Trump Already Endorsed Political Violence. In El Paso, a Red Hat Showed He Was Listening.

From Esquire

It is not some unfortunate coincidence that one of the Red Hats physically attacked a member of the media Monday night at a rally for Donald Trump, American president. From almost day one, journalists who cover Trump events have been corralled into a pen and ridiculed by the leader of this movement. Trump attacks them for the gladiatorial rapture of the crowd, calling reporters "scum"-a nice bit of dehumanization, which history tells us always ends well-and suggesting they are the Enemy of the American People. He says he "hates these people"-journalists-but "would never kill them," a disgusting way to put the idea on the table.

His crowds respond by loudly jeering and screaming in the direction of the pen. They are primed to hate journalists, to blame them for the troubles and failures of The Leader and his Movement. Monday night in El Paso, it simply went to another level.

The BBC cameraman, Ron Skeans, said the "very hard shove" came from the blindside, and the Red Hat shoved him twice before a blogger wrestled him away. "I didn't know what was going on," he says. He was just doing his job, filming the event, when he was assaulted from behind. His colleague, Washington correspondent Gary O'Donoghue, called it "an incredibly violent attack."

"This is a constant feature of these rallies-a goading of the crowds against the media," O'Donoghue continued. He says he's been "spat at before."

According to the BBC, Trump checked with Skeans to see that he was OK, exchanging thumbs-up before continuing. That seems to be captured on video:

Minutes later, Trump was back to attacking the media, suggesting there's "collusion between the Democrats and the Fake News."

The British news service also reports that a Trump campaign official said the attacker was drunk. But he did not attack a member of the media, screaming "Fuck the media," simply because he was drunk. Donald Trump has not just attacked the media in dehumanizing language, or called them the enemy of the state. He also praised Montana Congressman Greg Gianforte for physically attacking a reporter-a crime for which Gianforte pled guilty to misdemeanor assault.

This is an endorsement of political violence.

That charming performance came as Trump's White House was reportedly working with the government of Saudi Arabia to try to absolve Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman of involvement in the atrocity murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi. We now know U.S. intelligence has assessed MBS ordered the assassination, and that a year before it occurred, the prince was caught on tape saying he would use "a bullet" on him.

Trump has long embraced violence from the rally podium, encouraging his supporters to punch protesters in the face and offering to pay their legal bills. Throughout the campaign, a few of his supporters responded by...physically attacking protesters. You'll notice the crowd's response to the attack last night was to chant "CNN sucks." That quickly became a primal call of "Trump! Trump! Trump!" They didn't see anything wrong. Why would they? These rallies are permanently hovering near the boiling point, and much of the volcanic anger is reserved for journalists covering the event. It is a hate movement.