At this point, I just sort of wish that all media outlets would agree to stop covering Donald Trump’s sad Nazi rallies. I understand why those rallies are “newsworthy” and I get that journalists are just doing their jobs. But the world would be a much better place if no one from the media even covered those struggling Nazi setpieces. Anyway, because Donald Trump is a sad fat man, he threw himself a sad Nazi rally in El Paso, Texas last night. He spent an hour insulting and smearing immigrants and the children of immigrants and glorifying white people. He also incited violence, and his supporters took him up on it right then and there. A MAGA-hat-wearing a–hole physically assaulted a BBC cameraman:
A supporter of US President Donald Trump has attacked a BBC cameraman at a campaign rally in El Paso, Texas. Sporting a Make America Great Again cap, the man shoved and swore at the BBC’s Ron Skeans and other news crews before being pulled away.
Mr Skeans said the “very hard shove” came from his blindside. “I didn’t know what was going on.” Mr Trump saw the attack and confirmed Mr Skeans was well with a thumbs up after it happened.
Mr Skeans said the man almost knocked him and his camera over twice before he was wrestled away by a blogger. President Trump checked they were well with a thumbs up, and continued his speech after Mr Skeans returned the gesture.
I would argue that Trump probably did the thumbs-up to the Deplorable who physically attacked Ron Skeans, but what do I know. Here’s the video:
'F*** the media!' – this is the moment a BBC cameraman was attacked by an angry Trump supporter at a rally in El Paso https://t.co/M3Ort3I95a pic.twitter.com/xtTyw21jL3
— Newsweek (@Newsweek) February 12, 2019
I mean… how many times does this have to happen? Donald Trump is inciting violence and terrorism. He’s inciting violence and terrorism against journalists, black people, brown people and immigrants. He should be regarded that way – as an inciter of violence and terrorism.
Photos courtesy of Getty.
hate speech…inciting violence…crimes against humanity (babies in cages) when will this man face consequences for his evil actions?
Jesus- the assholes in the crowd cheering when the Rump speaks of the system oppression of Hispanics and Asians.
White-male privilege- so never.
‘Deport them all’ literally gave me chills.
me too.
Some of these moments of shock and horror feel like an old-timey Twilight Zone.
I keep thinking that this cannot be real, but it is…
Nauseating.
And then these assholes have the nerve to bristle at the Hitler comparisons SMDH.
I’ve seen some WW2 docs and the Nuremberg rallies were more civilized. 😳
@Steff
Yeah, and Hitler’s propaganda was actually a lot more subtle than Trump’s ever was.
You don’t need to hear a liberal’s opinion on the subject – there’s people who consider THEMSELVES nazis out there, who see themselves in Donald Trump. If Donald Trump is so obviously not a nazi, why does he resonate like that with them?
YES to both of you.
No kidding. Can we deport anyone wearing one of these horrible buttons?
There’s always a common denominator when it comes to violence at a Trump rally. He’s a thug. He engages in bully behavior, which then insights the worst in people. He taps into his base , which are domestic terrorism. He’s holding our country hostage. He is a threat to people’s way of life by using tatics of violence. He needs to go and his base need to crawl under the rock they came out of.
#civility
These people are f*cking maniacs..
And I still don’t understand why they’re so angry. They have everything they want (minus a dumb wall), they’ve successfully destroyed our country and we have never been more divided. They should be dancing in the streets but instead they are acting like angry, rabid animals.
And as much as I hate how badly MSM has failed us, journalists deserve to feel safe. This is what he wants, though. He wants them to feel intimidated. It’s working.
The deplorables don’t have everything they want because they think they are entitled to so much more than they have. Rather than looking at why they aren’t getting ahead, they look for scapegoats to blame for their own feelings of inadequacy. Trump is tapping into the very worst impulses of a declining middle class. There are so many things tearing us apart right now, but income equality helped fuel the rise of Trump.
Well said.
I was just going to type the same thing, Megan. This has to do with MAGAts’ feelings of inadequacy and impotence, and that they *need* this to make *themselves* feel “better than”. As for the higher income ones, it’s all about the tax/business breaks. Also, if they can keep the peons warring about xenophobia, then they can keep stealing us blind.
