From the jump, Trump has said menacing things that clearly condoned political violence. Like when he said "2nd Amendment people" might have to do something about Clinton. What's worse, tho, is that American conservatives have given him cover.

Because he went on Hannity and made the obvious, BS claim that all he meant was that the *political movement* around the 2nd Amendment could stop her. Uh huh. Sure. NOBODY IN THEIR RIGHT MIND WOULD EVER BELIEVE THAT FOR A SECOND. GTFOH.

This is exactly what the Senate GOPers who exonerated him are doing when they pretend like Trump's January 6 rally wasn't intended to incite a violent attack on the Capitol. Come on, no one acting in good faith could actually believe that.

So Sean Hannity gets to gin up his audience with "OMG, can you believe how hysterical and unfair the liberal media is being pretending like you actually implied someone should shoot Hillary" when everyone knows Trump clearly implied someone should shoot Hillary.

During his campaign, Donald Trump gave implicit support to terroristic threats on his opponent's life. On Jan 6 he gave similar encouragement to terrorists who sought to harm or kill Mike Pence, Nancy Pelosi, and others in order to "stop the steal."

To pretend otherwise is to condone this sort of behavior on the part of a national politician..it is to condone terroristic threats as just part of the "rough and tumble" of political campaigning. It is to invite "patriotic" domestic terrorists to disrupt the democratic process.

Michael Cohen, who was Trump's henchman for years, told us back in 2019 how this works. It's not complicated. Anyone who's spent time in proximity to a powerful bully gets this.