Trump Rally Veers Toward Chaos in Harrisburg

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump during a rally at the Pennsylvania Farm Show Complex & Expo Center in Harrisburg, Pa., on Thursday, April 21, 2016. (Yong Kim/Philadelphia Daily News/TNS)

With a crowd of thousands still piling into the stands and onto the dirt floor, the PA system at the Farm Show Complex’s large arena crackled to life with an unusual announcement, one it had likely never made before.

“If you see a protester, do not harm them. This is a peaceful event,” said the man’s voice on the other end.

It was an unusual public appeal, not only for the venue, but also given the context.

This was a presidential campaign stop by a presidential front runner.

But Donald Trump’s campaign has been unusual in almost every-way. Unusual in its nose-thumbing at political leaders. Unusual in its imperviousness. Unusual in its polarizing effect.

And so it was no more than five minutes into Trump’s event Thursday, with thousands still in a line snaking around the palatial Complex, that the first protester was spotted.

“Get him out. Get him out,” Trump said with a swipe of his hand.

Minutes later there was a second one, this time chanting “Black Lives Matter.” The man was snatched up by police and rushed through a cattle chute and into the hallways outside.

Halfway into the event, ejections of protesters had become so commonplace that Trump developed a rhythm.

“Aren’t Trump rallies fun,” he said to uproarious applause.

“The protesters are giving up ’cause we like it, we have fun with it,” he added.

And they certainly did.

But for every dissenter inside, there were more out.Donald Trump protesters outside of rally in Harrisburg More than a hundred protesters faced off with Donald Trump supporters outside of Trump’s rally in Harrisburg on April 21, 2016.

Outside the building, hundreds of protesters had gathered, growing from just a handful earlier in the day. After the event, they faced off with Trump supporters as they filed out of the arena and toward their cars.

They traded barbs earlier in the day, which later escalated into verbal threats and taunts.

Inside, Trump got in on it, too.

“Let him go. He’s got no voice. I can’t even hear him,” Trump said of one protester before commending police for the speed of their extraction.

A Capitol Police officer told PennLive that protesters would be told to leave the building and could face arrest if they returned. The officer added that some could be arrested on the spot depending on the severity of the disturbance they created. That did not appear to be the case on Thursday. But there was at least one person taken into police custody outside, before the event ended and the unrest grew.

During his speech, Trump took aim at his detractors, insinuating the protest movement was something other than homegrown.

He said protesters in New York, when pressed by media, expressed ambivalence about their anti-Trump message or favor for the candidate himself. He pointed to signs and placards he said appeared mass-produced, hinting at a third party’s involvement.

But those outside the Harrisburg event said their own convictions led them to protest his appearance here.

One of them, Keith Bentz of Harrisburg, blamed Trump and his campaign for a divisive tone that he feels has the nation “splitting itself down the middle.”

Another man, Michael Betsill of Harrisburg, helped organize Thursday’s protest through social media platforms, and said of Trump, “what other campaign has caused this ever? What other candidate has ever caused so much chaos among a nation and that’s why we’re here.”

He added, “Everybody that’s involved and seems to be supporting [Trump’s campaign] has one vision for what America should be. America is already great, there’s not one person who is gonna make this country great again.”

Across the police barrier, Trump supporters dismissed characterizations of the campaign or Trump’s message as racially incendiary and said the protesters were likely just supporters of a political opponent, such as Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders.

Ryan Leonard said Trump’s stance on issues like immigration weren’t about race, but about “what’s right and what’s wrong, what’s legal and illegal.”

Another supporter, Chanse Firestone of Denver, Pa., said it wasn’t about race, but rather the refusal of some in this country to buy into the American Dream.

“Everybody says it’s about race. It’s not about race. It’s about putting America to work.”

Around him, other supporters shouted “get a job,” and “no more handouts,” at members of the opposing group. There was a moment when the sides pushed in toward the middle and a flashpoint seemed inevitable.

But cooler heads prevailed.

Inside the event, meanwhile, Trump was back on the subject of his protesters, saying most were there to disrupt and agitate.

But he assured the rabid crowd of thousands that he was in control.

“Remember what I said, the safest place on earth is a Trump rally.”

(h/t PennLive)

Media

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyvC6ZcxVmU

Video of outside protesters

Video of protester being removed

Trump: Transgender People Can Use Whatever Bathroom They Want

Donald Trump answers questions on transgender bathroom use.

Transgender people should be able to use whatever bathroom they want, Donald Trump said Thursday.

