Let's focus on the “If he SHOT Comey" part of Rudy's trial balloon
By Spocko
People are writing about the impeachment vs indictment part of Giuliani's comment, because that is what normal people do.
Giuliani said impeachment was the initial remedy for a president’s illegal behavior ― even in the extreme hypothetical case of Trump having shot former FBI Director James Comey to end the Russia investigation rather than just firing him.
“If he shot James Comey, he’d be impeached the next day,” Giuliani said. “Impeach him, and then
you can do whatever you want to do to him.”
But look at the violent rhetoric Giuliani uses, "If he shot..."
Shot, not punched with his tiny hands. Shot, not stabbed in the back. Shot. Not fired from a fake Apprentice job.
Trump wants to shoot and kill his enemies.
I think this comment is about something on the #TrumpTapes. Rudy says what Trump wants to do out loud. The media and some of us are using the "Rudy is a dotty old man bit" to discount his comment. But to diminish them allows the Trump Team to float outrageous trial balloon after trial balloon to reset expectations on normalcy.
Let's imagine audio of Trump telling Michael Cohen to threaten Stormy Daniels with violence. Violence ordered by Trump might not sound so bad as compared to him using personal lethal violence with a gun.
This is all about setting expectations. It's like the old joke where the kid tells his dad some horrible story and at the end of it he says, "It's not true!" because it makes the fender bender of the car sound better.
I've been writing about the terrible effect of the right wing using violent rhetoric for over a decade.
I like to remind people that threatening speech is not protected speech. Giuliani could have used a number of other words, but he wanted to create an NRA-approved image. "Trump can personally shoot and kill someone."
The image Giuliani uses is Trump personally shooting the head of the FBI. Executing him.
You will note this isn't an image of Trump acting in self defense. Giuliani created an image of Trump shooting and killing someone who he feels wronged him. This is Trump using lethal violence.
For Comey in this scenario there is no arrest. No trial. No Judge. No jury of peers. Just BLAM! Trump as the gunfighter shooting the bad guy, Comey.
But even mob bosses don't do their own killing. they order others to do it for them. They have people "whacked" or other euphemisms for physical violence.
When a comms team floats a trial balloon of the most extreme case, they are hoping to learn something and set up something. Rudy's trial balloon tells us to expect the next level down from Trump personally executing a defenseless man with a gun.
In Rwanda the radio hosts for the Hutu's said "Cut the tall trees" when they wanted to tell Hutus to kill the Tutsis. They didn't say, "Take a machete and kill your neighbor." But people knew that was what they were talking about. I've got 5 Quatloos on Trump telling Cohen to do some kind of physical violence to Stormy Daniels. Then people will start arguing about what is to be taken seriously vs what is hyperbole. "It's not like Trump told Cohen to shoot her!"
Therefore, when the #TrumpTapes come out, please keep in mind that this is not a TV show. This was not some clowns joking. This was not some dotty old men shaking their fists at some mean lady with no actual plans to do anything. This happened before the election. Just because Trump personally didn't shoot someone doesn't make the threats he DID make okay.
This is real life, not Apprentice Mob Boss
Following the release of the #TrumpTapes the public and the media must demand all the elected adults act. This means impeaching the president, then indicting him. Then arresting and trying him. That's what normal people do in a democracy.
