Louisiana Voice

“I’m teaching them to f**kin’ hate all of you people. I will teach my grandkids to hate you all. KKK belief!”  

—Donald Trump supporter Kathy Bennett, to a Black Lives Matter protest in Branson, Missouri Sunday, as she stood in the bed of a pickup truck, waving a confederate flag. {Probably just upset that she couldn’t be in Tulsa. Comedian Ron White was correct: you can’t fix stupid.]

“It was a comment that he made in jest.”

–White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, on Trump’s call to slow down testing for the coronavirus during his poorly-attended Tulsa rally.

“I don’t kid.”

–Donald Trump, when asked on Tuesday if he was joking about slowing testing.

Times that Trump claimed he was joking:

• When he called himself the “chosen one.”
• When he called on Russia to release Hilary Clinton’s 35,000 missing emails.
• When he suggested injecting disinfectants as treatment for the coronavirus.
• When he called Barack Obama the “founder of ISIS.”
• When he referred to former President Jimmy Carter as “the late, great Jimmy Carter.”
• When he said, “If Ivanka weren’t my daughter, perhaps I’d be dating her.”
• When he indicated to a North Carolina crowd that he might seek a third term in 2024.

[He never got around to claiming he was joking, however, when he suggested the 2^nd Amendment solution to Hilary Clinton during the 2016 campaign.]

Sign hung from a dorm window at New York University shortly after the 1970 shootings of students at Kent State and Jackson State universities. Originally a message to Richard Nixon and the national guard at the time, it could just as easily have been directed to Hitler 35 years earlier or to Donald Trump and his fellow white supremacists 50 years later.

“Commit adultery on his beautiful, classy wife.”

—Response of “Rosie” at Trump’s Tulsa rally Saturday when asked if there was anything Trump could do to lose her support.

“That was years ago before he ever became president. Nobody is accountable for what he done when he was a lot younger.”

—“Rosie,” stretching logic to its absolute limits when reminded of the Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal affairs. [Well, “Rosie,” we’re “riveted” by your ability to rationalize your unquestioning loyalty.]

“Because of MAIL-IN BALLOTS, 2020 will be the most RIGGED Election in our nations (sic) history — unless this stupidity is ended.”

“MILLIONS OF MAIL-IN BALLOTS WILL BE PRINTED BY FOREIGN COUNTRIES, AND OTHERS. IT WILL BE THE SCANDAL OF OUR TIMES!”

—Donald Trump tweets on Monday in opposition to mail-in ballots. [Obviously, no one has told him that using all caps is like shouting and no one likes to be yelled at. And just what does “and others” even mean?]

“We’ve never had an empty seat, and we certainly won’t in Oklahoma.”

—Donald Trump, on Friday, in breathless anticipation of his Tulsa rally.

[Photo of massive crowd, disguised as empty (blue) seats]

“My father’s rally just ignited a passion for our America First movement — the likes of which I have never seen before. That’s why Republican Whip Steve Scalise and I are teaming up to offer ALL PATRIOTS a 500% match to stand with the President.”

—Donald Trump Jr. in a shameless email solicitation for contributions that popped up in my in-box this morning. [“Never seen before”? Donnie, you’re whistling past the graveyard in using Tulsa as your launch pad—and voters in Louisiana’s 1^st Congressional District should remember Scalise’s fealty to Trump on Nov. 3.

“There is not a more successful political strategy in the history of American politics than the southern strategy, this ideal of pitting poor whites against African Americans and tribalizing our politics. When Trump says he’s going to give you back your country, he’s playing to that racial animosity and fear.”

—Cornell Belcher, a Democratic pollster, on Trump’s effort to build support among his white middle class base by pitting whites against African Americans and Hispanics.

“I think you have a lot of people out there who should have been more aware of what was happening around them, the systemic racism that exists in this country. I think those white, suburban, independent women are a vital swing vote, and I don’t think they are going to like what they’re hearing.”

—Christina Reynolds, vice president of communications at Emily’s List, on how moderate suburban women have begun to question what they understood about race and racism four years ago.