On Friday, ABC News’ Karen Travers challenged Donald Trump over his inflammatory rhetoric, asking him, in the wake of the MAGAbombings and the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting, if he thought he was encouraging politically motivated violence with his Hitler boof rallies.
“No, no. You know what? You’re creating violence by your questions,” Trump said. “You are creating — you. And also a lot of the reporters are creating violence by not writing the truth."
So ABC checked the record and — guess what! — Trump is inciting violence.
Duh.
From ABC News:
[A] nationwide review conducted by ABC News has identified at least 17 criminal cases where Trump's name was invoked in direct connection with violent acts, threats of violence, or allegations of assault.
Nearly all — 16 of 17 — cases identified by ABC News are striking in that court documents and direct evidence reflect someone echoing presidential rhetoric, not protesting it. ABC News was unable to find any such case echoing presidential rhetoric when Barack Obama or George W. Bush were in the White House.
The perpetrators and suspects identified in the 17 cases are mostly white men, as young as teenagers and as old as 68, while the victims represent an array of minority groups — African-Americans, Latinos, Muslims and gay men.
This is as horrifying as it is banal at this point.
This is the same guy who suggested that “Second Amendment people” might take care of Hillary Clinton if she were elected president, so why should we be surprised that he’d directly encourage violence and then claim he hasn’t?
Most people, if killers and would-be assassins acted violently in their names, would feel shame and outrage and immediately take steps to chill their rhetoric. Not Trump. Shortly after the MAGAbomber — a die-hard Trump fan — sent his pipe bombs, Trump was lobbing his own rhetorical molotov cocktails at the victims. He couldn’t even stop for a few days.
Federal law enforcement authorities have privately told ABC News they worry that — even with Trump's public denunciations of violence — Trump's style could inspire violence-prone individuals to take action against minorities or others they perceive to be against the president's agenda.
Ya think?
I mean, he’s basically the Borg Queen with less natural-looking skin. His idiot followers will do anything he says. Heaven’s Gate cult members had more self control.
On Thursday, ABC News sent a list of the cases it identified to White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders for comment. As of Sunday evening, three days later, she had yet to respond.
And … she won’t.
She might screech at the next ABC News reporter she sees like Donald Sutherland in Invasion of the Body Snatchers. That could happen. But she won’t directly answer any questions — not with any real substance, anyway. Because she knows she can’t.
“I’m going to have to refer you back to the Alien Pod Lord on this one.”
***
Yo! Dear F*cking Lunatic: 101 Obscenely Rude Letters to Donald Trump by Aldous J. Pennyfarthing is now available at Amazon! Buy there (or at one of the other fine online retailers carrying it), or be square.
****
But wait, there’s more! The Fierce, Fabulous (and Mostly Fictional) Adventures of Mike Ponce, America’s First Gay Vice President is also available at Amazon! You can get two great political humor ebooks for less than the price of the coffee you’ll be spitting out on your tablet when you read them!
