The White House and the Democrats have continued the disingenuous lie that former President Donald Trump said there would be a “bloodbath” if he weren’t elected president for a second term.
The president’s comments clearly referred to what would happen to the auto industry if major players in U.S. car manufacturing were allowed to build plants in Mexico or other countries, then ship the parts to America. Trump is proposing a heavy tariff on importing those parts and cars and warned the audience in Ohio that a “bloodbath” would follow for American workers if the status quo of moving production away from America was allowed to continue.
Nevertheless, the disingenuous misinterpretation of the remark has continued apace by President Joe Biden and his acolytes, so Fox News’ Peter Doocy turned the tables on White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre during Tuesday’s media briefing: If they’re so concerned about Trump using the word, why haven’t they been concerned about Biden using the word himself during the 2020 campaign?
KJP’s response? Doocy was being “disingenuous.” I believe Mr. Freud would have mumbled something about projection, were he still alive.
Just so we’re clear, here’s the initial remark in context, which is plain as day:
The media is lying about Donald Trump with this narrative about a “bloodbath” if he loses the election. He was very clearly talking about the car manufacturing industry—before and after he used the word.
You have to be extremely disingenuous to take what he’s saying out of… pic.twitter.com/qhctYGpi7K
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) March 17, 2024
This was also made over two weeks ago, so the White House still apparently believes that if it repeats this falsehood enough times, people will have to buy it.
However, as Doocy pointed out, Biden used similar language himself when it became clear that he had the upper hand in a two-person fight for the 2020 Democratic nomination and Bernie Sanders’ supporters were threatening to make things ugly.
Is Trump treated unfairly by the media?
“What we can’t let happen is let this primary become a negative bloodbath,” he told a crowd at a fundraiser in Maryland shortly after the 2020 Super Tuesday results went decisively in his favor.
“I know I’m going to get a lot of suggestions on how to respond to what I suspect will be an increasingly negative campaign that the Bernie brothers will run. But we can’t tear this party apart and re-elect Trump.”
“We can’t tear this party apart and re-elect Trump. We have to keep our eyes on the ball, in my view,” he added.
What’s ironic in retrospect is that the media tended to focus on the “Bernie brothers” gaffe — misnomering the so-called “Bernie bros,” an overly zealous, occasionally aggressive group of young, male Sanders supporters that had rankled numerous challengers in the 2020 race with their antics.
However, it’s fair enough to ask — as Doocy did — why Trump’s speech was “violent rhetoric” and Biden’s remark was just metaphorical. Right?
DOOCY: “When Donald Trump is talking about a ‘bloodbath,’ it is violent rhetoric. What was it when Joe Biden said in 2020, ‘what we can’t let happen, is let this primary become a negative bloodbath’?”
KJP: “Your question is disingenuous.” pic.twitter.com/zZoWjUTbyC
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) April 2, 2024
No, of course not: “Your question is disingenuous,” Jean-Pierre said.
“I’m going to be really mindful here, I’ve got to be really careful,” she said. “We have to denounce violent rhetoric which — wherever it comes from, a former leader. We have to denounce that because we saw what happened on Jan. 6. We saw what happened there, when you have a mob of 2,000 people go to the Capitol because they didn’t believe in the free and fair election that happened just months prior because of violent rhetoric.
“You’ve got to denounce that. That’s not what leaders should be doing,” she said.
Has anyone else ever seen the “Family Guy” episode where Lois gets elected mayor simply by answering every question posed to her with “9/11” or “9/11 was bad?” Don’t know what reminded me of that. Total non-sequitur. Forgive my digression.
The idea that Trump’s use of the word “bloodbath” is somehow coded language because of the Capitol incursion — an incident after he explicitly told the audience to protest peacefully during his speech at the rally — is patently ludicrous.
The White House knows that, we know it, the White House knows we know it, and we know the White House knows we know it, to paraphrase a better mind than I. But it’s still patently ludicrous.
There’s nothing disingenuous about a 1:1 comparison about the language that Donald Trump and Joe Biden used metaphorically on the campaign trail — unless, of course, Jean-Pierre wants to admit that her own boss has taken leave of his senses the same way they’re implying Trump has taken leave of his.
If that’s case, we’re all ears. I don’t think, however, we’ll be getting that admission from our senescent commander in chief’s handlers.
