Thread by @CanuckPlucky

Did #Trump incite violence on Capitol Hill?

Many seem to think so. But I just read through his speech and can’t, for the life of me, rationally come to that conclusion.

I’ll walk you through it so you can see what I mean.

1/

Trump is not a great communicator. But like many politicians, he urges his supporters to ‘fight’ for their side. This is, clearly, not talking about physical violence.

He is clearly talking about being strong, about standing up for one’s convictions.

2/

Through his entire speech, he is drawing a contrast between ‘weak’ Republicans, and the ‘strong’ ones who are fighting. He wants to vilify those who are against him and extol those who are still with him.

Fine. Political speech. Petty, but not violence.

3/

And he finishes this off with the idea that the crowd is going to March down to the Hill and: “cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women”.

But not the other senators. Not the ‘weak’ ones he mentioned. Because you’ll “Never take back our country with weakness.”

4/

He is clearly speaking about the weak vs strong Republican congressmen/women. Clearly.

He clearly states that “it is up to Congress to confront this egregious assault on our democracy”.

Yet this is called incitement by the press.

5/

He then rambles on about Election interference and other subjects for a long while.

If this is incitement, then isn’t Hillary’s “Russia Collusion” conspiracy theory after the 2016 election ALSO incitement? After all; many riots followed b/c that election was ‘rigged’

6/

The reality is that the people who claim Trump ‘incited’ the riot have to stretch his words, take them out of context, and assume he meant things other that what he said.

Immediately after he calls for a show of strength, he called for non-violence.

7/

And at the end of the speech, we see the same call for CONGRESS to take back the country. The same ‘support Congress’ message. The same call for strength/solidarity with the ‘good’ republicans.

Given the speech’s theme, I can see any call for violence, whatsoever.

But...

8/

What about his Tweets?

Well, let’s look at the timeline. Protesters were being aggressive by around 1:10pm. They climb walls and breach police lines by 2:20.

Then Trump tweets this:

Assuming Trump knew what was going on, it’s not a good tweet. It looks like he is condoning the violent pushback.

Assuming he knew, in real-time, what was going on. That he had been updated in the last 30min.

If he didn’t? Then this is nothing more than criticizing Pence. 10/

Then, in the next hour, Trump tweets 3 times. All three ask protestors not to be violent, to stop, to go home. Those Tweets were limited by Twitter, for some reason.

And that’s it. That’s Trump’s contribution.

That’s his ‘incitement.’

/11

So, in order to think that Trump incited the violence, one needs to:

- ignore all the times he called for peaceful protest and cooperation with law. Pretend those don’t mean what they literally say
- ignore the times he says this is Congress’ issue to fix

/12

And to:

- assume that he means more than he says. When he calls for ‘strength’ or to ‘stand up’ assume that means violence. When he says it will ‘be wild’, assume he means violence.
- assume that his supporters will ignore calls for peace, and infer what you think

/13

Do you see the problem? The intentional twisting of reality to fit a narrative?

It’s not real. It’s imaginary. Trump literally called for peace/non-violence 4 times. Twice before things hit their peak.

But that doesn’t matter, because ‘we know what he *really* meant’.

/14

Using this approach, there is nothing Trump could have possibly said or done that couldn’t be twisted/reinterpreted, unless he did not ‘resist’ at all.

I don’t like Trump. I think he’s a terrible communicator, ego-centric, and petty. But the way that Media falsify truth....

/15

...about him to fit their narrative is reprehensible. Absolutely disgusting. See: “fine people” hoax.

And if you buy into it, you’re a conspiracy theorist and a fool. No better than conspiracy theorists on the Right.

Think and search for yourselves. It’s the only way out.

/end

#TrumpBanned
#CapitolRiot
#Capitol
#ImpeachTrump
#Trump

https://twitter.com/canuckplucky/status/1348271608499200000