“Oh, I had a feeling that question was going to come up, I will tell you. North Carolina did something that was very strong. And they’re paying a big price. There’s a lot of problems,” the Republican presidential candidate said during a town hall event on NBC’s “Today.”

Referring to comments from an unnamed commentator who on Wednesday said North Carolina should “leave it the way it is right now,” Trump said he agreed.

“Leave it the way it is. North Carolina, what they’re going through with all the business that’s leaving, all of the strife — and this is on both sides. Leave it the way it is,” he said, referring to companies that have canceled plans to move or expand businesses in the state as a result of the law, which bans transgender individuals from using a bathroom that does not match their gender at birth.

“There have been very few complaints the way it is. People go. They use the bathroom that they feel is appropriate,” Trump said. “There has been so little trouble. And the problem with what happened in North Carolina is the strife and the economic — I mean, the economic punishment that they’re taking.”

Matt Lauer then asked whether Trump has any transgender people working for his company.

“I really don’t know. I probably do. I really don’t know,” Trump said, answering that he would allow, say, transgender celebrity Caitlyn Jenner to use whatever bathroom she wanted at Trump Tower.

He added, “You know, there’s a big move to create new bathrooms. Problem with that is for transgender, that would be—first of all, I think that would be discriminatory in a certain way. That would be unbelievably expensive for businesses in the country. Leave it the way it is.”

(h/t Politico, Today)

Reality

Trump has been a little more progressive with LGBT rights in the past, for example allowing Jenna Talackova to compete in the 2012 Miss Universe Canada pageant, but he also is not progressive, in the same interview telling a joke comparing her name to “genitals”. He also supported amending the Civil Rights Act to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation.

However it is important to remember that Trump still supports traditional marriage.

Ted Cruz directly responded to Trump’s comments in a very Ted Cruz way.

Media

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fXCp8-nkTM

 

Trump Team Tells GOP He Has Been ‘Projecting an Image’

The Celebrity Apprentice

Donald Trump’s chief lieutenants told skeptical Republican leaders Thursday that the GOP front-runner has been “projecting an image” so far in the 2016 primary season and “the part that he’s been playing is now evolving” in a way that will improve his standing among general election voters.

The message, delivered behind closed doors in a private briefing, is part of the campaign’s intensifying effort to convince party leaders Trump will moderate his tone in the coming months to help deliver big electoral gains this fall, despite his contentious ways.

Even as his team pressed Trump’s case, he raised fresh concern among some conservatives by speaking against North Carolina’s “bathroom law,” which directs transgender people to use the bathroom that matches the sex on their birth certificates. Trump also came out against the federal government’s plan to replace President Andrew Jackson with the civil-rights figure Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill.

The developments came as the GOP’s messy fight for the White House spilled into a seaside resort in south Florida. While candidates in both parties fanned out across the country before important primary contests in the Northeast, Hollywood’s Diplomat Resort & Spa was transformed into a palm-treed political battleground.

Trump’s newly hired senior aide, Paul Manafort, made the case to Republican National Committee members that Trump has two personalities: one in private and one onstage.

“When he’s out on the stage, when he’s talking about the kinds of things he’s talking about on the stump, he’s projecting an image that’s for that purpose,” Manafort said in a private briefing.

“You’ll start to see more depth of the person, the real person. You’ll see a real different way,” he said.

The Associated Press obtained a recording of the closed-door exchange.

“He gets it,” Manafort said of Trump’s need to moderate his personality. “The part that he’s been playing is evolving into the part that now you’ve been expecting, but he wasn’t ready for, because he had first to complete the first phase. The negatives will come down. The image is going to change.”

The message was welcomed by some party officials but criticized by others who suggested it raised doubts about his authenticity.

“He’s trying to moderate. He’s getting better,” said Ben Carson, a Trump ally who was part of the GOP’s front-runner’s RNC outreach team.

While Trump’s top advisers were promising Republican leaders that the GOP front-runner would moderate his message, the candidate was telling voters he wasn’t ready to act presidential.

“I just don’t know if I want to do it yet,” Trump said during a raucous rally in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Thursday that was frequently interrupted by protesters.

“At some point, I’m going to be so presidential that you people will be so bored,” he said, predicting that the size of his crowds would dwindle if he dialed back his rhetoric.

Ben Carson, on an appearance on Comedy Central’s The Daily Show also made a statement saying the public “reality show” person is different from the real man.

(h/t AP)

Reality

Even if Trump’s public persona should change, and should he win the Republican primary, he’ll have a mountain of evidence to contend with.

