Reminiscent of Sharon “Second Amendment Remedies” Angle’s oblique call for armed insurrection, Trump suggests gun-fondlers might be able to stop a President Hillary Clinton from appointing Supreme Court justices:
Trump suggests "Second Amendment people" might be able to stop Hillary Clinton from appointing judges https://t.co/98TBekY04c
— Zack Beauchamp (@zackbeauchamp) August 9, 2016
It was only a matter of time until the Thorazine wore off following Trump’s economic address yesterday. So it’s not too surprising he went there. The question is, has the tsunami of lies and hyperbole that has roared forth from Trump’s cake-hole for the past year swamped the Beltway press so thoroughly that they’ll let a passing reference to political assassination pass? I honestly don’t know.
[H/T: Valued commenter Lamh36]
lamh36
this is the problem with this media…they normalize bullshit like this from trump by saying he’s just “joking”…you don’t joke about this type of thing in gun crazy America
WereBear
Sure! They have become so used to ignoring the stupid stuff he says it will take social media to get upset.
Paul Wartenberg
There will be his defenders and those on the Far Right who will cry all “oh he really didn’t MEAN IT, he was just joking, he was just playing to the partisan nature of campaigning…”
NO NO NO AND NO.
He openly suggested people could SHOOT HILLARY if they don’t like what she’ll do if she wins. No other interpretation. No joke. No lie. THERE ARE NO IFS ANDS OR BUTS ABOUT IT.
Goddamn him. We’ve had crazy people shoot up Planned Parenthood centers over such “flippant” remarks in the public forums. All they f-cking need is the encouragement from someone they worship to pull this crap. GODDAMN YOU TRUMP.
Betty Cracker
@lamh36: Exactly. We’re a gun-crazy culture with a long and tragic history of political assassinations. It’s not a laughing matter.
Rommie
He was joking/kidding/being sarcastic. That should be plenty of excuse for the MSM when the “apology” is trotted out. I would be happy to be wrong.
CalD
Some publicity is bad publicity.
LAO
@Rommie: It’s not going to be an apology — it going to be an admonishment of the press because “he was clearly joking.” I hate this election and wish it was over tomorrow.
MikeTheZ
I’m kinda surprised the Secret Service hasn’t started tackling him before he can say shit like this.
calpolymom
Sadly, I don’t expect the MSM to pay attention to this other than to pass it off as another Trump gaffe. I seriously hope he’s arrested and thrown in jail for this.
LAO
@MikeTheZ: Would you willingly touch Trump, if he didn’t pay you to?
Kay
Maybe he could clarify.
gogol's wife
@Paul Wartenberg:
Co-sign.
? Martin
Just more delegitimizing the election.
We already know that the GOP believes there is widespread fraud. We also already know that the GOP believes that only white males are responsible enough to not succumb to identity politics. Blacks only voted for Obama because he’s black. Women will only vote for Hillary because she’s female. This is why the election is ‘rigged’, why voter suppression is noble, and why Trump thinks he’s winning (because he is with white men – by a lot).
So if you believe the election has been stolen by ACORN and Mexicans and women who want their Obamabortions, then you go to the very remedy that has been invented for white males – the 2nd amendment, so they can take their country back from the 65% that are too irresponsible to run it or even to vote.
But yes, the media needs to stop treating this like a lighthearted gaffe and start putting up big headlines “Trump Calls for Assassination of Judges!” There will be whines of liberal bias, but most people will know that’s what he meant.
gogol's wife
@LAO:
But he’s clearly not joking. He’s clearly deliberately thinking about what to say next — or maybe has it written down.
I pray this is the last straw. The MSM seemed to wake up about the Khans — this is even worse.
gratuitous
Joking or not, our country has a history of political assassinations and assassination attempts. Considering the easy availability of firearms and the seemingly endless supply of unstable people willing to use them, Trump’s comment is the equivalent to shouting fire in a crowded theater. Several times. While barring the doors.
Something very bad will come of this, and the very least our popular media can do is to call it out until Trump apologizes. There can be no “Hey, whoa, it’s just a joke, folks” excuse.
tobie
Gawd, this man is awful. Rancid is the only way I can think to describe him and his supporters. This nasty, ignorant piece of shit is going to incite violence.
gogol's wife
@gratuitous:
His apologizing is worth nothing.
I want to see him morally destroyed.
Roger Moore
@Paul Wartenberg:
Sure there’s another interpretation; he was suggesting that they shoot judges they don’t like.
