If you’ve wondered if Donald Trump’s recent brush with a bullet at his rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, chastened him in any way, or made him rethink whether violence at his rallies might be a bad thing regardless of who it’s directed at, stop wondering, that’s stupid.
Trump is pretty sure God spared him that day, because God really needs him to Make America Great Again. Everything else is irrelevant. And as for violence at his rallies, often involving literal attacks against reporters AKA the “enemy of the people,” well, that’s just a good old MAGA American tradition like grabbin’ ‘em by the pussy and takin’ ‘em furniture shoppin’.
Before Trump retired for his holiday weekend, last Friday, he had an event in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. While he was speaking, a man attempted to climb up into the press area, presumably to do some violence. He was tased. He’s catching misdemeanor charges for it.
Trump had just called the media the “enemy of the people,” and when law enforcement was subduing the guy, Trump appeared to reassure the crowd that it was OK, that the guy was one of their own. “He’s on our side.”
In this video posted by CBS reporter Taurean Small, you can see the incident, as well as hear Trump babbling at his rally crowd about “he’s on our side” and God knows what else, starting around 30 seconds in.
As Vanity Fair reporter Katie Herchenroeder notes, it was about 10 minutes before this when Trump called reporters the “enemy of the people.”
Trump claimed that the New York Times is losing “reader after reader,” which brings him joy. “I have to be happy about that,” the Republican presidential nominee began, “because they truly are the enemy of the people. They are the enemy of the people. They tell false stories about me—that’s all they do is they write false stories.”
Elsewhere he attacked CNN for its interview with Kamala Harris and Tim Walz. It’s not exactly confirmed what happened, or who the guy was, but it wouldn’t be surprising if one of Trump’s more excitable morons felt inspired to try to barge into the press pen and attack some enemies of the people. (Kind of like how it’s not surprising how all his supporters decided to commit the world’s most amateur terrorist attack on the US Capitol on January 6, after he riled them up for three months with lies about stolen elections and told them to “Be there! Will be wild!”)
Journalist Timothy Burke put together a video where you can watch Trump and the incident happening side-by-side, as he babbled about a couple wadded up American flags that blew together at this summer’s rally in Butler, which some Trump supporters believe looked like a literal angel that protected him from that would-be assassin’s bullet. That’s where you can see him seemingly telling the crowd that the person being tased is “on our side.”
So that happened.
At Vanity Fair, Herchenroeder also notes that after the Trump assassination attempt, people tried to go after reporters onsite, blaming them for what happened.
When the incident on Friday was over and the cops were leading the perp away, Trump said, “Is there anywhere that’s more fun to be than a Trump rally?”
He might have said the same thing if a reporter had been hurt or killed. Trump doesn’t give a shit who gets hurt at his rallies — not really — as long as it’s not him.
If you believe he does, you’re just one of his marks.
[Vanity Fair / video via Taurean Small]
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