Donald Trump made a wild claim during his interview with Bill O'Reilly Tuesday night which so far has escaped much scrutiny by the press. It was intentional, malevolent, and tossed like a match on gasoline to light up a race war.
Trump's outright lie comes at about the 40-second mark in his interview with Bill O'Reilly, in the middle of an attack on Black Lives Matter.
"I've seen moments of silence called for this horrible human being who shot the policemen, and you know, I've seen it! And I think it's very divisive," he claimed.
Except, for this: There have been NO MOMENTS OF SILENCE called for the monster who shot the policemen in Dallas. None whatsoever. This would be what we call an outright lie.
Chris Cuomo confronted Sam Clovis with Trump's claim, saying they could not find any evidence such a thing ever happened. And as Tapper points out, "It is once again him calling on an image that is a very dangerous for his own perceived sense of momentum in a situation," Cuomo said. "Kind of like the 911 celebrations that he believes he saw."
Clovis did his best to defend Trump, but it's just repeating the same lie. He's "seen reports." From whom did these reports come? His pals at Daily Stormer? He finally just said, "It depends on the context, I guess."
Yeah. Context that doesn't exist.
Josh Marshall at TPM sees a deep and dark intent here, and I agree with him.
A would-be strong man, an authoritarian personality, isn't just against disorder and violence. They need disorder and violence. That is their raison d'etre, it is the problem that they are purportedly there to solve. The point bears repeating:authoritarian figures require violence and disorder. Look at the language. "11 cities potentially in a blow up stage" .. "Anger. Hatred. Hatred! Started by a maniac!" ... "And some people ask for a moment of silence for him. For the killer."
At the risk of invoking Godwin's Law, if you translate the German, the febrile and agitated language of 'hatred', 'anger', 'maniac' ... this is the kind of florid and incendiary language Adolf Hitler used in many of his speeches. Note too the actual progression of what Trump said: "Marches all over the United States - and tough marches. Anger. Hatred. Hatred! Started by a maniac!" (emphasis added).
The clear import of this fusillade of words is that the country is awash in militant protests that were inspired by Micah Johnson. "Started by ..."
We're used to so much nonsense and so many combustible tirades from Trump that we become partly inured to them. We also don't slow down and look at precisely what he's saying. What he's saying here is that millions of African-Americans are on the streets inspired by and protesting on behalf of a mass murderer of white cops.
Let's put it more simply. Donald Trump is trying to foment a race war for his own fascistic gain. It's up to us -- and the media -- to really pay attention to what he's saying and doing here, because it's dangerous. And that goes for Bill O'Reilly, Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, and any other broadcast and/or print outlets reporting on Trump.
When he tosses off claims like this which are outright lies, he must be confronted on it. He simply must. We cannot allow him to foment violence with violent lies.
