It’s been amply established that Donald Trump is a gangster. For some time, he has tolerated outright thuggish behavior from his supporters, especially at his rallies. Indeed, he has even gone as far as to encourage his supporters to attack protesters who show up at his events. But he may have crossed a line on Sunday morning. He actually threatened to send armies of his supporters to Bernie Sanders rallies.
For some time, Trump has claimed that many of the protesters at his rallies are Sanders plants, including the one that got shut down in Chicago. Sanders responded with a burning statement (the pun was intended) declaring that Trump only had himself to blame for the protests.
“Obviously, while I appreciate that we had supporters at Trump’s rally in Chicago, our campaign did not organize the protests. What caused the protests at Trump’s rally is a candidate that has promoted hatred and division against Latinos, Muslims, women, and people with disabilities, and his birther attacks against the legitimacy of President Obama.”
Sanders went further at a press conference in Chicago, and even pointed out what we have known for some time–that Trump himself is inciting violence. Watch here.
Sanders said that even though many of the protesters were backing him, they were merely responding to “a candidate who, in many ways, has encouraged violence.” He called for Trump to tell his supporters that “violence at rallies is not what America is about.”
Trump responded in perhaps the worst way possible. On Sunday morning, he tweeted a not-so-veiled threat–he may send his supporters to Sanders’ rallies in retaliation.
I had to read this twice before believing what I saw. Trump is actually encouraging his supporters to disrupt Sanders’ rallies–thus doing the very thing that he’s accusing Sanders of doing. Even if you do buy Trump’s claim that the Sanders campaign is deliberately orchestrating efforts to disrupt his events, replying by doing the same is not acceptable. Period.
Incredibly, this tweet comes less than 24 hours after Trump called for anyone who protests at his events to be arrested. Oh, that’s right–Trump’s supporters are “patriots,” so they have every right to protest events sponsored by a pinko.
When asked about this on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Trump said–with a straight face–that this wasn’t a threat at all.
Trump claimed that his supporters have actually wanted to show up at Sanders’ events. If that happened, “unbelievable” things could potentially happen–all because those big, bad liberal media elites are trying to stir things up against conservatives. This was probably Trump’s best chance to prove that he has the temperament to be president–and he blew it eight ways to Sunday.
Sanders wasn’t impressed when he followed Trump on “State of the Union.” Watch here.
Sanders reiterated his previous denial that his campaign had anything to do with what happened in Chicago. He also pointed out that Trump had no business complaining about disruption when he “keeps implying violence.” He called for Trump to tell his supporters that “people have a right to peaceably protest in this country.” He went further, saying that he hoped his supporters didn’t cross the line into disrupting other candidates’ rallies. Now why couldn’t Trump have had the gravitas to say the same thing earlier?
With this tweet, Trump has proven that he is willing to condone an atmosphere in his campaign that has no place in any self-respecting democracy. Sadly, barring a total collapse, he may be well on his way to the nomination. It says a lot about what passes for leadership in the GOP that he’s been allowed to get this far. If the GOP is willing to allow a guy with the mentality of a street thug to get this close to the nomination, then it deserves to have Trump tied around it like an anchor in November–up and down the ballot.
Trump may end up doing some good after all. He will give us a chance to do what we failed to do after Watergate–to say in no uncertain terms that this sort of thing is not part of our politics and will not be part of our politics.
