SKILLS: Donald J. Trump made some strange remarks!

THURSDAY, MARCH 21, 2024

So did Ali Velshi and his erudite guest: Judged by any traditional standard, Donald J. Trump made some very strange statements during one of his endless speeches at a recent Ohio rally.

The candidate spoke in Vidalia, Ohio last Saturday afternoon. In this recent essay at Substack, Yale professor Timothy Snyder described the way the rally began:

Those present were instructed to "please rise for the horribly and unfairly treated January 6th hostages."  The reference was to convicts serving time for attempting to overturn the results of the last presidential election and thereby overthrow the American form of government.

The phrase "horribly and unfairly treated January 6th hostages," booming over the loudspeaker, was substituted here for the call to rise to the flag or the national anthem.  

That was a peculiar way for the rally to start. As Snyder notes in his essay, the candidate then began his address by making these odd remarks:

"Well, thank you very much and you see the spirit from the hostages, and that’s what they are is hostages. They’ve been treated terribly and very unfairly and you know that and everybody knows that, and we’re going to be working on that sooner.  The first day we get into office, we’re going to save our country and we’re going to work with the people to treat those unbelievable patriots, and they were unbelievable patriots and are."

The candidate praised the greatness of the "hostages" as he began his remarks. In many cases, the candidate was referring to people who had been convicted of committing violent assaults on police officers during the events of January 6. 

They'd been convicted of violent crimes, but the hopeful described them as "hostages."

By normal standards, the candidate made another series of strange remarks during his speech in Vidalia. In Professor Snyder's framing, Trump was repeating "his lies about the outcome of the last presidential election, lies that began in November 2020 and continue until the present day." 

Professor Snyder's text continues from there:  

There has been some wishful thinking about Trump and the big lie, a suggestion that he no longer depends upon it. Anyone following his rallies and his utterances knows this to be false.  The whole business of "hostages" depends on the big lie, and in this sense the big lie was constantly invoked throughout the speech.

In Vandalia, Trump also told his big lie explicitly at least nine times...

In his essay, Professor Synder then quoted the nine statements at Vidalia in which Candidate Trump claimed that the 2020 election was "crooked," "fake" or "rigged." 

According to traditional parlance, if the candidate actually believes his claims, then his claims, however false, can't be said to be "lies." 

On the other hand, more than three years have passed since the election in question took place, and the candidate has never produced some sort of "white paper" providing evidence in support of his inflammatory claims.

At any rate, so it went as Candidate Trump spoke at Vidalia last weekend. Concerning the peculiar statements we've noted so far, this should also be said.:

The candidate has made these statements many times in recent years! Despite the obvious strangeness of these statements. our blue tribe has had little success persuading Trump voters to abandon the candidate based upon his repeated promulgation of these peculiar claims.

Starting with the national anthem, Trump made a whole boatload of very strange claims during his Vidalia rally. Thirty minutes into his address, he then made a passing reference to a "bloodbath." 

Arguably, and perhaps somewhat strangely, that fleeting, somewhat fuzzy reference produced the latest case of an emerging TV show called Blue Tribe Pundits Gone Wild. 

Trump's earlier claims about the "hostages" and the "fake / rigged election" were more plainly strange than this later fleeting remark. But our tribe, for better or worse, decided to seize on the novelty of the "bloodbath" comment.

So it went in the aftermath of Trump's Vidalia rally. Acyn Tobari quickly posted an edited version of the "bloodbath" comment. For better or worse, blue tribe pundits jumped to the beat of this influencer's latest post, as they've been doing for months.

Donald J. Trump made a boatload of strange remarks at that Vidalia rally. On Tuesday night, Professor Snyder appeared on Alex Wagner Tonight, where he was interviewed by guest host Ali Velshi.

By now, battle lines had clearly been drawn concerning the candidate's "bloodbath" remarks. Pundits from Blue America were expected to say that Trump had been threatening physical violence in the streets if he loses November's election. 

By way of contrast, pundits from Red America were expected to say that Trump had been talking about an economic bloodbath, mainly involving the auto industry. According to pundits from Red America, that's what Trump meant, full stop.

That's where tribal positioning stood as Velshi went on the air Tuesday night. He started the show with a monologue about the Vidalia rally. After introducing Professor Snyder, he soon made this odd remark about Trump:

VELSHI (3/19/24): He brought up cars for one sentence, then went back to violence.

The professor didn't challenge, critique or contradict that apparently false remark. In fairness, Velshi never challenged or questioned some odd remarks the professor had made in his Substack essay, including this plainly odd remark:

SNYDER (3/19/24): Trump's defenders are the one who are taking Trump's remarks out of context.  And, in their more strident forms, the defenses of Trump are not innocent.  The apologists suggest that Trump is being unfairly attacked—that he is, once again, as always, the real victim...

The meaningful contexts make Trump's summons to violence clearer and worse.  That said, even if we knew nothing about the history of political violence, or about Trump, or about the rest of his appearance in Vandalia, the meaning of "bloodbath for the country" would still be absolutely clear to anyone who listened to him.  Even if we play the bad-faith syntactical game that his defenders want us to play, there is really no doubt that he was talking about a bloodbath when he spoke of a bloodbath.

Say what? In the absence of partisanship, the actual meaning of Trump's bloodbath remark "would be absolutely clear to anyone who listened to him?' Anyone who says anything different is acting in bad faith?

Sometimes, talk of a bloodbath js talk of a bloodbath, the professor (perhaps oddly) now said. Links to videotape of this interview will be offered below.

Candidate Trump made an array of strange remarks at his Vidalia rally. As Professor Snyder noted in his essay, the candidate made a lengthy string of baldly peculiar remarks before the word "bloodbath" was uttered.

That said, Velshi and Snyder also made a series of odd remarks as they discussed this event on Tuesday night. The quoted remark from Synder's essay strikes us as very strange.

What was strange about Velshi's remark—about the one remark we've quoted? What was strange about the quoted remark from Professor Snyder's essay?

We'll answer those questions tomorrow. As we do, we'll quickly review the history of our blue tribe's failed attempts to highlight Trump's plainly peculiar remarks. In the main, we'll be asking you this:

Can our blue tribe hope to prosper if we resign ourselves to a pundit brigade driven by high-end professors?

Spoiler alert for tomorrow:

Without any question, Professor Snyder is a highly erudite professor. In fairness, so were the three elite college presidents who crashed and burned in the face of the demagogue Stefanik at that highly instructive though grisly House hearing back in December.

Professor Snyder seems to be totally sure about what he heard at that Vidalia rally. He's a deeply erudite historian, but in this matter, has he possibly wandered out beyond the borders of his obvious expertise?

Tomorrow: "He brought up cars for one sentence," Velshi oddly said

To watch Velshi interview Snyder: To watch the Velshi/Snyder interview, you can just click here.

To watch the entire segment from Tuesday night's show, you can start by clicking this.