Katherine Krueger walks us through the strange Breitbart implosion over Trump.
Liz McMillen, editor of The Chronicle of Higher Education, will join the Hive (sub req) on Thursday March 17th to discuss all things related to higher education. Topics can include the value of a college degree, the cost of college, student protests, sexual assault on college campuses and who/what college is for. McMillen became editor of The Chronicle of Higher Education in August 2011. Previously, she worked for the Associated Press in Philadelphia and later attended the University of Durham on a Rotary International Fellowship.
McMillen will be taking questions on Thursday March 17th — drop them in now or join us at 1 p.m. EST on the 17th!
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In case you missed it over the weekend, my look at the last 96 hours and where this is going: “Someone Will Die“.
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For all the intensity and escalation of the last 72 hours, the biggest tell isn’t the canceled event in Chicago, the protestor rushing the stage in Dayton or the stunning announcement from Trump this morning that he wants to cover the legal bills of the supporter who sucker punched a protestor late last week in Fayetteville. The biggest tell is hiding there in plain sight and yet oddly out of view. Donald Trump realized that he needed to tamp down the heat of his campaign going into last week, not to forestall violence or do the right thing but for a very specific tactical reason. He is on the brink of securing the Republican nomination. But to have a nomination that is worth anything he needs at least the acquiescence of GOP party stakeholders. He told us as much. Thus the repeated calls to unity, the more sedate debate performance and even the rather bizarre invocations of the ‘two Donald Trumps.’ But that’s not how it’s ended up. And it’s important to consider why.
Donald Trump warns Bernie Sanders: Be careful, or my supporters will start going to your rallies!
Today we appear to be going further and further into uncharted territory. After the cancellation of Trump’s event yesterday in Chicago, we had the incident at the rally in Dayton, Ohio in which a protestor, Thomas Dimassimo, jumped the security perimeter surrounding Trump and tried to rush the speaking platform. Dimassimo was charged with disorderly conduct and inducing panic and later released on bail. At a subsequent event and on Twitter, Trump claimed that Dimassimo was tied to ISIS, apparently on the basis of a hoax video his staff found on Youtube. At yet another event this evening Trump called for the mass arrest of protestors, noting that arrest records would leave an “arrest mark” and “ruin the rest of their lives.” Trump also repeatedly blamed “communist” Bernie Sanders for what now appear to be the almost constant protests and disruptions at his rallies.
Chilling, surreal video. Trump supporters streaming out of rally. One yells either at a protestor or member of the press (not clear whether this is considered a distinction any more): “Go to Auschwitz. Go to fucking Auschwitz.” Video after the jump
The New York Times is out with a fascinating look at what led to Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, the years of spadework and, in the Times telling, a night of humiliation in 2011 that helped galvanize Trump’s drive for power and respect in the political world. The night is the White House Correspondents Association Dinner, April 30th, 2011. Trump has already begun his bid to put a footprint in the political world by trying to become the leader of the ‘birther’ movement, which is to say, the tribal leader of idiots. So he’s come as a guest to the White House Correspondents Association dinner, which makes sense since it is where celebrity and political power meet up every year.
But Donald gets much more than he bargained for.
For backers of President Obama, watching him deliver a comedic routine – which every president does at this dinner – is a unique treat. Obama has impeccable comedic timing and an uncanny amount of what the French call sang froid – coolness under pressure. As comedy, it is biting.