Category: Normalization of Hate

Trump: ‘Robert E. Lee was a great general’

President Trump praised Confederate General Robert E. Lee as “a great general” on Friday during a campaign rally in Lebanon, Ohio.

“So Robert E. Lee was a great general. And Abraham Lincoln developed a phobia. He couldn’t beat Robert E. Lee,” Trump said before launching into a monologue about Lee, Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant.

“He was going crazy. I don’t know if you know this story. But Robert E. Lee was winning battle after battle after battle. And Abraham Lincoln came home, he said, ‘I can’t beat Robert E. Lee,'” Trump said.

“And he had all of his generals, they looked great, they were the top of their class at West Point. They were the greatest people. There’s only one problem — they didn’t know how the hell to win. They didn’t know how to fight. They didn’t know how,” he continued.

Trump went on to say, multiple times, that Grant had a drinking problem, saying that the former president “knocked the hell out of everyone” as a Union general.

“Man was he a good general. And he’s finally being recognized as a great general,” Trump added.

Trump has drawn criticism for his defense of Confederate statues, including those of Robert E. Lee.

He drew widespread condemnation last year following a deadly rally in Charlottesville, Va., saying that white nationalist protesters were there to oppose the removal of a “very, very important” statue.

“They were there to protest the taking down of the statue of Robert E. Lee,” Trump said at the time. “This week it’s Robert E. Lee. I noticed that Stonewall Jackson is coming down. I wonder, is it George Washington next week and is it Thomas Jefferson the week after? You know, you really do have to ask yourself, where does it stop?”

Trump, speaking at another rally in Ohio last year, said that he can be one of the “most presidential” presidents to hold office. “…With the exception of the late, great Abraham Lincoln, I can be more presidential than any president that’s ever held this office,” he said to a crowd in Youngstown.

[The Hill]

Trump: ‘We’ve learned how to live with’ the ‘fake news’ media

President Trump on Friday railed against the media, joking that his administration and its supporters have “learned how to live with them.”

“Look at the number of the media back there. Fake news,” Trump said during a rally in Lebanon, Ohio, his third rally this week.

“You go back and they’ll say, did he say this or that or this,” he added. “That’s okay, you know what, we’ve learned how to live with them. We don’t like it, but we’ve learned.”

Trump has repeatedly railed against the press throughout his presidency, continually referring to them as the “enemy of the people” and frequently lashing out at publications and their reporters, including The New York Times and CNN.

Trump escalated his attacks earlier this year, stating that the media can also “cause war.”

His comments on Friday came amid reports that a Washington Post journalist may have been killed after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul earlier this month.

Turkish officials say they believe Khashoggi was killed inside the consulate by a Saudi entourage, but the Saudis have denied those claims.

Trump, before the rally, said he would call King Salman of Saudi Arabia about the disappearance of Jamal Khashoggi.

“I will be calling, I will be calling at some point King Salman. I’ll be speaking to him yes,” Trump told reporters in Ohio, where he is attending campaign events.

Trump is facing increasing scrutiny from lawmakers over how he’ll respond to Khashoggi’s disappearance.

[The Hill]

‘It was totally the other side’: Trump tells Fox News that ‘my rallies have been very peaceful’

President Donald Trump on Wednesday tried to rewrite the history of his campaign rallies, during a late night interview with Fox News.

Trump has recently lashed out at Democrats for “incivility” — with more anger than was seen when the alt-right murdered Heather Heyer during their 2017 “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Fox News personality Shannon Bream noted the increasing public shunning of conservatives.

“When you press people on that, they will say you started this by encouraging people to rough up protesters and by going after people with nicknames and all kinds of things,” Bream said. “How do you respond?”

“I don’t think so,” Trump responded, despite having asked his supporters to rough up protesters during the 2016 presidential campaign

“My rallies have been very peaceful,” Trump claimed. “And even at the beginning, when there seemed to be conflict, they sent paid people to disrupt our rallies.”

“When you do that, you know, bad things happen,” he warned.

“They were the ones that started everything,” he claimed. “No, it wasn’t us. It was totally the other side.”

