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Where’s the Love? Even in Deeply Red Texas, Republicans Turn Cold Shoulder to Donald Trump

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GOP Strategist Calls Nominee’s Decision to Visit State Next Week ‘Clinically Insane’ 

He’s trailing in all the major polls (that’s right, all of them), as well as virtually every battleground state. His campaign seems to be in a perpetual state of disarray, but no matter how many shakeups it undergoes, he can’t keep his foot out of his mouth. 

Still, you’d expect just about any GOP presidential nominee — even Donald Trump — to receive a warm welcome in Texas, where voters favored Mitt Romney by 16 points in 2012 despite his many flaws. 

Apparently, though, that’s not the case. 

As we mentioned the other day, Trump leads Democrat Hillary Clinton by only six points in the Lone Star State, and that margin is based largely on support from voters over 65. 

On Friday, Trump’s campaign announced he’ll visit Austin for a rally on Tuesday. However, only one of the state’s three most prominent Republican officeholders, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, has confirmed he’ll attend. The Dallas Morning News reports that Gov. Greg Abbott is still working on his schedule, while Attorney General Ken Paxton has previously scheduled speaking commitments. 

Meanwhile, one GOP strategist in Texas called Trump’s decision to visit the state at this stage of the race “clinically insane.” 

“Apart from it being miserable on the basis of temperature, it is strategically incompetent,” Matt Mackowiak told the Morning News. “It makes absolutely no sense. … It almost seems like they’re throwing darts at a map and deciding that way.

“He would be so much better off resting, doing policy briefings, doing debate prep, doing conference calls with donors in other areas,” Mackowiak said. “There’s a million other things he could be doing that would be more productive than going to Austin and Mississippi 80 days before the election. It’s completely indefensible and it’s clinically insane.”

Mackowiak, former vice chair of the local GOP in Austin, recently left the position over a dispute with new Chair Robert Morrow, the anti-Clinton conspiracy theorist known for his racist, sexist, homophobic tweets. But even Morrow, who’s been referred to as “Donald Trump on steroids,” isn’t on board with the party’s nominee. In fact, he plans to protest Tuesday’s rally: 

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‘Remigration’: Trump Continues Attacks on Immigrants With New Vow of Forced Deportations

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September 16, 2024

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Donald Trump is continuing to target immigrants, and focusing his attacks on swing states in which he is struggling in the polls – and he’s getting support for his efforts from some top names in the GOP. Five days after his lie migrants from Haiti are “eating the dogs” and “eating the cats” of the residents of Springfield, Ohio, Trump, apparently for the first time, invoked language used by the far-right in Europe to vow he will forcibly deport millions of immigrants from those swing states and the rest of the country if elected President in November.

Saturday night Trump called for “remigration,” the forceful deportation of immigrants, including those in the U.S. under lawful and unlawful circumstances. He vowed to “end the migrant invasion of America,” and falsely characterized some programs that allow legal entry to the U.S. under law.

“As President I will immediately end the migrant invasion of America,” Trump posted on his Truth Social website. “We will stop all migrant flights, end all illegal entries, terminate the Kamala phone app for smuggling illegals (CBP One App), revoke deportation immunity, suspend refugee resettlement, and return Kamala’s illegal migrants to their home countries (also known as remigration).”

READ MORE: ‘Hell Isn’t Hot Enough’: Fury at Trump as More School Evacuations Follow ‘Pet-Eating’ Lies

He also promised to “save our cities and towns in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and all across America.”

Trump is losing in four of those five battleground states, according to FiveThirtyEight’s current polling average: Minnesota (Harris +6.2%), Wisconsin (Harris +2.6%), Michigan (Harris +1.5%), Pennsylvania (Harris +0.6%), and North Carolina (Trump +0.5%).

Remigration is advocated by some in the European far-right, nationalist, and fascist movements.

Marine Le Pen, the French far-right nationalist who promotes anti-immigration and anti-Islam positions, viewed remigration as so extreme she broke with her allies over it. Earlier this year Politico Europe reported Le Pen said “that she was in ‘total disagreement’ with the reported discussions on ‘remigration.'” Those discussions included the forced deportation of some French citizens, who were described as “unassimilated citizens.”

Le Pen is supported by Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán, a far-right Christian nationalist and extremist. Trump frequently praises Orbán, and during last week’s presidential debate held him up as a top supporter.

Trump’s use of the term “remigration” caught the eye of experts, including attorney Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council.

