The Violence At Donald Trump's Rally Is Unwelcome News For Democrats

[Purveyor]

The violent protests that erupted outside Donald Trump’s rally in San Jose on Thursday night, which included punches thrown, eggs pelted and Trump supporters' hats stolen off their heads and set ablaze, are likely to have political fallout for Democrats.

The scene was an unwelcome one for the campaign of Hillary Clinton. Campaign Chairman John Podesta quickly moved to condemn this brand of civil disobedience, admonishing the violence in a tweet in which he included video of a Trump supporter being beaten.

Clinton spokesman Brian Fallon reiterated the point on MSNBC on Friday morning, saying: “We absolutely reject and condemn the violence that we saw in California last night.”

Still, Friday is sure to be full of charges and counter-charges about who is at fault. Critics of Trump, including some Republicans, have been warning for weeks that his incendiary rhetoric was going to lead to people getting seriously hurt. Only hours before he took the stage on Thursday, South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley repeated just such a warning in an interview with the Associated Press.

Some on the far left argued the protesters owed no apologies.

Republicans, meanwhile, moved to associate the thuggish behavior by some in the crowd with Clinton.

MORE...

http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-trailguide-trump-violence-1464967115-htmlstory.html

[beachbum bob]

2. if thats the excuse....then it shows the so-called protesters as being no better than trump

and I don't our party to be associated with any trump-like behavior...


adults need to act like adults and give the tantrums up

[Travis_0004]

7. how about we blame people for their actions?

If somebody goes to a rally and assults somebody, they are to blame and should be arrested.

[ReRe]

27. +1

[arely staircase]

13. Donald Trump is not responsible for your actions. nt

[scscholar]

14. This

Trump caused it.

[Travis_0004]

38. Funny, I didn't see trump assulting people at any of the rallies I was watching.

[scscholar]

39. He made them do it

After taking their voice.

[Live and Learn]

3. 'Republicans, meanwhile, moved to associate the thuggish behavior by some in the crowd with Clinton'

Sounds familiar to me. Just replace Republicans with Hillary supporters and Clinton with Sanders.

[Zambero]

4. It also reflects on Trump

He brings out the worst in people. He eggs them on with inflammatory rhetoric, both supporters and foes. Trouble follows him. He does not seek reasonable solutions to ongoing conflict, but prefers to kick the hornet's nest while playing the victim. Would he approach a crisis situation in similar fashion? It's almost too scary to contemplate. I don't see the violent sub-set of otherwise peaceful protesters carrying Bernie or Hillary signs. Their actions can and should be condemned for what they are, namely violations of others' right to free speech and assembly. Bernie has repudiated them. Hopefully Hillary will do the same if she hasn't done so already. And Trump? He offers to pay legal fees for any of his people that might cause bodily injury to an unwelcome detractor. It's certainly a two-way street. But thus far, only one candidate has gone out of his way to provoke the violence that is occurring.

[ReRe]

28. Exactly

Look no further than Donald Trump as the reason for the violent protests. The Republican Party in general and their voter's are responsible as well.

[Scurrilous]

5. Does this mean violent behavior by Trump supporters is welcome news?

http://gawker.com/photographs-show-trump-supporters-pepper-spraying-prote-1780399845


Don't fall for corporate media spin. They're just looking for a lede in all the wrong places.

[nadinbrzezinski]

8. Hey, htanks for the larger version of the photo

That is a UT photog right there taking photos

[Scurrilous]

16. You're welcome.

[nadinbrzezinski]

18. We got to watch that from a higher point

but not with that level of detail, But now I know one of my fellow photogs was in the middle of that.

[bunnies]

26. I had no idea this even happened.

Holy shit.

[nadinbrzezinski]

6. awwww.. and to think this has noting to do with democrats

it is quite adorable though. But both sides will quickly exploit it.

[tularetom]

9. Am I the only one who thinks this whole mess was orchestrated by Trump's campaign?

That the "protestors" were actually provocateurs hired to stir up a little violence and enable Trump to play the victim card.

[nadinbrzezinski]

19. Because politics cannot outside the control of both parties

I know who the protesters were in San Diego. Take my word or not, but they were not hired by Donald. Trump

[ReRe]

32. You're not the only one...

... police stood back... now when do you ever see police stand back and let the violent melee carry on? Usually it's the police who instigate the violence. Was anyone arrested? If not, why not? Sure were allot of cameras there to catch it all, too. It was definitely orchestrated.

[LuvLoogie]

10. My suspicion is that the people committing the violence

are not political and don't vote. They are young men, likely used to "resolving differences" in this manner. Their motivation is tribal. I doubt most of them give a shit about this election other than to get back at Trump.

I hope they get arrested and tried. They are punks in a mob and I gave no sympathy for them, given the nonviolent civil rights struggles throughout history.

[Runningdawg]

17. Spot on!

[nadinbrzezinski]

20. Wrong, but you knew that

I was there, I knew who showed up to protest the Donald. Oh and they do vote.

The politics you are seeing though are out of the control of both parties, Ok, the Trump folks it is more stochastic than you would understand I think.

[LuvLoogie]

21. No Nadine. People who vote believe in the Democratic Process

People who assault people at political rallies don't give shit about anything but their own hurt feelings. Not all the protesters committed violence. I reserved my remarks to those that committed violence, not Trump protesters in general.

I have no sympathy for any person or persons who resort to assault upon a stalked and cornered person at a political rally. These people were opportunists, trying to claim some payback bravado for themselves.

Trump is a punk. Those assaulting his misguided supporters are punks as well.