Brent
@Rommie: Oh, I doubt he will apologize. He never apologizes.
What I think he will do is suggest that the “joke” was really a suggestion that the “2nd Amendment people” assassinate the judges she appoints, not Hillary herself. Heaven forfend!
bemused
He really went there. OMG
Percysowner
I may be being too optimistic, but I think the media might just call him on this. When the Washington Post said they could never endorse him, it was like a crack in the dam. So maybe, just maybe the media will call him out for telling people to assassinate his rival. If for no other reason than it makes good headlines?
I voted against Nixon. I lived through Ronald Regan working with Iran to make sure the hostages were released on his watch not Jimmy Carter. I saw Kerry Swiftboated. I never, NEVER thought I would see a candidate ask that his opponent be murdered. I feel really, really sick right now.
SiubhanDuinne
Before the campaign is over, Donald Trump will have somebody’s blood on his hands. He is worse than despicable.
Waldo
@MikeTheZ: I gotta believe this will be the first time the Secret Service will have to explain to a presidential candidate why it’s not cool to threaten a presidential candidate.
Poopyman
Well, so far the WaPo has gone with
With a link to video. So it’s out there.
ETA: Yeah, obviously without disclosing the implicit threat. We’ll see if they get more specific, or what other MSM outlet puts it in print.
Davis X. Machina
He’s been spouting eliminationist rhetoric all along. Different only in degree, not kind.
When people show you who they are, believe them.
Jordan Rules
He is despicable.
Miss Bianca
@bemused: He really went there, and it’s *only August*. What could possibly be next, particularly if there’s no backlash from the media and prominent public figures? I shudder to imagine.
gogol's wife
@Jordan Rules:
When he started his candidacy, I thought he was just a ridiculous grifter trying to promote his brand. I had no idea what a morally bankrupt, evil person he was.
kindness
And if some prominent Democrat gets gunned down, Trump isn’t going to give a shit.
It’s hard to be a liberal and hold on to our values and have these assholes for opposition.
@? Martin: I don’t believe Republicans believe there is widespread fraud. I do believe Republicans are laying the groundwork for their next Brooks Brothers revolt.
misterpuff
Drumpf SOP: Make defamatory but sarcastic statement. Then double down with tweets. Get blowback and then tell crowd “I was just joking! You heard it . Joke”
The Dog Whistle Joke, just enough (low class) humor to be a fig leaf for the Press, but the Audience knows he means it.
WereBear
He’s a narcissist. His only filter is how it makes him feel. It’s the Marianas Trench, people. There’s no low he won’t plumb.
scav
It could also be that he’s also threatening the judges (unspecified) with second amendment solutions — which would also be a “solution” to all those judges being appointed. And, he does have priors with antagonism to judges (and they have been killed). Judges are a lot closer to and far less protected than HC is to the more extreme of his supporters.
1,000 Flouncing Lurkers (was fidelioscabinet)
@Paul Wartenberg: I’m past 55 and I remember the event, so let me just say “If it was wrong for Arthur Bremer to attempt to assassinate George Wallace while the latter was running for President, it would be wrong for someone to try and do it now to any of the candidates.”
Similarly, if it was wrong to assassinate or attempt to assassinate a sitting president, it would be wrong to attempt to do so now or the future.
For a state to survive, especially a democracy, it cannot normalize assassination as a tool of political control or succession.
Tilda Swinton's Bald Cap
SS needs to talk to this asshat pronto.
MikeTheZ
@LAO: Considering the alternative is allowing him to increase the odds another Secret Service agent will have to put themselves between Hillary and one of Trump’s lunatics…
Redshift
It reminds me of that Reagan mic check where he “joked” about bombing the Soviet Union. A friend of mine tried to dismiss it by saying “it was a joke, anyone could have made it,” which I countered by pointing out that no, no one else could have made that “joke,” and that’s why it wasn’t funny.
In this case, any random asshole could have made this “joke,” but it wouldn’t be the same, which is why it’s irresponsible to accept that excuse.
bupalos
It’s getting really hard to see him truly making it to the election. Where do you go after this kind of stuff? It’s just really really hard for me to envision Trump just playing this string out in a straight way when he’s probably going to be waking up down 15 points every day. I really think he’s going to take his white nationalist ball and go home and wait.
Said it before and I’ll say it again. Trump cannot win. But I’d rather be up against a standard issue republican asshat like Ryan– that could and probably would win–than this mess. This election itself is going to do more damage than I think we may realize.
