Donald Trump told a rally today that he wouldn’t mind if someone shot through the media section at his rally, the latest violent rhetoric he has used on the campaign trail in the final days before the election.
Trump’s attacks on the media are routine, but at the Lititz, PA event, Trump was talking about the bullet proof glass now now surrounds him at outdoor events since the assassination attempt on his life in July.
“I have this piece of glass here,” Trump said. “But all we have really over here is the fake news, right? And to get me, somebody would have to shoot through the fake news. And I don’t mind that so much. I don’t mind.” Some in the crowd cheered.
Campaign communications director Steven Cheung said in a statement that Trump was talking “about protective glass placement has nothing to do with the Media being harmed, or anything else. It was about threats against him that were spurred on by dangerous rhetoric from Democrats. In fact, President Trump was stating that the Media was in danger, in that they were protecting him and, therefore, were in great danger themselves, and should have had a glass protective shield also. There can be no other interpretation of what was said. He was actually looking out for their welfare, far more than his own.”
On Thursday, Trump said that Liz Cheney is “a radical war hawk. Let’s put her with a rifle standing there with nine guns shooting at her. Let’s see how she feels about it. You know, when the guns are trained on her face.”
Cheney, who has endorsed Kamala Harris, said that Trump’s remark “is how dictators destroy free nations. They threaten those who speak against them with death. We cannot entrust our country and our freedom to a petty, vindictive, cruel, unstable man who wants to be a tyrant.”
The Trump campaign said that the former president was talking about how “warmongers like Liz Cheney are very quick to start wars and send other Americans to fight them with no regard for the lives lost.”
Trump has spent part of the final days of his campaign attacking media outlets. He filed a lawsuit against CBS over the way that 60 Minutes edited an interview with Kamala Harris and, earlier today, attacked Fox News again for running Democratic ads.
He wrote, “FoxNews keeps putting on Democrat ads, as part of their news program. Their soundbites are almost all of Harris and her Democrat friends, all of whom are on the shows. FOX NEWS IS NOT OUR FRIEND. It’s crazy!”
Trump also went after Matt Drudge, who has run blistering headlines about him on Drudge Report. Trump wrote, “I haven’t seen the Drudge Report for years, but everyone tells me it is doing really badly. Is it remaining open, or will they close it up?”
Drudge’s headline this afternoon: “Move Over Cheney, Now He Wants Reporters Shot!”