Because they are so weak, they think being insulted by pretentious leftists, feminists, and BLM supporters online is the most egregious form of oppression there is. They are mad because when they yell their bigoted opinions in the air there’s people who dare to fight back. They are convinced they are the oppressed party because of this. This is why they feel so “silenced” and whine so much about “freedom of speech” in a country ruled by people with their same thoughts.
As long as people resist racism, sexism, etc. they will always feel like this. Like they are the actual victims. They don’t see bigotry in anything they do, so they take all resistance to it as a personal attack.
This is how fascists are. Until those who oppose them are not only silenced, but either forced to make public displays of fealty to their fascist leader or else liquidated, they will believe that they — the fascists — are being “oppressed” and the “will of the people” is being denied. Nothing will ever be enough, which is why there is no common ground to find with them. Fascism must be ruthlessly deplatformed and ridiculed for exactly this reason. It has to be shunned and shamed, not treated as a legitimate difference of political opinion. Our media never seem to learn.
I appreciate all the replies and answers but just to be clear, I was being rhetorical. I get what’s behind the MAGAt psyche and even if I didn’t, there are 8 million articles out there analyzing these people and amplifying their collective voice. I don’t GAF about any of them nor do I truly care whether they’re happy. I do agree with all of you that they are miserable, entitled, bigoted people who perceive themselves as martyrs. It’s all so depressing though. Some days I don’t know how to handle the seething resentment I have towards these terrible people.
@TheOtherKatherine-Absolutely and it blows my mind that people are still shying away from that word, as if it’s too hyperbolic to describe what is happening right now. This IS fascism.
Thank goddess Trump is such an incompetent fascist. I shudder to think what might happen if he had even a shred of discipline or a lick of intelligence.
Saving grace right, Megan? Sigh.
I read he watched the attack and said nothing to stop it.
Nancy Pelosi said, please remind the deplorables when they say, Mr Mueller has taken to long with the investigation into Russia collusion, Just say, “Not as long the auditing his income taxes.”
yeah, the whole he gave a thumbs up to assure the camera man was OK is bunk. A responsible adult would have stopped his speech and not only ask if the camera man was OK but also tell the crowd that violence wasn’t acceptable. Kaiser is right, the thumbs up was for the guy in the MAGA cap who pushed the camera man
Obama was one who did exactly that. The slightest hint of violence and even just disrespect of a protester and he stopped and nipped it in the bud and made sure the protester was protected and that his own supporters knew he did not approve of their behavior. While running against Obama, at his rallies McCain immediately shut down attempts by his own supporters to smear Obama.
Sarah Palin acted like Trump… Otherwise, I can’t recall any other President or Presidential campaigner inciting and approving violence and hatred the way Trump does.
This isn’t the first time this has happened. And Trump seems to think the reporters should take it; he encourages these attacks. News organizations should refuse to send their reporters and camera people unless they have some guarantee from the venue of safety measures. This isn’t a war zone; journalists should not be in danger.
ETA And if he is selling re-election campaign merchandise, as it appears he is, than his campaign needs to reimburse the taxpayers for the costs.
A blogger who I follow was there with her boyfriend protesting. Seeing the video of them getting shoved made me fear for their safety. At one point the whole place was chanting usa at them like a threat.
Is it going to take a journalist getting killed by one of these ignorant animals for some action to be taken? And will that even be enough to get the attention of the Republicans in Congress?
No action will be taken and the Rs in Congress will do nothing.
Do you really believe a journalist being killed will lead to republicans doing something? I don’t.
Nope.
I try to be patient but days like today make it harder. How much longer can we go on like this? This is INSANITY and HE NEEDS TO BE REMOVED. I’m tired of waiting for Mueller. This is NOT normal!!!
I am tired of waiting for Mueller too, kitten. I feel the same way. Absolute lunacy that no one is protecting this country from this kind of absurdity.
I mean, really, the Sandy Hook shootings and deaths of the detained immigrant children were pretty much the stopping point for any moral conviction. They decided a long time ago children were a perfectly acceptable sacrifice for their ideology. God help anybody else.
Same Kitten. I have no more outrage energy. It seems like everyday there is something so insane going on that was previously inconceivable by an American president to do or say that I think this has got to be it right?! People cannot still be ok with this? How do people that can actually do something about it or the MSM just sit by and give legitimacy to it? How do you discuss his disgusting deranged tweets and rally’s like they are normal? How did it get to this point? Chris Evans tweet at Brit Hume is a perfect summary.
