The legacy media is clipping and spinning Donald Trump’s comments where he stated that if he doesn’t get elected, the country’s going to experience a bloodbath, saying it’s a call to violence.
The Context
Trump spoke at a campaign rally Saturday for Senate candidate Bernie Moreno, in Vandalia, Ohio. At the event, he said:
Now, if I don’t get elected, it’s going to be a bloodbath for the whole—that’s going to be the least of it. It’s going to be a bloodbath for the country.
Taken out of context, this line from the former president sounds like a call to violence to some.
However, in the previous line, he said, “We’re going to put a 100% tariff on every single car that comes across the line [into the U.S.], and you’re not going to be able to sell those cars.” He was criticizing the importation of foreign-made vehicles, specifically, those made by Chinese manufacturers.
See the full clip:
The media has jumped on the issue, saying Trump’s comments are hearkening back to Jan. 6, 2021, when his supporters protested at the U.S. Capitol Building during the certification of the 2020 election results after Trump asked them to “peacefully and patriotically” protest outside the Capitol.
The Media Reaction
Numerous media outlets called out Trump for what they considered his call to violent action.
CNN analyst Maria Cardona said Trump has a history of “dark, violent, dangerous, rhetoric.” Cardona also said that Trump’s “cult MAGA supporters and followers totally know exactly what he was telling them. They demonstrated that on January 6.”
MSNBC’s Jen Psaki, President Joe Biden’s former press secretary, brought Biden campaign spokesperson Michael Tyler onto her show, who said, “This is who Donald Trump is: A loser who gets beat by over 7 million votes and then instead of appealing to a wider mainstream audience, doubles down on his threats of political violence.”
On ABC’s “Face the Nation,” former Vice President Mike Pence fought back against allegations that the former president was calling for violence, saying, “The president was clearly talking about the impact of imports devastating the American automotive industry.”
MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough was visibly angry after he was criticized for promoting the idea that Trump was calling for violence and for saying “democracy was on the line” in connection with Trump’s comments. Scarborough said those who claimed Trump was not calling for violence are “idiots” and that their comments were “bull—-.”
The “Morning Joe” host said, “He [Trump] knew what he was doing. We’re not stupid. Americans aren’t stupid. He was talking about a bloodbath. Sometimes a bloodbath means a bloodbath.”
Trump responded to the media’s reaction with a Truth Social post, saying, “The fake news media, and their Democrat partners in the destruction of our nation, pretended to be shocked at my use of the word BLOODBATH, even though they fully understood that I was simply referring to imports allowed by Crooked Joe Biden, which are killing the automobile industry.”
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