Donald Trump: Thug

Yesterday the man that the GOP establishment is largely still supporting mused out loud about what “the Second Amendment People” might have to do if Hillary were to get elected.  As James Fallows observed, “If an ordinary citizen made a similar joke at a town meeting, or if someone in the media like me were to say something similar on a TV or radio show, the Secret Service would probably want to know more.”

Of course the candidate now claims it’s all being misconstrued.  Right.  Puts me in mind of other innocent observations like, “Hey, nice car you’ve got there.  It’d be a shame if somebody keyed it in the parking lot while you’re at work…”

…from the WaPo:

From Trump’s controversial words, a pattern: Outrage, headlines and then denial

By Isaac Stanley-Becker and Sean Sullivan August 10 at 12:11 AM

WILMINGTON, N.C. — Donald Trump was ticking through a list of reasons to support him over Hillary Clinton on Tuesday when he decided to linger on one.

“If she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks,” Trump said with a shrug at a rally here after accusing Clinton of wanting to strip Americans of their gun rights. He paused, then softly offered a postscript: “Although the Second Amendment people, maybe there is, I don’t know.”

The denouncements came swiftly from Clinton’s campaign and her allies — and from outside politics. The insinuation, critics said, was that Trump was inciting his followers to bear arms against a president in the future. And Trump’s response was just as swift: He’d said nothing of the sort but was merely encouraging gun rights advocates to be politically involved.

The pattern has repeated itself again and again. First come Trump’s attention-getting expressions. Then come the outraged reactions. The headlines follow. Finally, Trump, his aides and his supporters lash out at the media, accusing journalists of twisting his words or missing the joke. It happened last week, when Trump appeared to kick a baby out of a rally, then later insisted that he was kidding. It happened the week before, when he encouraged Russia to hack Clinton’s emails, then claimed he was just being sarcastic.

And with each new example, Trump’s rhetorical asides grow more alarming to many who hear them — and prompt condemnations from an ever-wider universe of critics. On Tuesday, for instance, even Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), one of Trump’s most ardent defenders, struggled to fully embrace his comments. Sessions insisted in an interview on CNN that Trump did not mean to encourage violence, but he acknowledged that Trump’s words were “awkwardly phrased.”

People from other corners weighed in, too. “As the daughter of a leader who was assassinated, I find #Trump’s comments distasteful, disturbing, dangerous,” tweeted Bernice King, daughter of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. “His words don’t #LiveUp. #MLK.”

The Secret Service acknowledged Tuesday in a tweet that agents were “aware” of the episode.

Trump’s most dedicated fans said they understood what he was saying, and they scoffed at the reaction of Democrats and the headlines from newspapers and news shows.

“In no way was he threatening Hillary,” said Sarah Smith, a 72-year-old retiree who attended the rally in Wilmington where Trump made the remark. “Anybody who thinks that is delusional.”

James Renaud, 66, said he took the comment “at face value,” meaning gun owners have to mobilize lest Clinton is able to stack the Supreme Court. “It was just off-the-cuff talking.”

And Keri Malkin, 49, said she didn’t “hear it that way at all,” suggesting that the insinuation that the comment was a threat against Clinton was engineered by her supporters.

“Hillary lies a lot, so it’s no surprise that her supporters would lie,” Malkin said.

But Trump’s rhetorical asides appear to be taking a toll among the electorate overall. Many voters find his remarks distasteful, even given his explanations. The possibility that he was joking or being sarcastic, or that he meant something other than what some people heard, doesn’t alter the growing view that Trump is reckless with his words.

… more in the original article…