Gravenstone
Sad thing is, in his original statement it could be argued he meant that the “remedy” be applied the the judicial appointees, rather than President Clinton herself. And it would not surprise me overmuch if he actually tries to make that fucking argument in his defense.
dedc79
If Trump or his supporters/staff claim it’s a joke, they should be asked to explain/describe the joke and what’s so funny about it.
Redshift
@misterpuff: Especially since his ghostwriter says he really doesn’t have a sense of humor. And claiming “I was joking” as a get out of jail free card is an asinine trait he shares with most wingnuts, rather than his special brand.
Aleta
@Waldo: yes, he has endangered everyone around her, including her secret service people and other security professionals
Poopyman
@? Martin: Ah well, if it’s delegitimizing the election you want, the WaPo also reports this:
Tom Levenson
Sorry for the bigfoot/duplication. We are not men. We are Balloon Juice.
Matt McIrvin
@scav: I recall that the “Posse Comitatus”, one of the early armed survivalist militia groups, loved to threaten to assassinate judges. They had songs about it.
germy
@kindness:
Sarah Palin was offended when people made a comparison between her crosshairs and the Gabrielle Giffords shooting.
Gin & Tonic
Well, The Grauniad said “Donald Trump hints at assassination”.
Gravenstone
@Tilda Swinton’s Bald Cap: Frankly, it’s in their own vested interest, as well as his. Because that sort of rhetoric has just as much potential to incite someone to go after him.
Percysowner
I am reasonably sure that Hillary Clinton’s SS guys are calling in reinforcements while quietly freaking out.
NorthLeft12
This is exactly what has been driving me nuts about the US for a number of years now. Republicans and other right wing nut jobs have been talking about armed resistance to the US government, targeting specific individuals for death or violence all in public and you get nothing from the justice system. The media just laughs it off or puts it down to “partisan rhetoric/hyperbole” that both sides engage in.
IMO civilized societies do not tolerate this kind of free speech. Most countries [if not all] have laws against that kind of shit, but these conservacrazies moan about political correctness. These Rethugs need to be voted into oblivion. Perhaps they will learn something from that [Doubt it].
slag
@Kay: I had the same question and agree that clarification would help. Of course, there’s always the “Why not both?” option that gun nuts seem so fond of these days.
Keith G
I think it is rather a worthless time suck to pre-judge what the press will do. I think that on balance, most of the news media’s actions toward Trump has been okay (Since they began treating him as a serious candidate and not an oddity).
The worst thing that can happen to Trump’s presidential dreams is open and uncensored coverage. The guy is a fucking disaster. As far as this clip shown above, it will get played as it it is news worthy. Maybe a lil’ behind the scenes action by the administration a la West Wing** would keep it alive for some extra time.
**Yep, a very similar action was covered in a West Wing episode.
CONGRATULATIONS!
I DO NOT want him to apologize. I want his life destroyed and the GOP officials who signed off on him running jailed.
There’s a line that you do not cross and he crossed it.
Betty Cracker
@germy: Not only was she offended, Palin called it a “blood libel.”
Jeffro
@Paul Wartenberg:
The only thing needed to provide clarity here is to ask Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell, and Pence “What if it was Clinton making these remarks about a GOP nominee? Or federal judges? You’re okay with that?”
OzarkHillbilly
The Guardian is giving this front page Breaking News red tag treatment: Trump hints at assassination of Hillary Clinton by gun rights supporters
Jeffro
@Percysowner:
And her security detail is ALREADY huge btw – you would not believe how tight things were when she came to speak here in NoVA earlier this year.
Underpaid Propagandist
Well, at least BoSoxPatBroons purity man Charlie Pierce may not vote for Hillary Teh War Criminal.
bmoak
@Gravenstone:
Because threatening to assassinate judges is just so less serious than threatening to assassinate a presidential candidate….
Poopyman
@NorthLeft12:
This has gone past free speech right up to the line for incitement. He’s counting on that being a fuzzy line. We shall see.
dmsilev
So, by my watch, it’s been roughly 28 hours since Trump’s pivot towards I Is Serious Nominee Now. Guess that lasted about as long as all of the previous such pivots.
Poopyman
@OzarkHillbilly: Leave it to the non-American press. Maybe I should go check out Russia Today (RT).
opiejeanne
@Tom Levenson: The more this is pounded on, the better. And I love both You and Betty.
Matt McIrvin
@NorthLeft12: The crazy thing is that, over the past 30 years or so, it’s actually become a mainstream position that the intended purpose of the Second Amendment is to protect the right to armed revolution. (To the point that people get offended on Facebook when I tell them that it probably wasn’t.) This idea that “Second Amendment remedies” are your last recourse has gradually become normalized.
