LIAR IN CHIEF
‘Running a White Power Message’: Trump Destroyed Over Racist Tweet Proving ‘I Don’t Want to Create a Panic’ Is a Lie
President Donald Trump on Wednesday appeared amazingly unaware that Bob Woodward had released audio from their 18 hours of interviews, but seized on the only defense available when a reporter handed it to him at a press conference.
The right wing echo chamber immediately upgraded to the new talking point: Trump lied about the deadly dangers of the coronavirus because he didn’t want to create panic.
“I wanted to always play it down,” Trump told Woodward in March. “I still like playing it down, because I don’t want to create a panic.”
Trump’s entire campaign, as former Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill said Wednesday evening, is about creating fear and panic.
“He is running a campaign based on fear and panic. All he campaigns on is that the suburbs have to be scared to death of Black people moving in, or that they have to be scared to death of riots in the city, that there’s carnage on the streets. He is all about fear in his campaign.”
It took less than a day for the President to prove his claim he didn’t want to create panic was a lie.
“The Democrats never even mentioned the words LAW & ORDER at their National Convention. That’s where they are coming from. If I don’t win, America’s Suburbs will be OVERRUN with Low Income Projects, Anarchists, Agitators, Looters and, of course, ‘Friendly Protesters,'” he said epithetically Thursday morning in a racist 1950’s fear-mongering tweet.
It’s almost as if he was telegraphing McCaskill’s condemnation and twisting it into as tweet.
So much for not wanting to panic people.
The Internet rose up in anger and mockery.
he’s begging us not to panic so please calm down everyone https://t.co/yYiy3OQf9W
— George Conway (@gtconway3d) September 10, 2020
All those, on left and right, who claimed Trump won by appealing to the #economicanxiety of working-class voters need to explain why he constantly conflates “low income” Americans with “Anarchists, Agitators, Looters”? https://t.co/wE5E8iHaAi
— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) September 10, 2020
The president cares deeply about preventing public fear and panic. https://t.co/EAbrhW9siE
— David French (@DavidAFrench) September 10, 2020
“If I don’t win, white folks might have to live next to Black and brown people” is a rather desperate threat https://t.co/WAY9sOhh3O
— rabia O’chaudry (@rabiasquared) September 10, 2020
This is the man who lied to us and killed 200,000 Americans because he “wanted to avoid a panic.” https://t.co/mcDO5aXUbx
— Patrick S. Tomlinson (@stealthygeek) September 10, 2020
A lot of people are taking the “don’t panic” explanation at pure face value when this is what the Twitter feed has looked like for a decade https://t.co/LoaVdvEZlf
— Benjy Sarlin (@BenjySarlin) September 10, 2020
“OVERRUN with Low Income Projects” means “I’m signaling to my racist supporters just how much I have their backs.”
Actually, does it even count as signaling when it’s this thinly veiled? https://t.co/FiCE7EgI7s
— Yonathan Reches (@YonathanReches) September 10, 2020
tfw your dog whistle is a tugboat horn https://t.co/jhqos2RsMj https://t.co/6CNkRsQXsB
— Gillian Brockell (@gbrockell) September 10, 2020
Trump is running a white power message. It’s still largely considered impolite to acknowledge that. https://t.co/WlTfXm72mx
— Susan J. Demas 🏔 (@sjdemas) September 10, 2020
Democrats want to murder your family. Calm, no panic! https://t.co/wHdh5ENTO6
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 10, 2020
look guys he’s all about keeping calm and not making people panic, why don’t you understand that? https://t.co/KQDXrSliKn
— Oliver Willis (@owillis) September 10, 2020
So good at projecting calm, he’s basically FDR. https://t.co/uxVZTgmEX2
— Matthew Gertz (@MattGertz) September 10, 2020
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