On CNN this morning, Michael Smerconish spoke with New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd about whether she’s said any “wrong” things about Donald Trump over the past year.
“I’ve gotten so many things wrong,” Smerconish said, “as Donald Trump likes to remind people about this cycle. What have you gotten wrong that stands out?”
Dowd said, “Oh, wow. I don’t know. You tell me. I don’t know.”
They both laughed and Smerconish said, “Maybe it’s all subjective.”
But one detail in Maureen Dowd‘s CNN interview this morning may give some insight into why Donald Trump lashed out at her afterwards.
Dowd told Michael Smerconish that during one of her interviews with Trump, she confronted him about the violence at his rallies, and this exchange ensued:
“I told him that it was wrong that there was violence being incited at his rallies and that reporters were being roughed up. And he paused, you’re right, he did listen, but then he disagreed and said he thought the violence added a frisson of excitement.”
She also asked him why he would attack Bill Clinton over his personal life when he’s not exactly had the most stable marriages.
Donald Trump has once again insinuated that Hillary Clinton be assassinated, telling a crowd of supporters in Miami on Friday night that he thinks Clinton’s bodyguards should disarm in order to “see what happens to her.” The suggestion came after Trump falsely told the crowd that Clinton is “very much against” the Second Amendment and wants to “destroy” it. He then continued:
Guns. Guns. Guns. Right? I think what we should do, is — she goes around with armed bodyguards like you have never seen before. I think that her bodyguards should drop all weapons. They should disarm. Right? … I think they should disarm immediately. … Take their guns away. She doesn’t want guns. Let’s see what happens to her. Take their guns away. Okay? It’d be very dangerous.
Not surprisingly, the comments — which elicited a big cheer from the crowd — were apparently not in Trump’s campaign-prepared remarks.
It was the second time that Trump has suggested that violence befall Clinton in relation to her gun control positions, having told a crowd at a meeting of the National Rifle Association in August that there was “nothing you can do” to prevent Clinton from appointing Supreme Court justices if she was elected president, then adding, “Although, the Second Amendment people, maybe there is. I don’t know.” He and his campaign later indicated the remark was in regards to the political power of gun rights advocates, but the U.S. Secret Service still spoke with the Trump campaign about the comment.
For a major party presidential candidate to make even one insinuation of violence or assassination regarding an opponent is of course unprecedented in modern American history — let alone two separate remarks, as Trump has now made. Then again, precedent has rarely applied when it comes to Trump and suggestions of violence.
Trump’s comment on Friday was also, in part, similar to other previous statements he has made on the subject, like this tweet he sent in May one day after receiving the NRA’s endorsement for president at their annual convention:
Crooked Hillary wants to get rid of all guns and yet she is surrounded by bodyguards who are fully armed. No more guns to protect Hillary!
The false statement that Clinton is opposed to the Second Amendment and wants to ban all gun ownership is one Trump has repeated throughout his campaign. Clinton has regularly said that she supports the right of American citizens to own guns, but wants additional “reasonable” restrictions on gun ownership, such as a ban on assault weapons, an expansion of background checks to more types of gun sales, and new measures to prevent criminals, suspected terrorists, domestic abusers, and the severely mentally ill from being able to purchase firearms. In the past, Clinton has also supported other gun control measures such as the required registration of new guns.
Prior to making his suggestion about Clinton’s bodyguards on Friday night, the candidate framed the remark by insisting Clinton had, in her “basket of deplorables” comment about half of Trump’s supporters at a fundraiser last week, slandered “working people who just want a fraction of the security enjoyed by our politicians and certainly enjoyed by [Clinton.]” Trump also repeated his false assertion that some American inner cities are now more dangerous than war-torn Afghanistan.
In addition, Trump appeared to ridicule Clinton for taking time off from the campaign trail this week, which she did after suffering a bout of pneumonia and falling ill at a 9/11 memorial service in New York on Sunday. After saying Clinton “doesn’t have a lot of the energy” and is “totally unfit to be the president,” Trump bragged that he goes to multiple rallies in a day and asked the crowd, “Do you think Hillary Clinton can get through one?”
For the record, Clinton has a gun violence prevention proposal on her website, which would deny gun owners from buying certain guns and block or delay the ability of some to purchase guns. But it does not call for taking any guns away. Compare this writing to Trump’s 20 second video on his Second Amendment policy.
Among other things, her plan would:
Expand required background checks to include some private sales at gun shows and over the Internet, which include 40% of all gun sales.
Require a potential gun buyer to pass a background check before being sold the gun.
Reinstate the 1994 semi-automatic “assault weapons” ban.