So these people can now point to the Bill of Rights and say that it legitimizes shooting sufficiently obnoxious government officials, right there in black and white.
Betty Cracker
@OzarkHillbilly: Now it’s getting front page treatment at Buzzfeed and WaPo too. Here’s the ridiculous response from the Trump flak, as per WaPo:
Fucking idiot. Although one does have to acknowledge he’s got the hardest PR job on the planet right now.
Gin & Tonic
@Betty Cracker: Guy’s got to be feeling like Lucy and Ethel with the chocolates.
Dadadadadadada
@Rommie: The Art of the Deal ghostwriter addressed this the last time Trump said something stupid and attempted the “just a joke” walk-back. His words were something like “Donald Trump is humorless. He never jokes. What he does do is lie when he gets in trouble.”
This from a guy who had personal, physical access to Trump for multiple hours a day throughout more than a year of work. Take him at his word.
Jeffro
The Right in this country needs a SERIOUS “reset” in how they talk to and deal with other Americans, and what they expect out of their leaders. An electoral shellacking is one thing, but they’ll learn all the wrong lessons.
How about it, Senator Collins? Heck, Senator Graham? How about y’all get up there w/ President Obama and remind your “2nd Amendment remedy-ers” that in America, we just don’t talk like this.
Jeffro
Still not trending on Facebook…I guess they’re still too scared of RW blowback to actually let this stuff through their filters…
Soylent Green
@Tilda Swinton’s Bald Cap:
Better yet, his SS detail walks out of all his public venues. “You’re on your own, Sparky.”
Miss Bianca
@Betty Cracker:
Is Jason Miller related to noted Trump publicist John Miller?
shortribs
@bemused:
You’re not really surprised are you? Trump is a walking sack of stupid and hate. He’s crossed every too-far bridge there is to cross, and we still have 3 months to go, the 3 most intense months and I suspect he’ll keep topping himself.
different-church-lady
This thing is over, and it’s only August 9th. Wow.
Mike in NC
Will any of the TV networks give this shit the attention it deserves on the nightly news? Doubt it.
David ?▶️Hillary/Harley Quinn 2016▶️? Koch
Pivot!111!
ksmiami
Smite them all. We’ve been in a cold rebellion since 2008. These effers need to be put out to pasture. How dare the GOP unleash Trump on civil society.
different-church-lady
@bupalos:
It’s not longer a question of where he goes. It’s now a question about where the rest of the GOP goes. He’s boxed them in something fierce. Either they bail because of this, or it sticks to them. No middle ground any longer.
different-church-lady
@David ?▶️Hillary/Harley Quinn 2016▶️? Koch: DOUBLE SECRET URGENT PIVOT!!1!
David ?▶️Hillary/Harley Quinn 2016▶️? Koch
People just don’t get it. Trump is money making scheme divisive by Mel Brooks for his sequel to “The Producers”
just wait until you see the gorgeous dancers in the musical number: Spring Time for Trump.
Mike in NC
Is Cliven Bundy still in jail? If not he’ll be showing up at the next Drumpf rally with his sons and goons, armed to the teeth. Drumpf is the lunatic leader that the Tea Party crowd has been waiting for.
different-church-lady
@David ?▶️Hillary/Harley Quinn 2016▶️? Koch: “Harry! He’s funny!!”
Yeah, that was pretty much the GOP base’s reaction to the primaries, wasn’t it?
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
I guess we were always heading toward Trump openly calling for Clinton’s assassination, but it’s still hard to believe now that we’ve gotten here. I hope there’s some way to rein this shit in, but I fear there may not be.
Karen
@bemused:
Can Clinton do anything legal about the Rethug candidate basically “suggestion” that someone MURDER the Dem Candidate ?
different-church-lady
@Rommie:
There won’t be an apology. There’s never been before, and there won’t be now.
different-church-lady
@Kay:
At length. Repeatedly. Every day for the next three months. Please oh please oh please oh please…
Dadadadadadada
@Mike in NC: The whole Bundy bunch was denied bail due to being dangerous, heavily-armed lunatics. Not a one of them will ever again breathe free air.
SFAW
@Soylent Green:
I think it would be good humor if one of his detail, within earshot of That Motherfucker, had a conversation with another detail member about “fragging.”
“Oh, no, Mr. Trump, we were just joking. Just as you were joking about Second Amendment remedies. You need to get a sense of humor, Redshirt.”
