Trump's lynching comment wasn't a gaffe. It was a call to action

[StarfishSaver]

I have no doubt Trump used the word "lynching" with full intent of putting the word and notion into the heads of his supporters in hopes the violent ones get the message and act accordingly.

And, sadly, I fear someone will.

[mucifer]

1. As Nancy Pelosi has said, he tweets to distract and it works.

[StarfishSaver]

3. This wasn't a mere distraction. It was a "Russia if you're listening" moment

[RhodeIslandOne]

2. It's a distraction

He doesn’t care about being a racist. He cares about his finances and family. Go after what he cares about.

[StarfishSaver]

4. Calling it a "distraction" dangerously underestimates it. It was a call to action.

[RhodeIslandOne]

6. It is a distraction

Sorry, but it is.

He is actively doing things everyday right now destroying this nation and not tweeting about them.

He doesn’t need to signal Russia on anything. They’re in the building.

[OneGrassRoot]

7. I disagree...

I certainly agree about him doing anything and everything for distraction, for purely selfish purposes as you say.

However, I do believe he uses certain words for a specific reason: To rile up his base and keep them loyal. He sees them as his personal army. He expects them to defend him and he intentionally invokes violence.

Whether he thought of this himself, I don't know. Could be a Stephen Miller and Bannon effect. But use of terms like vermin and all the other obscenities he hurls at people, and now using the term lynching, is to engage his base in defending him -- by any means possible.

[RhodeIslandOne]

10. He stole it from Clarence Thomas probably

Whatever the case may be, obviously the words he uses are disgusting, inflammatory and sick. But we are long past that. We were past that before he was installed by his handlers.

[StarfishSaver]

9. Calling it a "distraction" diminishes the import and insidiousness of it

Don't dismiss it as a distraction. He's trying to get people killed.

I didn't say he's signalling Russia. He's signalling his base just as he signalled Russia three years ago.

[RhodeIslandOne]

12. Welcome to three years ago

Calling immigrants rapists and murders was the first sign.

[TwilightZone]

18. Yep. This is nothing new.

It's just his latest blather intended to distract. I don't think it's any more complicated than that.

[RhodeIslandOne]

20. The Trumpsters who are contemplating murder are already in board

They’ve been there awhile.

They started the minute he rode the escalator.

[StarfishSaver]

23. It's more than "blather"

He knows that he's being heard by the right people and knows how those people will react to it.

[FM123]

11. I suspect he may be dog whistling to his magat base, not Russia

While distraction is his best event, his second best event is to cowardly call upon his base to pick up their torches, pitchforks and now apparently nooses....

[LanternWaste]

26. I don't think the one denies the other...

Patton's phantom First US Army Group in WW2 illustrates how effective distractions can be at seeing the action more efficiently achieved.

[lunatica]

35. Trump wants violence against his enemies

Surely you get that. It’s very obvious that he always, and I mean always talks to his base. When the rest of us are scratching our heads trying to figure out what he says they’ve already gotten the message.

It is naïve to think otherwise.

[ProudMNDemocrat]

5. When African-Americans were "lynched", they were targeted for one reason only.....

For being BLACK in America.

Donald Trump committed crimes while in office. The crime and proof is there. His actions and words display that.

[CaptainTruth]

8. I wonder if Stephen Miller influenced the choice of words? nt

[RhodeIslandOne]

13. I'm pretty sure the term was used a year ago by one of his handlers

Or maybe even him. I’ve lost track of all his kabuki theater to entertain his maggot followers.

[MontanaMama]

14. The MF, Stephen Miller and Steve Bannon's

wet dream is a race war. Make no mistake.

[StarfishSaver]

15. Exactly

Name it.

[2naSalit]

31. +1

[TwilightZone]

16. Eh, I don't think it's that complicated.

He used the word intentionally, of course, but I think it's just his usual blather intended to provoke a reaction from the "libs" and the media and distract from everything else going on.

Which, of course, it did.

[cwydro]

19. Bingo. nt

[triron]

21. Yes, it was intended for that as well as to incite violence against his 'enemies'.

He must know that it does; it has born fruit this way in the recent past.

[StarfishSaver]

22. I really wish people would stop underestimating him

and assuming the most innocuous "he's racist but too stupid to actually act on it" explanations for his behavior.

[Enoki33]

25. Have to agree. We underestimate him at our own peril as he is a master

at manipulating the ignorance of his followers.

[EffieBlack]

27. +1

[RhodeIslandOne]

30. Creating distractions is not underestimating him

You're underestimating him by not realizing this is a strategy to deflect from ongoing crime he's not openly discussing.

[EffieBlack]

33. Most things he does are distractions. But some of his distractions have other purposes

This is one of them.

[Cracklin Charlie]

17. A little of that, plus...

He saves his most disgusting, racist attacks for the times he needs a serious distraction from some bombshell dropping.

There seems to be an arsenal of weaponry headed toward him, so...

[ismnotwasm]

24. Agree.

[awesomerwb1]

28. Everything he says is a distraction

Either to muddy up the waters on a daily basis or to normalize his other idiotic ignorant comments. He effectively saturates the conversation every day by tweeting.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

29. Hogan Gidley trying to defend the use of the word "lynching"

Ezra Klein Retweeted

Hogan Gidley is from Arkansas, where there were 492 reported lynchings.

Link to tweet

[sop]

32. Trump incites his followers to react violently, then claims he's not responsible

It's been happening all along. The most recent example was the El Paso Walmart massacre. Over the next year, as the impeachment proceeds and his re-election chances worsen, Trump's language will become more and more violent, inciting even more of his followers to act out.

[riversedge]

34. TRUMPS rallies will take note of this.

[StarfishSaver]

36. How much would you like to bet that the term "lynching" will come up at his next rally?

[lunatica]

37. That's what they're there for

He demands complete and unquestioning loyalty. Anyone who thinks he isn’t manipulating his base to do his every bidding is naïve.

[Jose Garcia]

38. I think that you may be projecting upon Trump a level of

cleverness which he is lacking.

[StarfishSaver]

39. Racist demagoguery doesn't require any cleverness

He's been instigating his followers to violence for years, often with good (for him) results. This is just the latest instance.

[SeattleVet]

40. Emmett Till was in the news this week...

after a memorial plaque that is near where his body was found was replaced with another one that is quite a bit more bullet-proof (after some frat boys shot it up).

He probably heard the word on Fox, and decided that this was his new battle cry.