[Raw Story]

Reality

Trump has approved of violence against those who disagree with him 28 times.

https://www.stopthedonaldtrump.com/tag/violence-approval/

’Lock her up!’: Trump leads Iowa rally in a chant against California senator after saying he didn’t want to ‘slander’ her

During President Donald Trump’s Council Bluffs, IA rally he quickly threw shade at Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) over the Brett Kavanaugh scandal.

Trump claimed that Feinstein leaked Dr. Christine Blasey Ford’s information, which sparked the entire sexual assault scandal.

“What about Feinstein, that’s a beauty,” Trump said.

“Did we leak the documents,” Trump said as he mocked her.

As Trump continued to joke about Feinstein, the crowd began to shout, “lock her up, lock her up.”

“I don’t want to get sued … but 98 percent she did it,” Trump said.

[Raw Story]

Reality

Trump’s new EPA chief caught liking racist and conspiratorial social media posts

The acting administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency was caught liking racist and conspiratorial social media posts using his personal accounts — some as recently as in the past month.

The Huffington Post reported that Acting EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler “liked” a Facebook post showing Barack and Michelle Obama looking at a banana — a racist archetype comparing the former president and first lady to monkeys.

Along with liking the image from an Italian meme page that translates to “My mom is a virgin,” the EPA chief also retweeted infamous Pizzagate conspiracy theorist Jack Posobiec.

First uncovered by the liberal American Bridge 21st Century political action committee, most of the posts Wheeler engaged with were made before he came acting EPA administrator in July 2018 following Scott Pruitt’s resignation in the wake of his ethics scandal.

Wheeler retweeted Posobiec from his personal Twitter account in February of 2018 — months after the former Naval intelligence officer had been ousted from military service. The right-wing figure’s ouster followed his promotion of the conspiracy theory that the Democrats were involved in a child sex ring and used a DC pizza parlor as a front for their nefarious gains.

In late September, after taking over at the EPA, Wheeler liked a tweet made by Infowars editor Paul Joseph Watson alleging that Twitter discriminates against conservatives.

In an email to HuffPost, the acting EPA chief defending his social media use.

“Over the years, I have been a prolific social media user and liked and inadvertently liked countless social media posts,” Wheeler said. “Specifically, I do not remember the post depicting President Obama and the First Lady. As for some of the other posts, I agreed with the content and was unaware of the sources.”

[Raw Story]

Trump issues nonsensical tweet mocking ‘paid protesters’ as unpaid

President Donald Trump again lashed out at demonstrators who opposed his Supreme Court nominee by smearing them as paid protesters whose checks had not yet cleared.

The president last week baselessly accused protesters against Brett Kavanaugh as bought and paid for, but he issued a tweet Tuesday morning mocking them as unpaid by their alleged benefactors.

“The paid D.C. protesters are now ready to REALLY protest because they haven’t gotten their checks – in other words, they weren’t paid!” Trump tweeted. “Screamers in Congress, and outside, were far too obvious – less professional than anticipated by those paying (or not paying) the bills!”

[Raw Story]

Trump: ‘People that are evil’ tried to bring down ‘flawless person’ Brett Kavanaugh

President Donald Trump on Monday asserted that the Supreme Court battle over Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation was orchestrated by “evil” people.

At a convention of police chiefs in Orlando, the president took a victory lap over the confirmation of Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court.

“I decided on Brett,” Trump recalled. “I said he’s flawless. This is a flawless person, the best student, the best scholar, the great intellect, incredible record over many years.”

The president said that he expected Kavanaugh’s confirmation to be “a piece of cake” until sexual assault allegations were brought by three women.

“It was very, very unfair what happened to him,” Trump continued, “false charges, false accusations, horrible statements that were totally untrue that he knew nothing about.”

“It was a disgraceful situation brought about by people that are evil,” the president added. “And he toughed it out.”

[Raw Story]

Donald Trump Says ‘Every Single Democrat in the US Senate Has Signed Up for…the Open Borders Bill’

At his rally in Topeka, Kansas, Saturday, President Donald Trump spoke of a bill created by Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein of California. The bill Trump spoke of is called the Open Borders Bill.

He stated:

“Every single democrat in the US Senate has signed up for open borders and its a billed called The Open Borders Bill and it’s written by, guess who, Dianne Feinstein. Remember the leaking, right? The leaking Dianne Feinstein.”