(With apologies to our own redshirt, of course.)
I’m sure Deadbeat Donnie would have a good laugh over that one.
different-church-lady
He seems to @dmsilev: To everything, pivot, pivot, pivot… there is a season, pivot, pivot, pivot…
sunny raines
clearly the corporate media will find a ‘both sides do it’ means of equating a trump call for assassinate Clinton and some judges with say… obama being mean to republicans by vetoing their umpteenth vote to eliminate obamacare. These two things a obviously of equal weight and importance.
Keith G
@sunny raines: That seems a very tin foily hat statement.
J R in WV
@Gin & Tonic:
It’s the number one story on Guardian right now…
AssTrumpet may have outdone himself now… I hope not, not until the climax in November.
NorthLeft12
@Poopyman: I agree with you. There is such a thing as free speech but it does not include the incitement of violence towards specific people or groups. Der Donald is doing both and there has not been much said about it until now. Other RWNJs have been doing this for years and all you get is …….
Soylent Green
@Dadadadadadada:
Not even close. The ones who are pleading guilty are going to get sentences of a few years, and the Bundys themselves will likely get 10 to 15
mellowjohn
@Poopyman:
nah. 2nd amendment remedies are so messy. the Russians would go with polonium.
Feebog
Jeezuz, three more months of this insanity. And I’m sure there will be a new low before the week is done.
Gelfling 545
@LAO: well, but obviously, he was joking because only a crazy person would………..oooh,…. yeah.
Kay
@different-church-lady:
Well, the truth is he can’t do this poorly in PA and win, because CO and VA are anti-Trump states so his path was always narrower than a McCain or Romney. That was true yesterday and it will be true tomorrow. obviously I’ll be happy if he’s finally held accountable for the idiotic bellowing he does at these rallies, but Donald Trump was doing very poorly with or without this.
Gelfling 545
@? Martin:
We know they say there is. Completely different.
Mnemosyne
@NorthLeft12:
We would need a lawyer to say for sure, but IIRC current jurisprudence says that this doesn’t count as incitement. There was an anti-abortion group that kept a website filled with addresses of abortion doctors and marked off the ones who had been murdered, and that was judged to be protected speech by at least one court.
But, again, IANAL, so I don’t know where incitement stands these days.
bemused
@Miss Bianca:
There is no bottom to how low and vile he can go. There is no peak Trump.
bluefish
This sicko has been suggesting the murder of HRC with his dance of the seven veils routine for several months now. Today was the day he opted just to go for it — (Just kidding, minions — tee hee hee — no sense of humor, sad.) The man is a sociopath. Here’s to hoping we see a mass exodus of R congress critters starting tomorrow morning. I wish the head of the Secret Service would come out and make a public service announcement or offer a primer. Absolutely unbelievable.
On top of all else, the guy is insanely self-destructive. It’s like an S&M thing, with guns and violence being offered as a wink wink way to win his imperial favor.
Miss Bianca
@bemused: Or, conversely, there is no Nadir Trump.
sukabi
@gogol’s wife: to be morally destroyed you have to have at least some smidgen of a moral center, drumpf has NONE as he’s proven yet again.
Bill E Pilgrim
Was trying something.
SiubhanDuinne
@Betty Cracker:
Holy fuck! If I knew that at the time, I had forgotten (totally repressed) it.
Yawannatalkaboutcher dog whistles!?
SiubhanDuinne
@Dadadadadadada:
I sometimes watch political speeches with the audio muted, and it is abundantly clear that Trump has no sense of humor. Just look at his face. He may occasionally stretch the corners of his mouth into a simulacrum of a smile or grin, but mostly he doesn’t even bother exercising those muscles. Look at his eyes — there is nothing suggestive of a twinkle in his eyes. I’m trying to remember if I’ve ever heard him laugh — just blurt out a hearty full-bellied laugh at something genuinely funny. I can’t remember a single time. People may not like Hillary’s laugh, but at least she has one. And while she is a serious and thoughtful person, she has a good sense of the ridiculous. And that lends a crucial sense of perspective to a job as deathly serious as SoS or POTUS.
John Weiss
@LAO: Wouldn’t if he did pay me.
John Weiss
@LAO: Wouldn’t if he did pay me.@Miss Bianca: Ma’am, hide and watch.
John Weiss
@LAO: Wouldn’t if he did pay me.@Miss Bianca: Ma’am, hide and watch.@CONGRATULATIONS!: Sympatico!