The Daily Populous Sunday September 1st, 2024 morning edition
Authored by vanityfair.com and submitted by IronFistBen

A man attending a campaign rally for Donald Trump on Friday stormed the media section, attempting to climb up the side of the enclosed area, before being tasered by law enforcement on the scene, according to a video posted to social media by a reporter for CBS News.

Less than ten minutes before, the former president called journalists the “enemy of the people.”

Trump claimed that the New York Times is losing “reader after reader,” which brings him joy. “I have to be happy about that,” the Republican presidential nominee began, "because they truly are the enemy of the people. They are the enemy of the people. They tell false stories about me—that’s all they do is they write false stories.”

X content This content can also be viewed on the site it originates from.

Earlier in the speech, Trump also directly went after CNN following the organization’s exclusive sit-down interview with Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota governor Tim Walz a day earlier.

“It was a very weak interview from the standpoint of CNN. I think CNN should be ashamed of themselves,” Trump said before acting out how he would have responded to questions from the organization. The network’s interview with Harris and Walz was watched by around 6.3 million viewers on Thursday, according to the Nielsen data, almost double the 3.3 million viewers who tuned in for Trump’s CNN town hall in May of 2023.

As the incident was unfolding near the media section, Trump was again critiquing how the press is covering the 2024 election.

The former president appears to begin watching the interaction and says, “beautiful,” before repeatedly noting, “he’s on our side.” It’s unclear exactly how much of the situation Trump saw and if he was referring to the individual man’s actions or the response from law enforcement. Though, at the beginning of the situation, he smiled and said, “We get a little itchy, David, don’t we?” (Dave McCormick, who is running for US Senate in Pennsylvania, spoke at the rally.)

As the interaction with law enforcement continued on the rally floor, Trump transitioned to talking about the failed assassination attempt against him at another Pennsylvania rally in July, claiming that the man in question was holding up a symbol—the now-famous American flag “angel”—from that day.

At that event, moments after the initial shots rang out, some rallygoers turned against the media that had also just survived a mass shooting.

“Some people in the crowd started to come to the risers,” NBC’s Dasha Burns, who was reporting live from the Butler, PA rally, said at the time. “They started to get heated with the press … started blaming the press for what had just happened.”

iymcool on August 31st, 2024 at 22:45 UTC »

"Then, he continued, “By the way, I hate some of these people, but I’d never kill them. I hate ’em. No I think, these people, honestly, I’ll be honest, I’ll be honest, I would never kill them. I would never do that.” Trump then makes the balancing motion in his hand—the movement indicating maybe— “Ah, let’s see, eh, no, I wouldn’t,” he said, seeming to play into the crowd’s response."

This authoritarian play-acting bullshit? This should be immediate grounds for disqualification from running for any office. He knew exactly what he was doing with this baiting.

Toadfinger on August 31st, 2024 at 21:06 UTC »

Yeah dictators despise journalists.

LoserBroadside on August 31st, 2024 at 20:56 UTC »

Of all of the horrifying Trump shit that has been normalized over the nearly decade, this right here is the most horrifying to me. The fact that it is now so common place for him to direct his crowd to verbally assault the fenced-off reporters, that it doesn’t even warrant a mention in his daily rally coverage. Trump literally priming his immediate audience for violence, every day, sometimes multiple times a day, directed towards one of the few extra governmental checks on power. It’s absolutely terrifying that this has been normalized.