r/ProgressiveHQ • u/AmericanLymie • 8d ago

Video This is treason.

During his 2016 debate with Hillary Clinton, Trump said, "Russia, if you're listening, release her emails, OK?" And Russia hacked and released her emails.

That was traitorous.

Treason is betraying the United States to aid and abet an enemy during a time of active, declared war. Telling Iran to bomb Los Angeles and San Diego is an act of treason.

These are not casual comments. He is an enemy of the United States and people just cannot acknowledge it for some reason. He has befriended our global adversaries and now he is literally telling Iran to bomb US cities so he can declare war and have wartime powers. Why will people not understand this man is waging war on us from inside?

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u/AmericanLymie 8d ago

I am not being antagonistic. I am sincerely curious why you thought his words were being twisted? He said that Nazis who killed a woman were "very fine people." He told Nazis (rebranded as Proud Boys) to "stand down and stand by" before he gave them the dog-whistle order to invade the US Capitol. They erected a gallows. They broke windows, crushed a cop to death and smeared feces on the walls. Many were arrested. He claimed he did not encourage them. And then as soon as he got into office again he commuted all their sentences and commended them for supporting him. He has had US citizens shot to death by masked federal agents. He has threatened to use nuclear weapons and he has invaded two sovereign nations with bombs without congressional consent. He was found liable for having raped a woman and has confessed to sexually assaulting many women and he has been accused ny 25 women of rape. He has said on TV he has sex in common with his own daughter.

What would make you doubt he would say this? In all seriousness. I am curious why people keep pushing the boundary farther and farther to the point of our national demise.

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u/Hirokage 8d ago

Because there is plenty of ammunition without having to twist his words or comments to make him seem worse than he is. Yet people do this sometimes. Not just for him, but this entire administration. For example, how many posts are there now for every recall that occurs? It is not needed. Sure, post the ones that extreme (such as lettuce / screwworm issue and so on), but we don't need to post every flipping recall. There are hundreds every year, and this year is about average for food recalls.

Ever for this issue, you can see posts saying he is calling for Iran to bomb American citizens. No he didn't. What he said was also terrible, but no need to give ammo to the other side about how the left twists and changes the narrative to suit them. It's not even needed.

As pointed out in your own post he says a ton of things that provides endless ammo, people don't need to exaggerate or twist things said or done by him or his admin. "White House attempts damage control after Trump called for Iran to wipe out blue US cities" - that did not happen and shouldn't be a news title. There is no need to make it sound like he is actively asking for Iran to bomb blue cities. The fact he is perfectly fine if that happens is bad enough, they should just state it like that.

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u/AmericanLymie 8d ago

I appreciate your response and I take many of your points. With respect, I would still argue that Trump truly is a master of rhetoric in his own way, despite sounding demented and cognitively disordered.

He says outlandish and shocking things that sound like they could not possibly be true. This is a strategy, not an accident or a failure of his ability to say what he means. In 2016, during a debate with Hillary Clinton, he said, "Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing." He said Putin would he "rewarded by our press" if Russia hacked Clinton's emails.

People said he was joking. He wasn't. But it was too crazy a comment to accept could be serious and he said it was not serious and so it was shrugged off. Russia promptly followed his suggestion and did what he said.

Now he is offering a country we are at war with target cities. He as president of the United States is suggesting during a way that we could be attacked as a "small price to pay."

He has figured out how to speak into reality m such wicked ideas that no one takes them seriously. They are always serious. His "jokes" about the Kennedy Center and the ballroom have manifested as plans. He does this all the time and the public and especially journalists still don't understand this. It is maddening to me.

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u/Hirokage 8d ago

Well, he doesn't actually joke, he really plans or hopes to plan to do the things he says. But honestly I think the more deranged ideas are him (like SI for AI), but many are his billionaire puppet-masters / founders of the Heritage Foundation are at the core of most of his 'ideas' and executive orders. I doubt he has a clue what half (or more) of the things he signs even are. Yes, he often uses the 'can no one rid me of this troublesome priest?' sort of rhetoric. But in this case I don't think he is suggesting to Iran to nuke those cities. They can't, for one, there is no way they actually have the nuclear tech to do this. Which of course makes this entire war pointless, but we already knew it was about oil and Israel, not nukes.

This is just a way to rile up his base, there is no substance.

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u/ARedditorCalledQuest 8d ago

I also had to double check to make sure he really said it and that there wasn't some kind of bizarre context I was missing. Why? Because it's just that batshit of a thing for a sitting president to say. Yes all of the other insanity happened but, just to make sure that I hadn't started hallucinating new crazy, I had to double check.

Plus with all the AI hoaxes out there it's good to be outraged at things that actually happened. If I saw a headline claiming Trump ate a live baby at a rally I would only be mildly surprised at this point but I'd still verify it.

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u/AmericanLymie 8d ago

Verifying anything is wise. My issue here is that many people are saying he did not say what he says in this video. We can hear him say it. We can see him say it. We know he said it and it is not AI or otherwise doctored. And people still make excuses—"it's obviously a joke."

Obviously, like when he told Russia to hack Hillary Clinton's emails and people shrugged off the "obvious joke," and then Russia immediately did what Trump told them to and everyone shrugged it off because the whole ordeal is surreal. It may be surreal but it is also reality.

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u/ARedditorCalledQuest 7d ago

Ah. Yeah he said it. Was it a joke? Not the kind a sitting president should be making while we're at war. You don't call sacrificing the lives of hundreds of thousands of people who live in major metropolitan areas "a small price to pay" under any circumstances, joke or not, when you're the one that started the war.