Friday on MSNBC, network political commentator former Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) accused President Donald Trump’s supporters of “gleefully putting other people at risk” by attending the president’s rally on Saturday in Tulsa, OK during the coronavirus pandemic.
After playing a clip from 2016 Trump encouraging his supporter to “knock the crap” out of protesters, host Joy Reid said, “He’s very George Wallace. You go back and look at old videos of George Wallace rallies in New York, that’s how he sounded as well. What do you make of Donald Trump potentially bringing that energy to a place like Tulsa that has the history that Tulsa has, you know? What do you make of that?”
McCaskill said, “He specializes in being combative and confrontational, and obviously he doesn’t feel any need to lead or unite in this incredibly painful moment in our country’s history we are all coming to grips with how badly we have handled systemic racism in this country. You know, add to that, Joy, the rally where he was talking to police officers and encouraged them to physically hurt the suspects they were putting in their police cars.”
She continued, “So not only is he embracing a physical confrontation, he’s embracing police officers abusing people under their custody and control, and it is outrageous. And the fact that he has called off the curfew, it’s almost like he wants there to be a problem, that he wants there to be physical violence, that somehow that will justify his rally. It is discouraging. I am really proud of all the people that were there today celebrating Juneteenth. They were socially distancing in a state that is really dangerous right now in terms of coronavirus. You won’t see that kind of social distancing at the rally. You’ll see people gleefully putting other people at risk.”
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