Trump Wants Harriet Tubman on $2 Bill

Trump suggesting Tubman should be put on the $2 bill.

The Treasury Department’s decision to replace Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill with abolitionist Harriet Tubman was met with mixed results. Donald Trump has weighed in, saying the move was “pure political correctness.”

“Well, Andrew Jackson had a great history and I think it’s very rough when you take somebody off the bill. Andrew Jackson had a history of tremendous success for the country,” Trump said during a town hall on NBC’s “Today Show.”

While he called Tubman “fantastic,” he suggested she appear on a different bill.

“I would love to leave Andrew Jackson and see if we can maybe come up with another denomination. Maybe we do the $2 bill or we do another bill. I don’t like seeing it. Yes, I think it’s pure political correctness,” he said.

Trump joined with his former GOP presidential rival Ben Carson, who called for Tubman on the $2 bill. The neurosurgeon told Fox Business, “I love what she did, but we can find another way to honor her.”

The $2 bill currently features the image of Thomas Jefferson.

Andrew Jackson, the nation’s seventh president, was revered for being the first “common man” elected as president. But the darker side of his legacy includes slave-owning and expelling thousands of Native Americans from their homes, forcing them on the walk now referred to as “The Trail of Tears.”

And while Jackson owned slaves, Tubman’s life mission was to free them. An abolitionist and Union spy, Tubman was responsible for leading hundreds of slaves to freedom through the Underground Railroad, an elaborate network of safe houses.

Tubman will become the first person of color and the first woman to grace a U.S. paper currency.

(h/t ABC News)

Reality

By taking a simple suggestion to avoid language or behavior that any particular group of people might feel is unkind or offensive and twist it to be a label for things that you don’t agree with, Donald Trump is simply evoking a tired old Republican trope known as “conservative correctness“.

Who is this offending? Andrew Jackson’s descendants? But with the statement that Tubman should appear on the $2 he is equally offending Thomas Jefferson’s descendants.

And finally, isn’t it interesting that conservatives would be “okay” with a black woman on a bill, as long as it is the most rare bill that the United States prints?

Media

Trump: I ‘Helped a Little Bit’ With Clearing Rubble at Ground Zero

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign stop at the First Niagara Center, Monday, April 18, 2016, in Buffalo, N.Y. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

Donald Trump has gotten a lot of attention over the past 12 hours for referring to the Sept. 11 terror attacks as “7/11” during a speech in Buffalo. It’s an awkward, amusing slip-up — but it’s just a slip-up.

More interesting, perhaps, is something he said shortly afterward.

Trump was talking about “New York values” — a means of dismissing Ted Cruz in Trump’s home state. As he did during the debate where Cruz first made the point, Trump was using the attacks as a way of espousing what it is that New Yorkers stand for. Unusually for him, he was reading from a sheet of paper.

Then he offered this aside.

“Everyone who helped clear the rubble — and I was there, and I watched, and I helped a little bit — but I want to tell you: Those people were amazing,” Trump said. “Clearing the rubble. Trying to find additional lives. You didn’t know what was going to come down on all of us — and they handled it.”

(h/t Washington Post)

Reality

In the context of the statement of the Ground Zero cleanup, Trump sounds as if he is lumping himself in with the first responders who worked to physically remove the rubble. “Everyone who helped clear the rubble… and I helped a little bit…”

Despite some wacko conspiracy theorists, Donald Trump unquestionably went to Ground Zero after the attacks. However the assertion that he had lifted a finger himself personally to help is questionable. The taking of video and images at the ground zero cleanup was banned by then-mayor Rudy Giuliani, so the likelihood of photographic evidence either way would be slim.

What is more likely from the available evidence is he paid for workers to join in the cleanup efforts, which itself was commendable. For example this German interview on September, 13, 2001 where the reporter asks, “Will you be involved, will you take any efforts, any steps to reconstruct the area?”

“Well, I have a lot of men down here right now. We have over 100 and we have about 125 coming. So we’ll have a couple of hundred people down here.”

At worst it is a gross misrepresentation of his actual contributions to the Ground Zero cleanup and at best a miscommunication of intent. Pardon us for placing the bar a little higher for a candidate to a major political party for the President of the United States.

Media

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrt9YKrlJAY

 

Trump mixes up ‘9/11’ with ‘7/11’

Donald Trump, who has made his advocacy for New York City after the 9/11 attacks central to his candidacy, accidentally referred to it on Monday as 7/11 — the ubiquitous convenience store.