Clinton has also come out against the controversial Supreme Court case District of Columbia v. Heller” which determined that the Second Amendment is indeed an individual right, overturning centuries of court rulings which opinioned otherwise.
Nothing comes remotely close to Trump’s claim or other right-wing media claims that she intends to diminish American’s rights.
Media
Trump on Clinton's bodyguards: "Take their guns away. She doesn't want guns… let's see what happens to her." https://t.co/NBBP1pji5j
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump appeared to joke about the possibility that Hillary Clinton could be shot in remarks at a campaign rally Tuesday in Wilmington, N.C.
Trump was discussing the possibility that Clinton, the Democratic nominee, would be able to appoint liberal justices to the Supreme Court if she wins the race for the White House.
He then said that there was nothing that could be done in that scenario, before mentioning “Second Amendment folks.”
“Hillary wants to abolish, essentially abolish the Second Amendment,” Trump said to boos from the crowd.
“By the way, if she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do folks,” he then added.
“Though the Second Amendment people, maybe there is, I don’t know.”
The Clinton campaign responded with a statement, with campaign manager Robby Mook saying: “This is simple — what Trump is saying is dangerous. A person seeking to be President of the United States should not suggest violence in any way.”
Democrats pounced on the comments, with Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) tweeting that the Secret Service must investigate Trump’s “threat,” while progressive group MoveOn released a statement calling on Republicans to reject Trump’s campaign in response.
A spokesman for the U.S. Secret Service said it was aware of the comments.
The Trump campaign downplayed the controversy in a statement attacking the “dishonest media.”
“It’s called the power of unification – 2nd Amendment people have amazing spirit and are tremendously unified, which gives them great political power,” Jason Miller, a top Trump aide, said in the statement.
And this year, they will be voting in record numbers, and it won’t be for Hillary Clinton, it will be for Donald Trump.”
Trump has repeatedly used Supreme Court vacancies as a key cudgel against Clinton and a way to convince wary Republicans to jump onto his campaign.
Clinton staff began to respond on Twitter, with spokesman Ian Sams blasting Trump’s “new level of unacceptable behavior.”
Justin Barasky, the spokesman for the pro-Clinton super-PAC Priorities USA sent the clip out to reporters with the comment “THIS IS NOT OK.”
The comment comes just one day after Trump sought to reset the controversy dogging his campaign with a highly-touted and scripted economic speech.
If Donald Trump tries to claim the comment was meant to be humorous then someone needs to tell him speech like this is not a joke.
In 2011, Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was shot outside a Tucson Safeway, by Jared Lee Loughner. Congresswoman Giffords was featured on Sarah Palin’s infamous ‘crosshairs’ map, which targeted legislators who voted for Obama’s health care bill.
While no connection had been made between this graphic and the Arizona shooting, war rhetoric like Trump and Palin’s has been linked to incitement to violence.
If that was not the case, then why did the crowd laugh?
The Trump campaign’s statement that the comment was about unification, and gathering enough votes to beat Hillary Clinton in November is absolutely absurd. A simple look at Trump’s quote shows he was talking about after November, should a President Clinton try to pick Supreme Court judges there is nothing you can do, except for the “Second Amendment people.”
Donald Trump also clearly misrepresented Hillary Clinton’s position on gun control. She has never advocated for repealing or abolishing the Second Amendment.
Clinton has called for stronger background check requirements to keep guns out of the hands of “people we all agree shouldn’t have them — domestic abusers, violent felons, and dangerously mentally ill people,” all the while affirming her support for the right to bear arms.
Update
Thanks Fox News host Sean Hannity for helping me answer this controversy with your leading question! You’re a fair and balanced “journalist.”
Donald Trump, after hearing speeches at the Democratic convention this week, said Thursday he wanted to “hit a number of those speakers so hard, their heads would spin.”
“They’d never recover,” he said.
Trump often uses the term “hit” to mean verbally attack, rather than physical contact.
The Republican nominee zoomed in on one speaker especially, though he didn’t mention his name.
“I was going to hit one guy in particular, a very little guy,” Trump said to laughs at a campaign rally in Davenport, Iowa. “I was going to hit this guy so hard his head would spin, he wouldn’t know what the hell happened.”
Trump said this individual “came out of nowhere” and had done work with Trump in the past. “He made deals with me. ‘Will you help me with this? Would you make this deal and solve the problem?’ I solved the problem,” Trump said.
His campaign did not respond to a request asking to clarify who Trump was talking about.
Several speakers this week have gone after Trump in Philadelphia, including Michael Bloomberg. The former New York City mayor made a surprise endorsement over the weekend for Hillary Clinton, and described Trump in his DNC speech Wednesday night as a “dangerous demagogue.”
Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine also targeted Trump, mocking the businessman’s tendency to accentuate his promises with a plea of “believe me.”
