Trump Closes Out Election Campaign By Threatening Michelle Obama
Trump Closes Out Election Campaign By Threatening Michelle Obama
At a rally in North Carolina, the Republican nominee asked his supporters a shocking question about the former first lady.
You could call this "political suicide" for almost any other candidate. But not the orange man and his followers...
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Yeah but she would have the CHEATER'S ADVANTAGE of a GENTLE BREEZE it wasn't fair nobody could stand up to that.
Big man wants to hit woman, more at 6
He’s such a strange angry little man
I really don't like the various outlets' coverage of this story or how quick people are to interpret this as a violent threat. I am VERY skeptical that he meant physically hitting Michelle Obama, and I think the only way to make it sound that way is to clip the quote. When he says, "She hit me the other day" and "She said that about me, I can’t hit back?" he's obviously not talking physically and you wouldn't think that if it was Harris saying it.
TONS of legitimate exist reasons to hate Trump and tear him apart (Huffpost: "This just in, user GrymEdm threatens to 'tear Trump apart'. Is he advocating assault?"). We don't need to grasp at straws when there are rock-solid criticisms of Trump. If it's not right for the other side to take things out of context and spin them, then it's not ok for us. How about we stay focused on Trump being a democracy-destroying, racist, lying convicted felon/sex offender (with ample proof) and not try to force this quote into something it probably isn't.
Edit: People comparing the J6 coup/maintaining deniability need to look up how serious and extended the lead up to J6 was. It was many days worth of violent rhetoric capped by a long speech where he said "peaceful" once and called for variations of "fighting" 20 times. His J6 incitement is the basis of a very serious and (according to experts in the linked article) indefensible lawsuit. No one is taking him to court because of the quotes in OP's article. Lemmy, you don't need to push this to make reasons to justifiably despise him.
Taking these ridiculous comments of Trump’s without the context behind them, singling them out and reading them strictly in the ‘neutral’ voice you’re advocating for… entirely strips it of the dog whistling that it is.
With a mindset like that you’d also say that ‘Trump didn’t literally tell his supporters to storm Congress on J6’ or ‘Trump isn’t actively exciting violence against democrats and immigrants’, and sure on the face value of most of what he says he isn’t exactly doing that. But, he knows what he’s saying, he has seen plenty of examples of this dog whistling of his getting the violent results he wants.
Each statement like this points his violent supporters in the direction of his preferred targets.
Downvote if you want, they aren't the same. There are big differences between this brief statement and the lead-up to J6, and takes like this only fuel the conservative assertion that "woke Liberals" will blow anything out of proportion. You can believe what you want, but I'm not going to resort to unfounded "but he could be" claims given how many valid criticisms are available. I'll stick to the things he's actually said about women's rights, the environment, locking up opponents, wanting to be a dictator...
The long J6 speech was held right in front of the Capitol where he said some version of "we need to fight" so many times that legal experts say it's obvious, in an evidence-applicable-to-court way, that he was inciting. It was preceded by many day's worth of rhetoric, and he was telling others to do his dirty work. It's the basis for an incredibly serious lawsuit.
The "hit back" conversation was like two lines in one anecdote about verbal sparring, and in context clearly wasn't him asking if it was his turn to punch Michelle Obama. He also never spent days calling for anything along the lines of "You folks need to hit Michelle Obama" the way he called for them to fight at the Capitol. No one is going to make a lawsuit about those quotes.
Agreed. That's what he does, he's a snake with language. Doesn't mean we have to be too. "Trump threatens Michelle Obama" is still a fundamentally dishonest title for this post/article. It's a deliberate mischaracterization of what actually happened that you can get away with using, but shouldn't.
Just like you mention, "he knows what he's saying". The same applies to the OP of this post and the author of this article. They know what a bald statement like "x threatened y" means, and Trump's words here ain't it.
Potential alternatives: "Trump dog whistles for political violence?", "Trump evokes violent imagery rally remarks aimed at Michelle Obama", "Trump's deliberate ambiguity sparks outrage, asks 'can I hit her back now?'"
As an author show some respect for yourself and for the intellect of your readers.
Media is just as guilty as anybody else for their willful enabling of people like Trump. He knew what he was doing (or at least his handlers did).
and you wouldn’t think that if it was Harris saying it.
I wouldn't, because she doesn't have years of violent rhetoric that would suggest she's talking literally. He's long lost the benefit of the doubt on what he "really" means, and any suggestion that his speech is innocent is either naive or complicit.
Trump's whole shtick is plausible deniability. He'll say just a little bit to cover himself but whenever I hear the original the message is clear.
Trump's whole shkitch is plausible deniability. He'll say just a little bit to cover himself but whenever I hear the original the message is clear.
He’s clinically insane.
He’s empirically insane.
“Former professional wrestler threatens woman in racist tirade” is a classic headline.
Can we bothsider this by declaring that it's mean for those who are not in his cult and who are not donnie dumpster to point out donnie's nastiness here?
It's just like the way they embrace racism and fascism and then say everyone is being - boohoo! - so mean to them by pointing this out! And of course, the "liberal media" and the Enlightened Centrists(TM) will jump at the chance to tone police any meanies talking facts....