Trump winks-and-grins at rioters with disingenuous video address
Disgrace.
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The United States can’t be rid of President Trump fast enough.
On Wednesday, after encouraging a violent mob to storm the U.S. Capitol Building, Trump released a weasely, half-hearted, and disingenuous video statement supposedly calling for calm.
The video, however, is designed to do the exact opposite of its alleged goal. Instead of expressing a genuine desire for peace in the nation’s capital and a cessation of hostilities, the president praises and even encourages the rioters who defiled Congress, ransacked congressional offices, and battled Capitol police.
“I know your pain, I know you’re hurt,” Trump says in the video. “We had an election that was stolen from us. It was a landslide election, and everyone knows it, especially the other side. But you have to go home now. We have to have peace. We have to have law and order. We have to respect our great people in law and order. We don’t want anybody hurt.”
As it turns out, assuring a rioting mob that the entire reason they’re rioting in the first place is both justified and righteous and that their shared enemies are “bad” and “evil” is not how you break up a rioting mob. But Trump already knows that.
The president's message continues, running through his usual list of post-election grievances, inciting further the people who insist, like him, that the 2020 presidential election was stolen.
“It’s a very tough period of time,” Trump says. “There’s never been a time like this where such a thing happened where they could take it away from all of us. From me, from you, from our country. This was a fraudulent election, but we can't play into the hands of these people. We have to have peace.”
He adds, “So, go home. We love you. You’re very special. You’ve seen what happens. You see the way others are treated that are so bad and so evil. I know how you feel. But go home and go home in peace.”
It doesn’t take a genius to read between the lines. Even a blind man can see it.
The video isn’t an attempt to calm the rioters. Trump spends most of the video complaining that he is the rightful president of the U.S., the selfless victim of a widespread election conspiracy. He refers to the lawmakers who are poised to certify President-elect Joe Biden as the winner of the 2020 election as “bad” and “evil.” Trump is clearly grinning at the people who are wreaking havoc and destruction in his name, egging them on with explicit support.
You are correct to be angry, Trump winks. After all, he adds, the reason you’re here is justified. But, oh, he says coyly, no more violence, please. That would be just terrible!
Oh, please. Not everyone is as stupid as he clearly believes his supporters are.
It would have been better had Trump just shot a 10-second video where he simply gives the double-thumbs up and says, “Stop the steal.” At least then, with his delusional fantasies and support for rioters out in the open, we can dispense with the pretense that he actually cares about his office, this country, and the disgrace that he incited this week in our nation's capital.