Bloodbath redux [View all]

[EarlG]

I've actually been away from the news most of today. I heard about the bloodbath comments last night, assumed the worst, then watched the video this morning and discovered that Trump was talking about the auto industry. I then wrote this post to point out that it doesn't matter, because his words exist in multiple contexts. I heard that Jen Psaki made a similar argument this morning.

I just checked back in to see the bloodbath discussion still raging, so here's why I don't think it's a mistake for our side to keep pushing this.

With the Biden campaign fully pushing the comments, the GOP is now on the defensive and yelling about how the mean old libs are taking poor Donald out of context. But by doing this, they're wasting valuable airtime drawing attention to the fact that Trump is a psycho who says crazy, violent stuff. It reminds me of the old Ronald Reagan quote, "If you're explaining, you're losing." I would add that if you're quibbling about context, you're also losing.

Well as far as I'm concerned, it doesn't matter. Republicans are all out there explaining that when Trump said, "If I don’t get elected, it’s gonna be a bloodbath," he wasn't talking about, y'know, an actual bloodbath, he was talking about cars. Okay, fine. And this is the same guy who instigated a violent coup attempt, right? The guy who said General Milley should be shot? The guy who said shoplifters should be shot? He's talking about cars, right?

And now the conversation isn't about Biden's age, or some other garbage, it's about Donald Trump's frequent use of violent language.

This is what we want going forward. There's an organized push going on right now from Democrats to "reawaken" people to the true threat of Trump. Many, many people have tuned out of politics, which is why the "Biden is too old" story -- which is a super-easy thing for people who aren't paying much attention to latch on to -- gained traction, and why it's been reflected in polling.

But one of our best lines of attack this time around is to make sure that as many potential voters as possible remember exactly what kind of psycho Trump is, and why it would be a terrible idea to put him back in the White House. And every time he makes a statement like the "bloodbath" statement, we get an opportunity to do that. I'd rather see the media devoting hours to whether Trump meant an actual bloodbath or a metaphorical bloodbath, than devoting hours discussing Biden's age.

And Trump is going to keep doing this, and he's going to get worse, so hitting him on it now is merely a prelude. You can see from the Biden campaign's comments, and the President's jokes at the Girdiron Dinner, that they're trying to goad him into getting angry -- and it's working. Trump may be projecting a brave face as best he can at the moment, but with his financial situation in tatters, criminal trials coming up, the Republican Party in complete disarray, and constant provocations from the Biden campaign, he's hopefully going to be in complete shambles well before November.

And yes, Trump said a bunch of insane crap in 2016 and got away with it -- "grab 'em by the pussy," "blood coming out of her wherever," etc. -- but this is not 2016. In 2016 those comments were seen by many as just "Trump being Trump." "Locker room talk" -- remember that? And just enough people gave him the benefit of the doubt, because he might have been "out there," but they found him to be entertaining.

He's no longer entertaining. He's just a tired, angry old man ranting and raving about nonsense. He's using violent rhetoric, dehumanizing immigrants, and praising Hitler. He's making overt appeals to racists and neo-Nazis. He's not charming or boisterous or whatever any more, he's a mess.

This stuff is all going to seep back into people's consciousnesses as the year goes on. They need to be reminded of why they got tired of Trump in the first place, and the Biden campaign is going to be putting a lot of time and effort into doing just that. The "bloodbath" comment was the perfect opportunity to take a swing at him, and IMO forcing Republicans to go out and defend him on this is good politics.