“I wrote this out, and it’s very close to my heart,” he said at the outset of his remarks on Buffalo on Monday evening. “Because I was down there and I watched our police and our firemen down at 7/11, down at the World Trade Center right after it came down. And I saw the greatest people I’ve ever seen in action.” The businessman did not correct himself.

(h/t CNN)

Reality

Compared to the bullying, racist, sexist, misogynist, ignorant, swearing, harassing, petty, and false things Trump has said, even things about 9/11, this flub is relatively minor.

Media

Artist Threatened With Lawsuits If She Sells Nude Donald Trump Painting

Illma Gore's "Make America Great Again"

An infamous nude of Donald Trump has attracted bids of over $100,000 after it went on display at the Maddox Gallery in Mayfair, London, last week, but the artist is being anonymously threatened with legal action if she sells it, due to its resemblance to the Republican presidential hopeful.

The piece by Illma Gore, titled Make America Great Again, depicts Trump with a small penis. It went viral in February after the artist published it on her Facebook page and has since been censored on social media sites and delisted from eBay after the anonymous filing of a Digital Millennium Copyright Act notice threatening to sue Gore.

The Maddox Gallery in London offered to exhibit the painting after galleries in the US refused to host the piece due to security concerns following threats of violence from Trump’s supporters. Hundreds of visitors have queued to see the work.

Gore said: “The reaction, especially in the UK, has been incredibly supportive. Everywhere apart from America has been great. Who knew it would be such a big deal? I think an artist’s job is to take the times we’re living in and then set the scene. It is a representation of where we are.”

The LA-based artist has received thousands of death threats and travelled to the UK to escape the frenzy, agreeing to allow Mayfair to manage the sale of the controversial painting, now priced at $1 million.

Cordelia de Freitas, Maddox gallery director, said: “It only really got out of hand when Donald Trump referenced it in a debate, which sums up Trump and his ego. From there, everyone wanted to see this image.”

Gore believes her work inspired Marco Rubio’s comments about the size of Trump’s hands at a Virginia rally in late February, where he said: “And you know what they say about men with small hands? You can’t trust them.”

On 3 March, Trump responded: “[Rubio] referred to my hands, if they are small, something else must be small. I guarantee you there is no problem. I guarantee.”

The size of Trump’s hands dominated the Republican primaries that week, and was even discussed at an editorial meeting with the Washington Post, where he defended his comments.

Trump’s sensitivity about his hands is believed to date back to Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter’s description of him as a “short-fingered vulgarian” in the 1980s.

Gore states she will donate her part of the fee for the painting to the charity Safe Place for Youth, a homeless shelter in Los Angeles.

(h/t The Guardian)

Reality

Donald Trump often threatens to sue as a scare tactic but rarely follows through, and when he does he usually loses.

Media

Click here to see the NSFW painting. (You can’t unsee it.)

Donald Trump Skips West Bank Answer

Donald Trump took a pass when asked Thursday how he would refer to the West Bank, territory hotly contested by Israelis and Palestinians, and asked his company’s top attorney — who is Jewish — for an answer.

“Jason, how would you respond to that?” Trump said, turning to Jason Greenblatt, the chief legal officer for the Trump Organization.

The question came from a reporter with the Forward, a leading Jewish newspaper, during a meeting Trump held Thursday with two dozen reporters from Jewish and Israel-focused publications and Orthodox activists, according to the outlet.
Trump did not offer up a name for the territory. Many Israelis call the area, which their government controls, by the biblical names of Judea and Samaria, terms often embraced by pro-Israel activists and evangelical Christians.

Instead, Trump said simply that there are “many words that I’ve seen to describe it,” before deferring to Greenblatt.

The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment asking how Trump would refer to the area, home to the Palestinian Authority and a key part of the territory Palestinians claim for an independent state.

The United States government calls the territory the West Bank and successive administrations have consistently urged the Israeli government to cease new construction of Israeli settlements there, which most legal experts view as contrary to international law.

Trump’s positions on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict have consistently faced close scrutiny.

The question came from a reporter with the Forward, a leading Jewish newspaper, during a meeting Trump held Thursday with two dozen reporters from Jewish and Israel-focused publications and Orthodox activists, according to the outlet.

Trump did not offer up a name for the territory. Many Israelis call the area, which their government controls, by the biblical names of Judea and Samaria, terms often embraced by pro-Israel activists and evangelical Christians.

Instead, Trump said simply that there are “many words that I’ve seen to describe it,” before deferring to Greenblatt.

The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment asking how Trump would refer to the area, home to the Palestinian Authority and a key part of the territory Palestinians claim for an independent state.