“It seems like everyday there is something so insane going on that was previously inconceivable by an American president to do or say that I think this has got to be it right?! People cannot still be ok with this.”
Exactly. And I see Americans just going on with their lives without a care in the world while this dumpster fire rages on and spreads further. We are in an EMERGENCY right now FFS. People need to get their damn heads out of their asses.
YES Kitten!! How did my father who I used to respect and admire and raise me end up loving this guy and defending him at every turn?? How did it turn into having hate at the core of your life?
And it makes me so sick that this is his unlitmate fatasy coming true. No matter how unhinged, unfit, outrageous, and dangerous he is there are still people clamoring to get his opinion and thoughts on anything and everything, because he’s president, and that’s all that matters. He loves people following him wanting to know what he has to say and that’s why he becomes more and more deplorable. He ups the ante everyday and sees no negative to it because a) his base will never bail, b) he needs to top the previous days lunacy to get more headlines and c) it’s just excepted at this point and that’s the worst part of it.
Unleash the Queen’s corgis on this violent jerk! Ok, how about the dobermans. I’m so sick of these MAGA losers.
I’m a TV reporter and trust me, we wish we could stop covering them too. Before he was even elected, we had rules for his rallies: no MMJs (one-man-bands who are the reporter and cameraman, there alone) and the female reporters (we’re all small people) were given our tough-looking male photographers as partners. It was awful, and still is. I felt safer at most active crime scenes than at those rallies. Remember the “how to take care of a journalist: a tree and a rope” t-shirts? I’ve had men wearing them scream at me. The amount of brainwashing and cognitive dissonance is just out of this world. His stance that anything bad about him is fake news has led to such a negative and violent view of those of us who have a very important job to do. What irks me isn’t that people support him, fine, that’s your right – it’s that I’ve yet to meet a Trump supporter who can say “I support him but wish he wasn’t forcing a shutdown for the wall” or “his tax plan screwed me”. It’s all blind following, and zero respect for actual truth, no will for individual thinking. The job of trained professional journalists is to deliver facts about what’s happening, so people can make up their own minds. That’s a sacred principle to most of us, and why we do it. So many people have this vitriol toward us and don’t realize our job as watchdog is to give all Americans verified information, we do this for YOU.
*Rant over*
So sorry to hear how threatening your job has become because of Trump and his hateful followers. I fear things will continue to get worse and just praying we can get him and as many other Republican thugs out of elected office.
Also wish more was being said about how these tax cuts are screwing over the average person. Everyone I’ve talked to has stated that they either owe taxes or get less of a refund. And the notion keeps being pushed that everyone’s taxes are lower now due to the tax cut. Please educate me on how it’s a tax cut if I have to increase my tax withholding in order to break even.
@Ilsalund I did see pieces on NBC Nightly News and ABC’s World News Tonight just last night about how much more middle class families are paying. But we know his most hardcore supporters aren’t watching the big networks – they’re watching Fox, where the tax deal is amazing and saving families money.
And thank you for the kind words. I just know in my gut someday my grandkids will learn about this era in school and think Grandma was a total badass for being a journalist at that time. But history can’t catch up soon enough!
Thanks for the insight. There are plenty of journalists doing real work whom I admire greatly, it’s the pundits and talking heads that enable/minimize this behavior that I have no time for.
Stay safe out there, Savu.
We need honest and factual news more than ever. You are courageous and don’t ever back down. We need the truth and you are doing a service to everyone.
Trump rallies ARE active crime scenes
Savu, thank you, and your colleagues, for your courage; you ARE in a war zone. And it sickens and saddens me so knowing this is in our own country, against our own journalists. I *never*, in my *wildest* thoughts would’ve ever thought this would happen in America. Please know there are those of us out here who greatly appreciate all you do!
This is not a rant, it’s an honest appraisal of the dangerous territory the US is heading into where hyperbole trumps (pun intended) the truth and masses of brain-dead sycophants swallow it up thinking it gives them power. Thank you for sharing your inside insights into a nightmarish issue.
Chiming in late to echo what everyone’s said here. The denigration of the press by Trump and has base might be the aspect of this insane era that disturbs and infuriates me the most. I’m humbled by and grateful for your and your colleague’s work. It’s never been more important and I hope it won’t be too long before the grave injustices you’re facing are a thing of the past.
