Quote:
Originally Posted by Pete F.
Ya he does
A new low point came on Saturday, when Mr. Trump held a rally in Muskegon, Mich., where he demanded that Gov. Gretchen Whitmer reopen the state and then said “lock them all up” after his supporters chanted “lock her up!”
It was a stunningly reckless comment from a president whose own F.B.I. this month arrested 14 men who it said had been plotting to kidnap Ms. Whitmer, a Democrat, and were captured on video with an array of weapons allegedly planning the crime. Mr. Trump has assailed Ms. Whitmer for months, disregarding her solid approval ratings with independent voters and women, two groups he is purportedly trying to court.
Michigan Republicans, already struggling to avoid an electoral debacle in a state that has been returning to its Democratic roots in elections since Mr. Trump’s narrow victory in 2016, were again forced to answer for the president’s penchant for targeting high-profile women there.
“She was literally just targeted,” Lee Chatfield, the speaker of the Michigan House and a leading state Republican, said of Ms. Whitmer. “Let’s debate differences. Let’s win elections. But not that.”
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Yeah well it's propaganda to say that Trump encouraged any of that. A lot of people in Michigan are dissatisfied with Whitmer's oppressive lock down. And the group that planned the kidnapping is a mixed bag. From a Detroit News article: while two of the alleged plotters posted pro-Trump social media messages, one member of their group thinks the president is "a tyrant," according to a viral video.
Most of these militia groups are some form of "anti-government" types. They've been a threat before Trump and will be after him. As will be ANTIFA and BLM and the Communist Party USA.
These "radical" groups are ideologically driven. They don't depend on so-called "dog whistles" or political rhetoric in order to act. They're not waiting for signals from politicians to do their violence. For political purposes, operatives make that fake connection. It's called politics, and, in the long run, it requires far more diligence and knowledge by the average voting public who may be just as prone to be duped as are the radicals, and that is more dangerous to the democratic process.