Trump repeatedly said “get ’em out of here”
It may yet turn out that Donald Trump is subject to the law just like everyone else.
The courts keep taking Donald Trump both seriously and literally. And the president’s word choices are proving to be a real headache.
A federal judge in Kentucky is the latest to take Trump at his word when he says something controversial. Judge David J. Hale ruled against efforts by Trump’s attorneys to throw out a lawsuit accusing him of inciting violence against protesters at a March 2016 campaign rally in Louisville.
At the rally, Trump repeatedly said “get ’em out of here” before, according to the protesters, they were shoved and punched by his supporters. Trump’s attorneys sought to have the case dismissed on free speech grounds, arguing that he didn’t intend for his supporters to use force. But Hale noted that speech inciting violence is not protected by the First Amendment and ruled that there is plenty of evidence that the protesters’ injuries were a “direct and proximate result” of Trump’s words.
It’s laughable to pretend he didn’t really mean “get ’em out of here” as a physical act. Of course he did. He’s a bully.
Trump and his team will undoubtedly dismiss this latest example as yet another activist judge who is out to get him. But yet again, they are forced into the position of saying that Trump’s words shouldn’t be taken at face value — that he didn’t mean what he actually, literally said.
I’ve argued before that this is a completely unworkable standard when it comes to the media’s coverage of Trump. It allows Trump team members to retroactively downgrade whatever they want to, while leaving the good stuff intact — essentially a Get Out of Jail Free card they can redeem anytime they want.
Instead he’s landed on Boardwalk with a hotel on it.
Some wise man has said: Words mean something. If you do not know what they say, you can not say what you mean. And a gentleman should always say what he means.
(Peter O’Toole’s character tutoring the last Emperor, in the eponymous movie. Approximately.)
Not to accuse Trump of being even approximately a gentleman, but his words are his words. His simpler ones uttered within a simple syntax can be meaningful — and he owns that. Hold him to it.
In this case, as someone commented, he was shouting things in a crowded place which is NOT free speech.
Well, according to some of his voters, Trump didn’t really mean to repeal the ACA. So who knows what anything he’s said, ever, really meant? We’re not only post-truth, we’re post-semantics.
Far out into dementia terroritory. Post-era is past.
So we’re to treat Trump as we treat the Bible? The words mean what they mean……until they don’t.
Once again, I am struck by the parallels on the two sides of the Altlantic. Over here, apparently Brexit really, really means Brexit, no doubt about it, yes, siree. Meanwhile “exact same benefits” doesn’t actually mean “exact same benefits” but something closer to “really rubbish deal”.
Didn’t Trump, at one of his rallies, wax nostalgic about how in the old days, hecklers and protesters would have been “taken out on a stretcher?” Didn’t he offer to pay the legal bills of rally attendees who might be charged with assault? I hope all these things come back to bite him in the ass, the sooner, the better.
> It allows Trump team members to retroactively downgrade whatever they want to, while leaving the good stuff intact
What ‘good stuff’ might that be?