump] event staff approached a member of our agency and requested that the group be asked to leave.”
Furthermore, the Valdosta Police Chief Brian Childress’ went on record and made a statement backing up Captain Jones’ account:
“I spoke to a Trump staffer, whose name I do not have, she told us that they needed to leave. Not only did I talk to a Trump staffer, so did the University police, and we were told over the radio by the Sheriff’s office that Trump staff wanted them out.”
Now a Trump supporter could easily dismiss this out of hand, call the students “thugs” or “potential thugs”, but think about this: Trump and his supporters constantly paint the African-Americans and the Black Lives Matter movement with disdain and contempt and usually counter with a call to support law enforcement and “police lives matter.” So how can they logically reconcile this belief when law enforcement publicly backs up African-Americans over their Trump??
Video from inside Trump rally of students led out from bleachers. Courtesy Kiebbler Carter, 22, who wasn't removed. pic.twitter.com/Ubmjq492DL
— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) March 1, 2016
VSU TRUMP RALLY #BlackLivesMatter And this is the school we attend… pic.twitter.com/sWfX4RksFd
— Mikey (@Mikey_Spiffy) February 29, 2016
At Radford University, a group of young black organizers interrupted a Trump rally. With fists raised, they chanted, “Black lives matter,” as they were quickly escorted from the premises by the police. Trump responded, “All lives matter,” a refrain often used to dismiss the specific concerns of the black community. He also asked a Latina woman who was being led out of the auditorium whether she was from Mexico.
http://wsls.com/2016/02/29/protesters-escorted-out-of-donald-trumps-rally-at-radford-university/
Donald Trump’s rally in Las Vegas on the eve of the next GOP debate turned chaotic on Monday as protesters shouted slogans and audience members screamed back.
Trump was interrupted several times by protesters shouting slogans supporting gun control and “Black lives matter!,” prompting a furious reaction from the crowd. Some screamed, pointed, and at one point shoved a heckler as hotel security swooped in to remove them.
The first protests began after Trump invited Jamiel Shaw, a supporter, to the stage to recount how he lost his son after an undocumented immigrant gang member shot him while walking home. One protester who shouted in response that the story showed the need for gun control was promptly removed by professionals, a scene that played out repeatedly through the night.
As one man was dragged away, people in the crowd variously yelled, “Shoot him!” “Kick his ass,” and “Light the motherfucker on fire!”
A large middle aged man shouted, “Sieg heil!” — a Nazi Germany-era salute — as the protester was taken away. The man, whose motives were not clear, was far enough from the stage that it was unlikely Trump heard the remark.
“He’s a Muslim!” another man in a glittering black suit shouted as another protester was removed. “He’s a Muslim!”
A spokeswoman for the Las Vegas Police Department told NBC News that 15 to 20 people “attempted to disrupt the event, were escorted out, trespassed off property, but no arrests were made.”
And about ten minutes into the Trump rally, this happens. pic.twitter.com/65pXHjsJ3x
— McKay Coppins (@mckaycoppins) December 15, 2015