“He said a lot of things about me, I never met the guy,” Trump said. “I mean the things that were said about me. I mean, should I go through some of the names?”
Trump recalled telling a friend this week that he wanted to retaliate against the people who slammed him at the convention, mentioning current New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio by name.
“I was going to say that de Blasio is the worst mayor in the history of the city, but I didn’t say it,” Trump said to laughs. “He’s a terrible mayor. I was going to say that, but now I won’t say it.”
Trump said his friend, who he labeled a “very great governor,” urged him to stay focused on attacking Clinton, not other Democrats.
“He said, ‘Don’t hit there. Don’t hit down. You have one person to beat. It’s Hillary Rodham Clinton,'” Trump recalled, adding that he initially objected to the advice. “I said, ‘But I really want to. I don’t like what they’re saying because a lot of it is lies. Not all of it but a lot of it is.’ I said, ‘I just really … it makes me feel good.’ ”
Ultimately, he said, he conceded and decided not to launch into verbal assaults against the Democrats.
“But every once in a while I still wake up, I say ‘boy, I wanna,'” Trump said, growling as he stopped himself from saying more. “Someday!”
Donald Trump called out “my African-American over here” during a rally in Redding, California, pointing to a supporter in the crowd.
Trump was responding to the intense rioting between protestors and his supporters that took place in San Jose last night. In the middle of his nearly endless spiel, Trump began talking enthusiastically about an incident that happened in Tucson in March, in which protestors wearing white KKK hoods were beaten by a black member of the crowd.
While reciting this anecdote, Trump further breaks off to wonder about how that man is doing. In the process of that tangent, he (presumably) points out a different black person in this particular crowd, which produces yet another jaw-dropping moment in the presidential candidacy of Donald Trump:
We had a case where we had an African-American guy who was a fan of mine. Great guy, in fact I want to find out what’s going on with him. You know what I’m — Oh look at my African American over here.
“Look at him,” Trump added, directing the crowd’s attention. “You know what I’m talking about, OK? So we have an African American guy at one of the rallies a month ago. And he’s sitting there behaving. And we had protesters sitting inside the arena.”
“Everybody thought the African American was against me, and it was the opposite,” Trump insisted. “He was like this great guy military guy. We have tremendous African American support. The reason is I’m going to bring jobs back to our country. We’re going to bring jobs back.”
Trump’s spokesperson Hope Hicks told CNN that he didn’t mean anything by it. “He’s just referring to a supporter in the crowd; there’s no ill will intended, obviously,” Hicks stated.
What is something a slave owner says for $300 Alex?
Gregory Cheadle, a Republican California congressional candidate, confirmed to CNN he was the supporter to whom Trump pointed. He told the Record Searchlight, a local newspaper, he was happy to be cited by Trump.
While Mr. Cheadle may not have been personally offended by the remark, that does not absolve Donald Trump for his comment. For those who this may require an explanation, saying things like, “Oh look at my African American over here” sounds like Trump is interacting with black people for the first time. And this isn’t a isolated incident but just the latest in a long line of racially-charged comments from the billionaire.
Donald Trump actually started off his rambling anecdote speaking about how gentle and respectful he treats protesters at his rallies, which he claims is not very often. This is not true. Virtually every single rally is interrupted with protests. Donald Trump just the day prior screamed “Get him outta here!” at a protester at the rally in San Jose. This is also the same Donald Trump who promised to pay legal fees for supporters who attacked protesters who interrupt his rallies.
If somehow the Secret Service, local law enforcement, and Donald Trump’s own security detail fail to protect him, the Republican presidential frontrunner has a biker gang to back him up. Ever since Trump was forced to cancel a rally in Chicago because of protesters, a group of 30,000 motorcyclists called Bikers for Trump has been patrolling his campaign events to help out law enforcement, Politico reports.
The group, which initially formed to hold independent rallies for Trump, is now appearing at Trump events across the country under the leadership of Chris Cox, a former advance man for former Vice President Dan Quayle. Though the group is doing this of their own accord, Politico reports that Trump’s campaign isn’t exactly hindering their efforts. Earlier this month, the bikers showed up in Albany to form a “protective barrier” between Trump supporters and Trump protesters. Just last week, the men showed up at a rally inside the Pennsylvania Farm Show Complex where Politico reports they were “assuming functions typically reserved for paid security and police — patrolling the dirt floor of the arena, snatching and tearing protesters’ signs, and following close behind law enforcement officials as they dragged protesters from the arena, ready to lend a hand.”
Next up, the bikers plan to head to Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and California — and then on to the convention in Cleveland. “We’re not here to make headlines,” Cox told Politico, “we’re here to prevent them.”