READ MORE: Loomer Invokes Hannibal Lecter as Trump Triples Down on Lies About Immigrants Eating Pets

Pointing to the ex-president’s use of the phrase “remigration,” Reichlin-Melnick writes: “Wikipedia describes it as a ‘far-right and Identitarian political concept’ largely used to describe the mass deportation of non-white immigrants and their descendants from Europe.”

Noted professor of history Ruth Ben-Ghiat, an expert on authoritarians, fascism, and propaganda, responded that Trump “knows what he is doing. He chooses his words carefully.”

Trump’s call for “remigration” also caught the eye of some top Republicans.

“I think his immigration policies to repatriate the illegals and close the border will also help because that’s going to make it less likely that those folks will be able to vote,” Florida Governor Ron DeSantis told Fox News on Sunday, as Florida Politics reported.

And Trump’s architect of migrant child separation, Stephen Miller, hailed his former boss’s “remigration” vision:

READ MORE: Senator Suggests Trump Engaging in ‘Stochastic Terrorism’ Amid Pet-Eating Immigrant Lies

 

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Senator Suggests Trump Engaging in ‘Stochastic Terrorism’ Amid Pet-Eating Immigrant Lies

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3 days ago

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September 13, 2024

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Donald Trump is on his fourth day of promoting his false claim that 20,000 undocumented Haitian migrants were dumped on Springfield, Ohio and have destroyed the townsfolk’s way of life, including by stealing people’s pet cats and dogs and eating them. Now, one U.S. Senator is suggesting the Republican presidential nominee is using “stochastic terrorism” to help his flailing presidential campaign.

A bomb threat and another, unspecified threat forced several Springfield elementary schools and one middle school to evacuate or not open Thursday and Friday. On Thursday, the Springfield city hall was evacuated and shut down, as were some state motor vehicle offices.

The emailed bomb threat on Thursday echoed Donald Trump’s and U.S. Senator JD Vance’s racist lies.

“My hometown of Springfield is becoming a thirdworld (expletive) because you allowed the federal government to dump these (expletive) here,” the email stated, USA Today reports. “We have Haitians eating our animals and then you lie and claim this is not happening when we see this happening. I’m here to send a message, I placed a bomb in the following locations…”

RELATED: ‘Hell Isn’t Hot Enough’: Fury at Trump as More School Evacuations Follow ‘Pet-Eating’ Lies

During Tuesday’s presidential debate Trump had falsely said: “In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs. The people that came in, they’re eating the cats, they’re eating, they’re eating the pets of the people that live there.”

On Thursday he used the lie to promote the candidacy of a Republican seeking to unseat Ohio Democratic U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown.

And on Friday, despite the bomb threat and other unspecified threat, Trump said in a press conference he would travel to Springfield and vowed to do “large deportations” from that city and send the legal immigrants he removes to Venezuela.

The “20,000 illegal Haitian migrants” are reported 12,000 to 15,000, ABC News reports, and they are not “illegal.” They are in the country legally, and the town as far back as a decade ago resolved to invite immigrants to help rebuild their failing economy and businesses.

Also on Friday, while reportedly not repeating the racist pet-eating lie, Trump dismissed the bomb threats as unimportant.

U.S. Senator Brian Schatz (D-HI) is not dismissing them, but he is asking how anyone could function again under a Trump presidency, and suggesting Trump is engaging in stochastic terrorism.

RELATED: Loomer Invokes Hannibal Lecter as Trump Triples Down on Lies About Immigrants Eating Pets

“Think about what it would be like to have four years of a President engaging in overtly racist stochastic terrorism against people pursuing the American dream and then just ask yourself what your immigrant grandparents would want you to do. Kids deserve to go to school safely,” Senator Schatz wrote.

Wajahat Ali is a New York Times contributing op-ed writer, Daily Beast columnist, and author of “Go Back to Where You Came From.” Responding to the news Friday of more school evacuations, Ali wrote: “Stochastic terrorism thanks to Trump and Vance.”

Mother Jones’s D.C. bureau chief David Corn, an MSNBC analyst, also noted: “Trump and Vance incite. Look up stochastic terrorism.”

And Mother Jones on X posted: “Days after Trump went on a racist rant during the presidential debate, the city of Springfield, Ohio, received a bomb threat that was explicitly hostile to immigrants and Haitians. This further proves that Trump’s demonizing rhetoric portends violence.”

Watch the videos above or at this link.

