Summary
During a rally in Lititz, Pennsylvania, Donald Trump criticized the bulletproof glass surrounding him, joking that an assassin would need to “shoot through the fake news” to reach him, a remark aimed at the press positioned behind the glass.
He called the media “bloodsuckers” and mocked the glass’s size, referencing prior assassination attempts, including a July incident in Butler, Pennsylvania, where a bullet grazed him and an audience member was killed.
Trump added that his supporters serve as his “glass” for protection: “Glass here. There’s nothing over there. They’re my glass. See? Those people are my glass,” Trump said, pointing to the crowd.
Most of the people who will vote for Donald Trump don’t know the things he says. They don’t attend his rallies, they don’t watch or read news that will report on what he says. They read the Wall Street Journal opinion pages that talk about how terrible and stupid Kamala Harris is, rather than how stupid and terrible Donald Trump is.
When I talk to my family about things he has said they are shocked, and don’t really believe me. Or they shrug and say things like, “He’s just speaking tongue-in-cheek” or something like that. They don’t have any sense of the candidate because they don’t listen to him. They don’t like him, but they don’t fear him. They think he’s a bullshitter who will enable their side to do what they think is good, not realizing all the horrible racist and xenophobic baggage that comes along.
My mom said yesterday, “Vance will keep him in line.” I laughed and said the only reason Vance—a man who once called Trump “America’s Hitler”—has the job is that he (and the other finalists for the VP pick) agreed they would have done what Pence did not, and prevented the vote from being certified in 2020. She’s a smart (if uninformed) woman, and was very thoughtful after I said that. Seemed to agree.
They just don’t know. Our bubbles are constructed to make us never have to hear what we don’t want to hear. And that goes for all of us, we all need to be careful about avoiding confirmation bias.
he “jokes all the time” is how my sister puts it.
I’ve had a similar experience recently with my family (though I failed to convince them to think for themselves) and I fully agree with you.
One of my uncles said he’s voting to Trump to lower gas prices - I told him no American president has ever set gas prices. My aunt, who was on the fence (no pun intended), was concerned about migrants coming through the border - I told her about the bipartisan immigration bill that Trump managed to kill so Biden wouldn’t get a win. She was also concerned about female rights. Someone else argued that there were no wars during Trump’s term and that Harris would be soft on international politics - I informed them there were “no wars” (not true) because Trump let everyone do what they wanted and empowered our enemies.
It’s just really hard to understand how people can go about their lives not have a passing interest in politics or elections. Especially given that it’s basically everything in the world right now.
At the same time, these fucking election ads are just the worst. Every single one of them, including many of Harris’, are full of blatant lies and distortions of the facts. I watch some of them and say to myself - this is what’s going to decide the election, an ad full of lies.