Trump says Liz Cheney might not be such a 'war hawk' if she had guns pointed at her
IF I said this about drumpf / trump, vance or any other politician I would probably be in police custody. How is it Cadet Bone Spurs donald drumpf / trump is allowed to make public terroristic threats against retired representative Liz Cheney and get away with it. And why is a poor taste comment comparing drumpf / trump-vance supporters to garbage more offensive than suggesting gun violence against drumpf / trump-vance opponents and mainstream media? How do Christians justify voting for a violent dictator wannabe? From Mother Jones.....
Trump Called for Placing Liz Cheney Before Guns “Trained on Her Face.” But What About “Garbage”?
In the election’s final stretch, the media is chasing the wrong stuff.
1NOV24
In the final stretch of an election season teeming with ugly moments, from the racist and vulgar to the sexist and crude, Donald Trump on Thursday managed to do what he always does: outdo himself.
“Let’s put her with a rifle standing there with nine barrels shooting at her,” Trump said at an event with Tucker Carlson. “Okay, let’s see how she feels about it. You know when the guns are trained on her face.”
The subject of this violent comment was Liz Cheney, perhaps the most high-profile Republican to support Trump’s Democratic opponent, Kamala Harris, and Trump made this statement amid endless evidence of the dangers he poses should he return to the White House. In this instance, Trump was slamming Cheney for being a “radical war-hawk” and suggesting she should be subjected to a taste of combat. But this use of such visceral imagery comes as he continues to threaten to prosecute his perceived enemies. This summer he promoted a social media post calling for Cheney to be placed on trial for treason before a military tribunal.
The Harris campaign and other Trump critics mischaracterized Trump’s comment as a call to put Cheney before a firing squad.
“This is how dictators destroy free nations,” Cheney responded on X. “They threaten those who speak against them with death. We cannot entrust our country and our freedom to a petty, vindictive, cruel, unstable man who wants to be a tyrant.”
Meanwhile, mainstream news outlets are still chewing over whether President Joe Biden may or may not have called Trump’s supporters “garbage” in response to a comedian at a recent Trump rally describing Puerto Rico as a “floating island of garbage.” This morning, there was more quibbling over a report that the White House may have altered a transcript of Biden’s “garbage” dig. Given that Trump has often dehumanized and demonized his political foes and their supporters, saying they’re “scum,” the attention paid to Biden’s remark—which he clarified after the fact—is misplaced.
Trump’s menacing language—a constant for almost a decade—rarely draws the notice that Garbage-gate has received. To call this imbalance typical both-sidesism fails to adequately convey the failures of the media in 2024.
We’re all a bit desensitized. But the use of such violent rhetoric by hideous men within reach of the White House should still shock us. Anything less, well, is garbage.
“To get me, somebody would have to shoot through the fake news. And I don’t mind that so much,” Trump said.
3NOV24
Yes, you read that headline right.
At a rally in Pennsylvania on Sunday, Donald Trump said he would be OK with someone trying to assassinate him by firing through a group of journalists. “To get me, somebody would have to shoot through the fake news. And I don’t mind that so much,” Trump said, when discussing the bulletproof glass protecting him.
The Trump campaign tried to clean up the Republican candidate’s comments…by suggesting people should not believe what they heard, and repeating baseless claims that Democratic rhetoric was to blame for the assassination attempts against him. Steven Cheung, communications director for the Trump campaign, claimed in a statement that the ex-president “was stating that the Media was in danger, in that they were protecting him and, therefore, were in great danger themselves, and should have had a glass protective shield, also. There can be no other interpretation of what was said. He was actually looking out for their welfare, far more than his own!”
When I wrote to the Trump campaign asking for a follow-up statement and pointing out that Trump’s actual statement didn’t match Cheung’s explanation, Karoline Leavitt, national press secretary, resent Cheung’s statement. (Just 2 days ago, Leavitt claimed on Fox News that Trump was running “a positive campaign based on real joy.”)
But several reporters pointed out on social media that the campaign’s statement did not accurately represent Trump’s comments and that his rhetoric has emboldened threats against the press. “This being a joke or not, as someone who has attended dozens of Trump’s rallies—including the assassination attempt in Butler, PA—and has been personally threatened repeatedly, I sincerely hope no one attempts to act on this,” CNN reporter Alayna Treene posted on X.
As my colleague Dan Friedman pointed out, these disturbing comments are the latest in Trump’s escalating threats against the free press as Election Day nears. As Dan reported this weekend, Trump told Fox News on Saturday morning, “To make America great, you really do have to get the news shaped up”; later in the day, at a rally in North Carolina, he called the reporters present “monsters,” and “horrible, horrible, dishonest people.” And as my colleague Pema Levy wrote on Friday, Trump also filed a frivolous lawsuit against CBS News and sent a complaint against the Washington Post to the Federal Election Commission—both of which alleged the outlets were favoring his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris. And while it may be easy to dismiss these moves as just the latest Trump absurdities, they foretell the dangers he could pose to the free press. As Pema wrote:
It’s one thing for Trump to sue CBS as a citizen. But if he wins, Trump could make sure this type of suit comes from the Justice Department. It’s a warning shot to the media that any coverage Trump deems unfavorable, including an interview with a rival, could land them in court opposite the US Government.
In a way, though, journalists are not special: They are just one of many groups Trump might target in a second term.
