Donald Trump is having a rough time these days. His “expertise” at making deals has not led to negotiating anything resembling one with the Republican Party. He is not getting the delegates he feels he deserves—and probably does deserve—while winning popular votes during the Republican primaries. Trump was in Long Island, New York, talking about how corrupt and “rigged” the electoral system is and how the threat of violence at a Republican convention where Donald Trump is not the winner, is a real thing. He was flanked by retired New York cops. More specifically, he was flanked by one retired New York cop and some other guy.
Standing under the banner of the New York Veteran Police Association at a news event on Staten Island on April 17, the men were identified by CNN and other media as retired New York City cops. One of the men, standing just behind Trump, cheered the loudest, shouting “Absolutely!” as Trump excoriated the “rigged system” of the delegate-selection process.
Enthusiastic!
But the enthusiastic supporter, Dale Robert Javino, 55, has never been a law enforcement officer, the association’s president acknowledges. The NYPD said Javino has never been an officer in the city, and the state comptroller’s office says he’s not listed in its pension system, which covers officers from many smaller jurisdictions.
Javino did see law enforcement from the other side, serving time in federal prison for possessing a Molotov cocktail outside the home of a couple he “had threatened to kill,” according to a federal judge’s summary of the case. Javino, who lives now in Center Moriches, was convicted in 1991 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York of receipt and possession of an incendiary bomb, according to court records.
[My emphasis]
Maybe Javino was being enthusiastic for the possible chance to throw a Molotov cocktail at the Republican convention? In Donald Trump’s defense, the leader of the veteran police association said he knew Javino hadn’t been a cop and thought he was only a guy who had been charged with a misdemeanor. Not in Trump’s defense, is that he expects people to froth at the mouth over his xenophobic and racist policies towards Muslims, who need to be “better screened” before entering the United States, but he himself can’t keep a fucking violent felon from standing behind him and cheering about violence.
The U.S. Secret Service, which is protecting Trump, often does background checks on journalists and others who will be close to dignitaries it protects, requiring that they submit name, Social Security number and photo ID.
But the Secret Service said it did not require a list of names of attendees at the Staten Island news conference, which preceded a larger banquet also held at the Hilton Garden Inn. Although the news conference was announced in advance, with live broadcasts advertised online, a spokeswoman for the Secret Service said the event was considered “off the record,” which is Secret Service jargon for an unscheduled digression, such as when President Barack Obama takes his daughters out for ice cream. Everyone at the Hilton that Sunday, whether for the news conference or the later Republican brunch where Trump spoke, had to go through a metal detector, said Secret Service spokeswoman Nicole Mainor. Although the police group on stage with Trump was physically screened for weapons and escorted, she said, “There were no name checks.”
Donald Trump is still a joke. He’s a dangerous joke but he’s a joke.