The United States government calls the territory the West Bank and successive administrations have consistently urged the Israeli government to cease new construction of Israeli settlements there, which most legal experts view as contrary to international law.

Trump’s positions on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict have consistently faced close scrutiny.

Trump first said late last year that he would like to remain “neutral” in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in order to better negotiate a peace settlement in the decades-old conflict.

The Republican front-runner then delivered a speech before the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the leading pro-Israel lobby in the U.S., during which he sought to remove any doubt about his support for the Jewish state.

Trump made no mention of his neutrality pledge, instead promising to be a stalwart partner for Israel as president and leveling a hefty critique of Palestinian society, which he claimed glorifies terrorism.

Trump hasn’t always been in line with his party’s base in answering questions on the conflict.

Speaking before an audience of Jewish Republican donors in November, Trump declined to say whether he would support recognizing Jerusalem as the undivided, undisputed capital of Israel — a position favored by Israel supporters on the right.

(h/t CNN)

Reality

We need some help understanding how this is not an embarrassment, or at least concerning.

We agree that it is reasonable to expect the President or a presidential candidate to have advisors and experts to consult with. But would it not also be equally reasonable to expect a world leader candidate to have some understanding of basic foreign policy or at least study up before publicly speaking to a group?

Can you imagine a President sitting across from Russian President Vladimir Putin and taking a pass? We can’t either.

This is yet another example of how Donald Trump is unqualified for the Presidency.

Pittsburgh Erupts in Protests at Trump Rally

Protesters at Trump rally in Pittsburgh, PA.

Protests erupted between Donald Trump supporters and anti-Trump protesters at a Pittsburgh convention center where the Republican front-runner held a campaign rally.

Hundreds of demonstrators awaited Trump backers outside the David L. Lawrence Convention Center, dancing and shouting epithets about the presidential hopeful. At the height of the chaos, police shoved and Trump backers lingered for confrontations.

A drum pounded, signs waved and megaphones blared near an exit for the rally, which drew thousands of attendees. Trump backers and protesters shouted at each other in some areas. In others, the demonstration had an almost jubilant flair, with protesters dancing as they chanted: “Hey hey, ho ho, racist bigots have to go,” or “Fuck Donald Trump.”

Inside, the Trump rally had been among the least eventful of his campaign. One protester disrupted Trump’s speech, held just under two weeks before the state’s Republican primary. Several anti-Trump activists stood silently inside the convention hall exit with their fists raised in the air.

Convention staff and police eventually closed the exit near the protest, shuttling away rally attendees and reporters. Officers wearing riot gear walked demonstrators away from the convention center around 40 minutes after Trump’s speech ended. The crowds dispersed as people filtered through the streets of downtown Pittsburgh.

Police were on alert before the event after a group called “Pittsburgh Open Carry Events in Support of Trump” said members would be armed and patrolling outside Trump’s Oakland appearance, according to the Pittsburgh City Paper. Their objective? To stop any attempts of roadblocks much like the one protesters ended up creating Wednesday, according to one user.

Media

Full event:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggVfaHKiLaw

Protesters:

Video of protests:

Protesters and supporters meet:

Trump supporter claimed he has video of violence, instead shows video of him talking about violence:

Reporter shoved by police:

Megyn Kelly Meets With Trump in New York

Fox New's Megyn Kelly talks about meeting with Trump to clear the air.

Fox News host Megyn Kelly and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump met in New York City on Wednesday morning.

Kelly requested the meeting with Trump, which was held at Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue.

Kelly said Wednesday night on “The Kelly File” the two met for about an hour, and had “a chance to clear the air.”

“Mr. Trump and I discussed the possibility of an interview and I hope we will have news to announce on that soon,” she said.

Kelly added that the doormen “appeared a bit stunned” when she walked in the building, but they, too, were “incredibly nice.”

Trump confirmed the meeting with Kelly at a town hall hosted by Fox News’ Sean Hannity in Pittsburgh, Pa., but did not say what was discussed. The crowd booed the initial mention of Kelly’s name.

“She was very, very nice,” Trump said. “I give her a lot of credit for doing what she did. Let’s see what happens.”

(h/t Fox News)

Reality

The fact that Trump was willing to meet with her should be somewhat commendable, however it is interesting to note that it was Megyn Kelly, not Donald Trump, who was the bigger person and initiated the conversation.

Trump’s feud with Megyn Kelly has been well-documented by this site. Trump has called Kelly “crazy” and a “bimbo” on multiple occasions.

Media

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