[nadinbrzezinski]

22. Ok I will use a term guaranteed to piss you off

you are coming from a place of privilege. I mean it. And you do not understand any of the dynamics at play here.

By the way, in San Diego, the people who started this were TRUMP SUPPORTERS who made their way around a police cordon and natural border, The escalation in San Jose, should concern you, But given where you are coming from, I really do not expect it.

Oh and these people (on both sides) DO VOTE.

[LuvLoogie]

23. The dynamics are tribal. That's Trump's whole campaign.

It's not about economics; it's not about foreign policy. It's about bigotry and misogyny. It's about identity and survival.

Their side has more guns and better tactics. They WANT us to resort to violence. Tell me you get that.

[nadinbrzezinski]

24. As I said, you really do not get it

the same happened when Mexican-Americans took to the streets over Prop 187. It is politics happening outside the control of both parties.

There have been other occasions, but that is the best point for you to try to get the politics at play. Suffice it to say, this has a lot more in common with Civil Rights that you will ever get.

As to us, who is us sparky? The Democrats and political class left the area last Friday as soon as they finished speaking. As I said, if you think left right, middle class respectability politics, nope, this is not what this is about, This has not one thing to do with that. I don't expect you to take my word, not even on the time of day for the record, but the Republican convention in Cleveland will be lots of fun. Out of my area, but we did consider asking for a room at my brother's home, he lives there. But the Tear Gas I suspect will get really, really heavy and we do not do most of this outside of area. Also justifying the party flavors to TSA could get complicated.

[Tarc]

25. This may be an angle that we can agree on

I break with many Hillary supporters, and some Bernie supporters...in that I do not find much fault with those who egged and invaded the Trump rally the other day. Trump is a dangerous, vile demagogue whipping up White Nationalism, this is not a smple case of free speech; it is fascist hate, and that must be opposed by whatever means necessary.

[bunnies]

29. Well said. nt

[nadinbrzezinski]

31. Whatever means necessary

it is easy to type that. So are we going to see you in the field next time? If it is San Diego, come say hi. We will be the idiots in the media with helmets and gas masks, Can't miss us, the helmets are clearly marked as media.

As to assault (yes that is what it was) even though she was egging them on (no pun) will play very differently depending on who you speak to. For the Trump supporters, see SANDERS people, how violent!!! (At least locally all the HRC and Sanders supporters went poof). Some HRC supporters are also playing that angle.. which is all but healthy.

To me this indicates a spiraling violence curve, which only helps the tough law and order types. This is a historic pattern. Of course locally we saw another pattern. Again, outside left right paradigm, but very much inside white v POC dynamics. The ones who were pushed out of the area by riot police were the Protesters, not the Trump supporters, See above, somebody posted a photo of those lovely folks using pepper spray on protesters (technically assault just like the eggs).

For the record cops did arrest both Trump supporters and protesters, We ran photos of both. The one we thought was under 18, he lowered his head so his face is not visible. Since he wore a Make America Great Again hat, he made my job easy that way.

[Tarc]

40. I think if you said that you liked ice cream, then I said I liked ice cream too

You'd hate ice cream.

[nadinbrzezinski]

41. Nah I just pointed out that typing those words is easy

And I like ice cream. But if you mean it, are you going to go protest? Because it is really easy to play tough on the internets.

[Tarc]

42. I am in one of the whitest of white northeastern states

The protests are far away, unfortunately.

[nadinbrzezinski]

43. Got it

[LuvLoogie]

34. By ganging up and assaulting a cornered person carrying a Trump sign?

Taking cover in the numbers and anonymity of street chaos? Leaving others to suffer the retaliation?

[MFM008]

11. This keeps happening

at Trump rallies and it makes repubes like Romney very nervous.

[B Calm]

12. Republicans, meanwhile, moved to associate the thuggish behavior by some in the crowd with Clinton.

Why would they think that?

[Warren Stupidity]

15. The violence at the Mussolini Rally was insufficient.

I'm not going to fall into the "you advocating violence" trap, but the tedious regurgitating of the "violence at trump rally" made me think about situations where perhaps the good citizens of a country were too civil when authoritarian monsters made their push for power.

[bunnies]

36. Exactly.

I can't imagine why anyone who truly sees trump as a danger thinks the rejection of his ideology should end at passive disapproval.

[Warren DeMontague]

30. The violence is not acceptable or justifiable, but ....it is explainable.

Specifically Trump has spent a good deal of his campaign throwing all kinds of stuff at Mexico and undocumented latino immigrants. Starting with calling them rapists, etc.

California has a very large Latino population. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that a whole lot of people are gonna be pissed when he finally rolls into town down there.

[jwirr]

33. Get real. This man insults almost every race but his own and

threatens them. They fight back and everyone is sure they are Bernie supporters? I do not believe it. I lived in the sixties and people confronted wrong without belonging to any specific candidate. It is no different now.

[kimbutgar]

35. This same bs article was in the SF chronicle his these protests help trump

I read the article and didn't come to the same conclusion. It shows that don the goblin brings out the worst in people on both side. He is a divider not a uniter.

[ReRe]

37. bull hockie

(Not to you, Purveyor, but to the writer of this article.) The violence had absolutely nothing to do with the Democrats. You know, you can say anything and publish it in the newspaper, but the act of doing this (publishing a story) does not make the content true. If you dig deep enough you will uncover who the author is associated with.

Donald Trump was responsible for that riot, after a year of spewing violent bile from his filthy mouth and mind.

November can NOT come soon enough. I don't want to ever hear of that POS again after the election. Ever.