The President held a rally in Michigan. Perfect opportunity for the leader of the county to try to cool down the heated rhetoric in the state, in light of the threats to the Governor.
And so, of course:
In his defense, he has no control over what the crowd yells. The real question is how did he respond to their “Lock her up!” chants? I presume he chastised them and requested that they tone down their rhetoric.
Oh wait, he laughed and said “Lock them all up.”
Although, based on the contextual semantics of “ALM” as a response to “BLM”, this means that he doesn’t want Whitmer locked up.
There is no chance he’s going to cool anything; it’s not in his interests to do so, and just as important, it’s not in Giuliani’s interests, Bill Barr’s interests, Jared Kushner’s interests, or in the interests of anyone else in his circle.
You can see Trump saying the quiet part out loud. One hand saying “If I lose the election, it’s because it’s rigged and I’ll ask my army to fight like hell to prevent me from losing - even if people have to get injured or worse to keep me in power.” On the other hand, he’s bracing himself by saying “But if the election is successfully stolen from me (i.e. If I really do lose), I’m gettin’ the feck outta here.” He’s even said “I’m never coming back to Pennsylvania or Wisconsin,” and “I might have to leave the country, who knows? LOL”
Yeah, great. Funny. A sitting president is openly challenging the legitimacy of an election that he fears losing and telling us he’ll go into self-imposed exile if he’s forced from office. Tell me how this is different from a fledgling democracy, quasi-authoritarian regime again?
Does anyone remember when McCain faced a similar situation? One of his supporters said she didn’t want to support Obama because she thought he was a Muslim and an Arab.
He shot that crap down pronto.
You’ve forgotten he started the whole “Lock her up!” nonsene.
Yes, but in kind of a terrible way. IIRC he said, “That’s not true. He’s a good man.”
Kinda makes it sound like Muslims and Arabs are not good people.
I remember the good old days, when Republican candidates were merely unacceptable, only treating people they didn’t like as second class citizens and only wanting to put some of their adults in cages.
This wasn’t that long ago, but perhaps my glasses have already been tinted rose.
The lady said she believed Obama was “an Arab”. McCain’s thoughtful response was made in light of limited time, and limited perceived willingness on her part to listen to opposing viewpoints.
In different circumstances, with a less pathetic questioner, he might have followed up with “And what have you got against Arabs? Danny Thomas was an Arab. A devout Christian who founded the St. Jude charity. Get your head out of your bigoted ass!”
One time long, long, ago, Chris Christie sometimes had something resembling actual integrity. Someone challenged him for appointing a Muslim judge and asked if he was worried about the judge implementing Sharia Law. His response was something like, “I’m so tired of hearing about this Sharia Law crap. It’s ridiculous. Justice so-and-so has been serving our country for years and he shall continue to do so in this capacity because he’s the best man for the job. I don’t want to hear another word about Sharia Law, it’s complete nonsense.” He was my governor at the time and I always respected him for that. I mean until he crawled up Trump’s asshole.
Not that he wasn’t a terrible governor in other ways. I’m just sayin’.
The thing is, as bad as that McCain supporter was, she wasn’t even saying Obama should be locked up or met with violence; she was xenophobic for sure, but a certain percentage of voters are going to show ignorance, prejudice, or bias, and in any case, McCain handled it the right way.
Trump’s “lock him/her up” at rallies is essentially violent discourse. It’s rhetoric which says “Our political opponents deserve jail. They are not to be trusted to walk among us as free citizens. Our political opposition are not people with different views; they are our enemies.”
That episode gave me some hope when Christie started being mentioned as a possible candidate. Then he worked together with President Obama to coordinate state and federal responses to Hurricane Sandy, and apparently got tarred as untrustworthy by Republicans.
Here’s his quote:
Would that he had stayed with that.
Trump’s agreement to lock them all up, coupled with his “stand back and stand by” remark - there’s gotta be a criminal charge in there somewhere.
What a crazy time.
They’re trying to make it sound like she’s as bad as they are. Good grief, 86452020 has been a thing for ages now.
Definition of eighty-six
slang
: to refuse to serve (a customer) also : to get rid of : [throw out](Throw Definition & Meaning - Merriam-Webster out)
For the life of me, I don’t understand this impulse to frame anyone who isn’t Trump as “maybe kinda good, almost.” Like George W. Bush, John McCain was a scumbag, and as W’s did, McCain’s body count as president would have certainly rivaled Trump’s. Trump is certainly more incompetent, dumber and more personally noxious, but I think it’s a fairly crazy thing to do to put McCain in a class of politician that was “merely unacceptable,” as if his own racism and war-mongering and corruption was a matter of taste. McCain would have just done all the things Trump does without tweeting about it.
Oy. That’s terrible? It was a good, respectful answer given off the cuff. Just because it wasn’t perfect doesn’t make it terrible. Sheesh, it wouldn’t kill you guys to give Republicans some credit.
I did give him some credit at the time. I actually liked McCain once.
Perhaps you wouldn’t be saying that if you were Arabic. Or if she had called Obama an Irishman or Italian or Englishman or Protestant or Catholic or Jew.
Woman: I can’t trust Obama. I’ve read about him, and he’s an Irishman/Italian/Englisham/Protestant/Catholic/Jew.
McCain: No ma’am. He’s a decent family man.