We’ve searched the news and so far and thankfully there hasn’t been any incidents involving Bikers for Trump as of this date. However biker gangs do not have the best track record when it comes to security.
After his rallies in Arizona this weekend were marked by protests and violence, Donald J. Trump on Sunday complained of a “double standard” in coverage of those incidents and defended his campaign manager after video showed the manager grabbing a demonstrator by the collar and yanking him backward during a rally in Tucson.
Asked about the incident on ABC’s “This Week,” Mr. Trump allowed that the beating was “a tough thing to watch,” but he refused to condemn the assault. He offered harsher words for the victim, saying he had been accompanied by another protester provocatively wearing a Ku Klux Klan costume.
“At what point do people blame the protesters?” he said, calling them “professional agitators.”
Mr. Trump also complained about a roadblock by protesters who sought to prevent his supporters from reaching a rally outside Phoenix on Sunday.
“I think it’s very unfair that these, really, in many cases professional, in many cases sick, protesters can put cars in a road blocking thousands of great Americans from coming to a speech, and nobody says anything about that,” Mr. Trump said, adding: “It’s a very unfair double standard” and that the protesters had been holding “horrible, profanity-laden signs” in the background as television cameras recorded his speech.
Mr. Trump added that police officers and security guards in the Tucson arena had been “a little bit lax.”
Reality
While it is true that a few protesters initiated violence, thevastmajorityofviolence at Trump rallies is from Trump supporters. Trump, on multiple occasions, has defended violence against protesters, encouraged violence against protesters, and promised violence. It stands to reason that it is Trump’s actions and behavior that creates an environment where violence against protesters is acceptable.
According to the Washington Post the man in the Klu Klux Klan hood was a friend of the protester who was attacked, and it is not exactly clear what the intention of the protest was. Trump should stay away from a guilty-by-association fallacy with the KKK, with his family ties to the Klan and being in the same political party with David Duke and all.
Speaking on CNN’s New Day (I know I haven’t heard of it either) Donald Trump predicted violence if he were to not receive the Republican party nomination.
I think we’ll win before getting to the convention, but I can tell you, if we didn’t and if we’re 20 votes short or if we’re 100 short and we’re at 1,100 and somebody else is at 500 or 400, because we’re way ahead of everybody, I don’t think you can say that we don’t get it automatically. I think it would be — I think you’d have riots. Now, if you disenfranchise those people and you say, well I’m sorry but you’re 100 votes short, even though the next one is 500 votes short, I think you would have problems like you’ve never seen before. I think bad things would happen, I really do. I believe that. I wouldn’t lead it but I think bad things would happen.
Reality
Republican National Committee Communications Director Sean Spicer tried to spin this statement saying “I assume he’s speaking figuratively,” however one would find it hard to believe as actual riots broke out at a Trump rally in Chicago just a few days prior. What Donald Trump is doing here is a classic example of priming. By suggesting an idea of violence, either willing or unwillingly, supporters are then influenced to believe violence is part of normal judgement.
Comments like these add to the growing evidence that Donald Trump supports and condones violence against people with different ideas.
Donald Trump says a violent episode involving a protester at one of his rallies “was amazing to watch.”
The Republican presidential front-runner told a Warren, Michigan audience on Friday that he’s tired of political correctness when it comes to handling protesters. He was interrupted several times during his remarks by yelling protesters, as he often is at his events.
During one interruption, Trump said:
“Get him out. Try not to hurt him. If you do I’ll defend you in court. Are Trump rallies the most fun?” He then asked the crowd. “We’re having a good time.”
He then recalled an incident at a New Hampshire rally where a protester started “swinging and punching.” Trump said some people in the audience “took him out.”
It was really amazing to watch.
Reality
Comments like these add to the growing evidence that Donald Trump supports and condones violence against people with different ideas.
Three people were assaulted at a Donald Trump rally in Louisville, Kentucky, and have since filed a lawsuit against the Republican presidential candidate, saying he “incited a riot.”
Molly Shah, Kashiya Nwanguma and Henry Brousseau filed the lawsuit on Thursday in Jefferson Circuit Court in Louisville, claiming that Trump’s repeated calls of “get them out” at a rally at the Kentucky International Convention Center on March 1 was intended to direct his supporters to “use unwanted, harmful physical force to remove protesters, including the plaintiffs.”
The lawsuit also names as defendants the Trump campaign and three individuals who the plaintiffs claim assaulted them at the rally.
Protests at Trump rallies do not occur in a vacuum. Since he first announced his candidacy, Trump continues to make racist, sexist, and authoritarian remarks that marginalizes anyone who do not meet his view of white and conservative enough. A full list of protests can be found here.