“If the democrat’s bill ever becomes law, a tidal wave of drugs and crime will pour into our nation like never ever before.”

Trump’s supporters echoed his statements online to bolster support for Republican candidates leading up to the November midterms.

Trump went on to state:

“Democrats also support deadly sanctuary cities that release violent predators and blood-thirsty killers like MS-13 into our communities.”

“Republicans believe our country should be a sanctuary for law-abiding Americans, not criminal aliens. And Republicans stand proudly with the brave men and women of ICE, Border Patrol, and law enforcement.”

There is a problem with the President’s characterizations of the bill however, namely, that the bill does not actually exist.

A review of the bills currently in committee in the Senate as well as those officially submitted or up for other review or vote yields no records of an “Open Borders Bill” or one that does the things Trump claims his fictitious Feinstein bill would do.

In addition to Twitter amplifying the President’s false claims of a Democrat created and fully supported “Open Borders Bill,” the Steve Bannon founded Breitbart and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ Infowars jumped on Trump’s false claims.

Both featured stories that included the President’s rally claims as well as adding a few extra details from the nonexistent bill’s contents. Breitbart even made up another nickname for the fictitious Open Borders Bill.

[Second Nexus]

Media

Trump calls Kavanaugh allegations a ‘hoax set up by the Democrats’

President Trump said Monday that he expects a lot of Democratic voters to support Republican candidates in the upcoming midterms because of how the party’s lawmakers handled sexual misconduct allegations against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

“The main base of the Democrats have shifted so far left that we’ll end up being Venezuela. This country would end up being Venezuela. I think a lot of Democrats are going to be voting voting Republican on Nov. 6,” Trump told reporters at the White House before departing for a law enforcement event in Florida.

The president seized on the specter raised by some liberals of impeaching Kavanaugh, who was confirmed to the Supreme Court on Saturday after being accused by three women of sexual misconduct and facing questions from Democrats about his judicial temperament.

Trump dismissed the allegations against Kavanaugh — including that he sexually assaulted Christine Blasey Ford when the two were in high school — as “a hoax that was set up by the Democrats.”

He later blasted allegations from Julie Swetnick that Kavanaugh was present at parties where high school boys got girls drunk so they could be “gang raped,” calling them “made up,” “fabricated” and “a disgrace.”

“And now they want to impeach him,” Trump said. “I think it’s an insult to the American public. I think you’re going to see a lot of things happen on Nov. 6 that would not have happened before.”

Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.), the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, said last week on the eve of Kavanaugh’s confirmation that Democrats would investigate the sexual misconduct allegations against the judge if the party reclaimed the majority in the House.

Nadler did not comment on the possibility of impeaching Kavanaugh, and other Democratic lawmakers have refrained from discussing that prospect, or indicated they have no intention to pursue it in the near future.

Sen. Chris Coons (D-Dele.), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, called impeachment discussions “premature,” while House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said it “would not be my plan” to impeach the Justice.

The Senate confirmed Kavanaugh on Saturday afternoon in a 50-48 vote, with one GOP senator absent and another voting “present.” Every Democrat opposed Kavanaugh’s nomination except for Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.).

[The Hill]

Media

Trump on why he mocked Christine Blasey Ford: ‘I had to even the playing field’

President Trump said late Saturday  that he mocked Christine Blasey Ford, the woman who accused new Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault, because he needed to “even the playing field.”

Trump discussed Kavanaugh’s confirmation during an on-air call with Fox News host Jeanine Pirro after his rally in Kansas.

Pirro said that Trump was “disciplined” after Ford’s allegations came out and asked him why he decided mock her during a rally last Tuesday.

“You went off script and some people said you were extremely unkind to Christine Ford,” Pirro said.

“But what was it that got you to pivot from your restraint about her and to fight for Kavanaugh at that point?” she asked.

“Well, there were a lot of things happening that weren’t correct, they weren’t true and there were a lot of things that were left unsaid,” Trump responded. “And I thought I had to even the playing field. It was very unfair to the judge, and now I can very nicely say Justice Kavanaugh. It was a very unfair situation.”

[The Hill]

Media

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