Yeah, when he said that African Americans (being murdered), Hispanic Americans (his words) and Asian Americans (again, his words) were at the lowest numbers in the history of America…yeah, I thought he was a complete and total moron. Then I realized just how scary it is at the stupidity of his followers and they more than likely have arsenals at their disposal.
People have already been slaughtered behind Trump’s hateful rhetoric…how many MORE people have to be sacrificed for someone to DO SOMETHING TO MAKE HIM STOP…
That is the unholy question…
Our country is spiraling out of control in many ways, and those people who can actually do something are just sitting on their hands or twiddling their thumbs.
It’s getting ridiculous at this point. I mean how much lower do we have to go? How much more has to go wrong before REAL ACCOUNTABILITY takes place?
An accurate description of the turnout last night.
https://twitter.com/tonyposnanski/status/1095341086145302528?s=21
Trump thrives on the mob mentality of his followers. His ego needs constant feeding through his pep rallies. I’ve stated it a million times but again these people are like lemmings going over a cliff. Blindly believing that EZ cares one iota about them and their well being. Now that’s SAD!!! 2020 and the change I hope it brings can’t come fast enough for me.
Trump has no power abroad, very little at home and this is what he has left, the reactionary, the racist and the willfully ignorant; of course he’s going to make it worse, he has nothing left.
They feed off this sh*t, you know. For white America, violence has always been a form of power – and white men, especially. They’re really just angry, bitter children who’ve backed themselves in their own corner and gotten tangled up in the bootstraps they told everybody else to pull themselves up by. I cut out the Trump supporters in my life as much for my own safety as the moral point.
Edit: Holy sh*t at that “deport them all” button. America, 2020 is not the year we can screw around with the vote. The time for games is long past. People’s lives are literally on the line.
Meanwhile, Russia is re-activating their bases in Alaska which were closed when the cold war ended. He’s also a distraction from war monger’s war mongering. The NRA wants a war, cause their gun sales are down since Parkland. Both of my statements are verifiable facts.
Russia has bases in the Arctic, but not in Alaska. Alaska is a U.S. state and there are no Russian bases there. But you are correct that Russia is prioritizing their military capability in the Arctic region, including construction of new military bases. The Arctic Institute published some good articles on Russia’s Arctic strategy in the last couple of years. Clearly a more isolationist US and a destabilized EU would suit Putin’s ambitions in that region right down to the ground.
If I’m recalling correctly, it also positions them to nab valuable resources revealed by the receding ice before other sovereign nations. There’s a massive iron reserve up there that’s getting a lot of attention from world powers.
Watching that sent chills down my spine. I’m Canadian and although we too have our share of bigots, homophobics and ignorant butt-heads we are well known worldwide for being a multicultural and tolerant society save for a minority of bad apples. As others have mentioned, Trump is feeding the deplorable masses at these rallies with Hitlerian hyperbole. I am truly disgusted, frightened and appalled by what’s happening south of the border which is only about 10 miles from where I live on Vancouver Island. America is quickly devolving into a violent, fascistic free-for-all over which Trump has taken control and it is the stuff of nightmares. Someone in the media will get killed at one of these rallies, it’s only a matter of time and I can see Trump blaming the victim and the crowds going wild with glee.
Wake up America : the biggest terrorist on the planet is leading your country and encouraging violence against minorities. How did this happen??
Why would anybody assume Trump’s thumb’s up was to indicate that the reporter was ok? Maybe that gesture means something different in the UK. But this gesture here in the US is a sign of approval of an action, not a sign that someone is ok after an attack.
That interpretation as concern for the reporter would be contrary to everything Trump has done during and after the campaign. We can see and hear video of him approving attacks on protesters and suggesting more from the podium (even offering to pay legal bills). He has relentlessly painted reporters as the enemies of the people. He has never advised ceasing hostilities against reporters at his rallies, and they have frequently been at risk. Why would he care if this reporter were ok after an attack? If that were true, Trump would have actually said something from the podium, as others like Obama have done in situations like this. He apparently did not.
That thumb’s up was a sign of approval for the attacker. Who wrote that piece and how much do they know about Trump? That’s the guy who didn’t want to denounce the pipe bomber who could have killed postal workers and people protecting the Trump critics who got the bombs in the mail. This is the guy who balked at criticizing neonazis. This is the guy who has promoted photoshopped images of himself attacking news people. He is physically a coward but he loves the idea of violence committed on his behalf.