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What's getting lost in the coverage of a Trump supporter calling for the shooting of immigrants last night is that Trump crowds have been doing this for years and that they're always just saying the thing Trump leads them to. 1/
I've covered a lot of Trump rallies, and there's not a one of them where the audience wasn't calling for people to be killed, imprisoned, or brutalized. What happens in the crowd is almost always a response to the rhetoric Trump is peddling onstage. 2/
The clip going around shows Trump in mid-thought, but what's getting lost is that he was insinuating to the crowd that maybe troops should be able to shoot people crossing the border. It's what he does. He floats the idea, lets the audience finish it. 3/
It's a really sinister piece of rhetoric and he's been doing it since the beginning. He'd float the idea of being violent to protestors, but treat it like a joke. Then, the next thing you know, a protestor gets attacked or physically intimidated. It's a direct response. 4/
One of the most glaring moments of this came in a Raleigh, NC rally after the FBI announced it wouldn't prosecute Hillary Clinton. Trump continually nudged the crowd into calling not just for imprisonment but hanging. Everyone in the building could hear it. 5/
There's a plausible deniability in all of it. If you'll notice, last night, Trump didn't tell the crowd it was wrong to call for the shooting of immigrants. He laughed it off and used it as a means to pander to the area. He got them to that point and didn't walk it back. 6/
I'm guessing after the event the crowd continued. That's what happens after these things. They file out, into the parking lot, and the rhetoric gets even worse. I've seen them wave Confederate flags in people's faces, say some of the most vile things imaginable. 7/
The point is, this isn't just campaigning. Trump is intentionally playing the worst instincts of these people and priming them like a weapon. He's telling them he's willing to kill and they're eating it up. It just continues to escalate and it's not going away. 8/
What's most concerning about last night, about them calling for the murder of immigrants, is that it's not new. It's been happening for awhile, and now Trump is openly reacting to them. This won't be the last time, and there's no way he's going to step back from this. 9/
And what's more, as he becomes more and more imperiled, it's only going to get worse. He has a base that is willing to embrace fascism and celebrate it. We have to call it what it is and not dance around it anymore. 10/10
