On Saturday, Donald Trump spoke out against China’s attempt to build electric vehicles in Mexico.
“We’re going to put a 100% tariff on every single car that comes across the line, and you’re not going to be able to sell those cars if I get elected,” the former president said. “Now if I don’t get elected, it’s going to be a bloodbath for the whole – that’s gonna be the least of it. It’s going to be a bloodbath for the country.” He didn’t need to use a violent metaphor, but the media overreacted, as if he had said “If I don’t win, we’re gonna kill some people.”
The Biden-Harris campaign put out a cartoon of a statement that Trump “wants another January 6, but the American people are going to give him another electoral defeat this November because they continue to reject his extremism, his affection for violence, and his thirst for revenge”. They also claimed he “doubles down on his threats of political violence.”
NewsBusters evening-news watcher Jorge Bonilla joins the show to recount just how this speech was wrenched out of context on the Sunday morning and evening “news” shows. On ABC’s This Week, writer Susan Glasser claimed “Donald Trump is attacking in a broad brush sense, the basic pillars of American democracy, period, full stop.”
On Sunday night, ABC White House reporter Mary Bruce was anchoring the news, and described the speech as “Trump warning, while discussing the economy, that there would be a quote, “bloodbath” if he is not re-elected in November.” She threw in that Trump’s former Veep Mike Pence (who isn’t endorsing Trump) replied that this was about electric-car factories.
We also discuss an NPR podcast asking in regard to how to cover the presidential campaign, “Can you believe in democracy without being pro-Biden?” And PBS pundit Jonathan Capehart ripped the idea of Biden taking executive action to stop the border surge. “It depends on whether you want the president to engage in theater or you want the president to actually do something that can help solve the problem.”
Enjoy the podcast below, or wherever you listen to podcasts.