READ MORE: Trump Faces Increasing Calls to Participate in Second Debate

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‘Hell Isn’t Hot Enough’: Fury at Trump as More School Evacuations Follow ‘Pet-Eating’ Lies

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3 days ago

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September 13, 2024

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For the second day in a row, elementary school children in Springfield, Ohio, were forced to be evacuated due to threats: a bomb threat on Thursday and an unspecified threat on Friday. The threats come after Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and his running mate, Ohio U.S. Senator JD Vance, have repeatedly spread lies about Haitian immigrants in Springfield this week, including that they are stealing residents’ cats and dogs and eating them.

Thursday’s bomb threat specifically mentioned the false claims about Haitian immigrants eating people’s pets, USA Today reported.

“Three schools in Springfield were evacuated or closed Friday, based on guidance from police, school officials said,” local NBC affiliate WLWT reports. “Officials with the Springfield City School District said that based on information they got from the Springfield Police Division, students at Perrin Woods and Snowhill Elementary were evacuated and moved to another district location.”

A Springfield middle school was also ordered closed Friday morning, before classes began, and “at least one Springfield location of the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles is closed.”

READ MORE: ‘Screaming About Eating Cats Is Not a Solution’: Walz Rallies Michigan Crowd, Slams Trump

On Thursday, a bomb threat targeting Springfield city hall and an elementary school forced evacuations of those buildings.

“Police Chief Allison Elliott said that due to the seriousness of the threat, officials evacuated multiple buildings in addition to City Hall, including BMV Springfield Driver’s Exam Station, Ohio License Bureau Southside, Springfield Academy of Excellence and Fulton Elementary School.”

Despite the reports of the bomb threat on Thursday, hours later Donald Trump used his Truth Social platform to promote the Republican nominee working to unseat Democratic U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio, by spreading more anti-Haitian immigrant racism.

“Bernie Moreno has a very good chance of winning Ohio against a Radical Left Democrat, Sherrod Brown, with what is happening in Springfield, and other parts of the State,” Trump declared Thursday afternoon, referring to the far-right extremist Republican who is currently leading in the polls by low single digits.

Trump then invoked his racist Haitian immigrant lies.

“Ohio is being inundated with Illegal Migrants, mostly from Haiti, who are taking over Towns and Villages at a level and rate never seen before.”

On Truth Social, Trump on Thursday also posted memes of cats, including one with them holding a sign that says, “Don’t let them eat us, vote for Trump.”

RELATED: Loomer Invokes Hannibal Lecter as Trump Triples Down on Lies About Immigrants Eating Pets

During Tuesday’s presidential debate, Trump had falsely claimed, “In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs. The people that came in, they’re eating the cats, they’re eating, they’re eating the pets of the people that live there.”

USA Today also reported that the “false rumor that Haitian migrants were stealing and eating pets began to circulate in the days leading up to the debate and was further popularized through posts from running mate J.D. Vance about his own state and AI-generated images shared by Trump, Elon Musk and the Republican House Judiciary Committee.”

J.J. Abbott, former press secretary to then-Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf, responded to ABC News immigration reporter Armando Tonatiuh Torres-García’s viral social media post reporting Friday’s threat and evacuations:

“In 2018, the GOP and Trump’s anti-immigrant conspiracies led to the deadliest mass shooting in recent PA history at a synagogue in Pittsburgh. The gunman took him seriously and literally. There’s nothing funny or intriguing about this dangerous racism.”

Many others responded to that reporter’s post.

“No sanitizing this. @jdvance and @realDonaldTrump bear full responsibility. They’re promoters of terrorism; and they did it intentionally,” wrote columnist, reporter, and former editor in chief of Crooked Media Brian Beutler.

“Ohio should look at this insanity and vote accordingly. Conspiracy peddling has real consequences. You can’t unring that bell. Donald Trump and JD Vance don’t care,” noted constitutional law professor and political scientist Anthony Michael Kreis.

“Donald Trump and JD Vance are terrorizing schoolchildren. They are unfit for any public office, let alone the highest,” responded attorney Andrew L. Seidel.

“JD Vance and MAGA influencers whipped up a blood libel panic and now children in Springfield are being traumatized by their lies. Hell isn’t hot enough,” commented the co-executive director of the progressive group Indivisible, Leah Greenberg.

“There’s a line from Charlottesville to Jan 6 to this. Trump speaks, his supporters act,” wrote political analyst and researcher Arieh Kovler.

“Trump could stop this but he won’t because he believes it serves his interests. It’s the same J6 behavior of spreading false conspiracy theories to inflame his supporters and then sitting back and watching instead of stopping it,” noted political science professor Michael McDonald.

READ MORE: Trump Faces Increasing Calls to Participate in Second Debate

 

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