President Donald Trump’s first public response to the deadly shooting at the Capital Gazette newsroom in Annapolis, MD came during a celebration of the 6-month anniversary of his tax law’s passage Friday.
“This attack shocked the conscience of our nation and filled our hearts with grief,” Trump said. “Journalists, like all Americans, should be free from the fear of being violently attacked while doing their job.”
Trump pledged “eternal support” when describing the Thursday shooting as a “horrible, horrible event.”
“When you’re suffering, we pledge our eternal support. The suffering is so great,” Trump said. “I’ve seen some of the people, so great. My government will not rest until we have done everything in our power to reduce violent crime and to protect innocent life. We will not ever leave your side.”
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) June 29, 2018
Sure. And it’s not like calling them “the enemy of the people” encourages violence against journalists, or anything, you despicable fool.
“Journalists, like all Americans, should be free from the fear of being violently attacked while doing their job,” Trump said.
“So they should be nicer to me and respect their president, rather than attacking me with Fake News. I tell you, these are some of the worst people in the world. Somebody should do something.”
Granted, the murderer had a grudge against the paper, and apparently did not kill and injure people just because of Trump’s rhetoric. But, when he criticizes, threatens and calls a group “enemies of the people,” he does give license to some to do what they will, and comes about as close to the line as you can get in actually calling for violence. Also see: Waters, Maxine).
Literally, the least he could do.
Trump is distinguishing, of course, between his favorite “journalists” like Fox News employees, and the rest of the “so-called” MSM, those “fake news” peddlers. Kind of like the distinction his people make between “good” immigrants (white) and “bad” ones (everyone else).
It is so nauseating, the way “violently” so obviously functions as a qualifier here.