Donald Trump sat down with Fox News’ Laura Ingraham Monday for an interview that ended up going a lot of wild places. From racist rhetoric to full-blown conspiracy theories, Trump opened his mouth and let pure garbage spill out for half an hour straight.
Here are some of the worst things to fall out of his mouth during the interview:
He compared the police officer who shot Jacob Blake seven times in the back at close range to a golfer who “chokes” on the putting green.
“Shooting the guy, shooting the guy in the back many times, I mean, couldn’t you have done something different? Couldn’t you have wrestled him? I mean, in the meantime, he might’ve been going for a weapon and there’s a whole big thing there. But they choke. Just like in a golf tournament, they miss a three-foot putt.”
Even Ingraham tried to save him from himself, asking, “You’re not comparing it to golf,” adding, “Of course, that’s what the media will say.” Because it’s what he said.
Trump didn’t want to be saved, though. “I’m saying people choke,” he insisted. “You could be a police officer for 15 years and all of a sudden you’re confronted. You’ve got a quarter of a second to make a decision. If you don’t make a decision and you’re wrong, you’re dead. People choke under those circumstances and they make a bad decision.”
He went full QAnon with a conspiracy theory about the people hiding in “dark shadows” “pulling [Joe] Biden’s strings.”
When asked who he thinks is “pulling Biden’s strings,” Trump said it’s “people that you’ve never heard of, people that are in the dark shadows.” Ingraham asked what that meant, accurately saying it sounds like a conspiracy theory. “No,” Trump said before repeating the conspiracy theory. “They’re people that you haven’t heard of, they’re people that are on the streets, people that are controlling the streets.”
He continued: “We had somebody get on a plane from a certain city this weekend. And in the plane, it was almost completely loaded with thugs, wearing these dark uniforms, black uniforms, with gear and this and that–they’re on a plane.” When Ingraham asked where this happened, Trump told her he would “tell you sometime, but it’s under investigation,” adding that “a lot of the people were on the plane to do big damage.”
This is nuts. https://t.co/jpdkIw8VzV
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) September 1, 2020
Also, despite him saying this happened this weekend, the scene Trump described appears to be lifted from a viral Facebook rumor from earlier this summer:
President Trump tonight: “We had somebody get on a plane… it was almost completely loaded with thugs, wearing these dark uniforms, black uniforms.”
Viral Facebook rumor from June: “At least a dozen males got off the plane in Boise from Seattle, dressed head to toe in black.” pic.twitter.com/xn5YrM1R2k
— Ben Collins (@oneunderscore__) September 1, 2020
He admitted he only sent federal troops into Portland, Oregon to protect a building.
Trump said that the Black Lives Matter protesters–who he claimed were “a group of anarchists that are paid by the outside”–were trying to destroy the “beautiful” courthouse in Portland, Oregon. Trump says they gave him a choice for how they would destroy it: “‘Take your choice–blow it up or burn it down,’ they said. And I said ‘No, no, that’s not happening.'” While there were fires set to the courthouse at one point, this exchange 100% never happened. Also, Trump just admitted that he escalated violence in the city for a building, which it feels like should be a bigger deal.
He threatened that Cory Booker was going to come to the suburbs.
“You have this beautiful community in the suburbs, including women,” he stressed weirdly, saying they want “security.” Security from what? Senator Cory Booker, apparently–probably the least threatening man in existence.
“I ended where they build low-income housing project right in the middle of your neighborhood,” he said. “I ended it. If Biden gets in, he already said it’s going to go at a much higher rate than ever before. And you know who’s going to be in charge of it? Cory Booker. That’s going to be nice. OK?”
Trump is trying to use the Willie Horton strategy with Cory Booker (if I lose, scary Black men are going to assault you).
Meanwhile, @CoryBooker is the least threatening person on earth. The republicans are basically saying all Black men are dangerous.
— Frederick Joseph (@FredTJoseph) September 1, 2020
Keep @CoryBooker, his vegan cookies, and his relentless positivity the hell out of my neighborhood. Please and thank you.
— Franklin Leonard (@franklinleonard) September 1, 2020
Watch out folks!
Cory Booker is coming to your neighborhood! pic.twitter.com/D2TkvI2rBx
— #BLM Jillian Hurley (@BeautyBind) September 1, 2020
He said protesters tried to murder Senator Rand Paul.
He claimed multiple times that protesters tried to kill Senator Rand Paul, saying the police officers escorting him “took a big beating,” a thing that did not happen, but which your grandmother or uncle or whoever watches Fox News now thinks happened.
He said his supporters who show up to counter-protest Black Lives Matter rallies are “peaceful” protesters.
Ingraham asked him if he would encourage his supporters to confront protesters and Trump said no, but continued on to say that his supporters are “are wonderful, hardworking, tremendous people” who he implies are justified for wanting to play cowboys. He also called what his supporters do a “peaceful protest.”
In Portland, Oregon, some of his supporters were shooting BLM protesters with paintball guns from the beds of pickup trucks. In Kenosha, 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse killed two people and injured another. At a press conference Monday, separate from the interview with Ingraham, Trump refused to condemn either action. In regard to Rittenhouse, Trump said that protesters “very violently attacked him,” which, if they did, happened after he’d already shot at them and murdered two people.
He criticized Joe Biden for calling Black people “super-predators.”
In claiming once again that he has done more for Black people than any president besides Abraham Lincoln, Trump slammed Biden for once referring to Black criminals as “predators” and “super-predators.”
Now, Biden’s history of viewing the criminal justice system through the lens of institutional racism is not great. But also, Donald Trump once publicly called for the death penalty to be reinstated in New York in order to punish the Central Park Five–five teenagers who did not commit the crime they were charged with. So it would be nice if Trump sat this one out.
(via: Fox News, image: screengrab)
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