Michael Tyler: Trump’s ‘Bloodbath’ Comment Is ‘Endorsement’ of Political Violence

PSAKI: “Michael, thank you so much. I know we called you this morning and asked you to talk about this. I appreciate you taking the time. I want to just start — I mean, your statement from the campaign makes that very clear. It was not in your name, but the statement from the campaign makes very clear what the campaign was thinking. But when you heard the full context and when you saw those comments at that rally, what did you hear?”
Tyler: “Thank you, Jen, for having me. What I heard was the same cirrhotic, the same endorsement of political violence that we have seen from Donald Trump for years, as you pointed out. It goes even farther back, right? This is the same guy who, after Nazis marched in Charlottesville and killed a woman, said there were very fine people on both sides. This is the same guy who in 2020 told the Proud Boys, the white supremacist group, to stand back and stand by. And now, every single day on the stump, he is championing and praising the insurrectionists who he encouraged to violently storm the Capitol in an attempt to overthrow our democracy. So it is not simply one comment. This is exactly who Donald Trump is and this is exactly the threat that he poses to our democracy every day. The problem for Donald Trump, though, is that the American people saw what happened on January 6th and they’ve responded consistently since, right? They responded in 2022 when Democrats had the most successful midterm cycle for a Democratic incumbent since FDR. They continued to respond last year in states like Kentucky, Ohio, Virginia, the fall elections then, and they’re continuing to respond right now. That’s why we are on the front foot heading into this general election, because the American people fundamentally understand, a) what Joe Biden has done to fight on behalf of the American people over the course of the last three years, but they see, every single day now, the threat Donald Trump poses if he is able to regain power. He is talking every single day about tearing down the fabric of our democracy and enacting political revenge if he is able to serve as a dictator on day one, as he is promising to do.”
PSAKI: “I mean, the American people are smart, to your point. They have been watching him use this rhetoric consistently for months and years. You know, the Trump’s team claim, which I don’t buy into, this is all in the context of a riff about the auto industry, which does not even entirely make sense, let me just say. But I think that — I wanted to ask you just what your thoughts are on that, that claim.”
Tyler: “Yeah, I think the claim is nonsense, again, because this is a guy who every single day is talking about enacting political revenge, every single day is praising political violence that we saw in 2020. So the idea that they will be able to spin their way out of this today is ridiculous because every single day, Donald Trump is promoting and endorsing and encouraging political violence on the stump. It’s dangerous but it’s unpopular and the American people continue to reject it. So we are confident that if we continue to contrast the violence, the danger, the chaos, the division that Donald Trump is preaching every single day on the stump against Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’ positive vision of bringing Americans together in pursuit of progress, we are going to be successful and the American people will continue to reject it. It is dangerous, but we have confidence in the decency of the American people to reject the extremism that we see from Donald Trump.”
PSAKI: “I’ll also note the same people saying this is out of context have not condemned the other dozens of times he has made comments that prompt political violence in our political — politically violent rhetoric. Let me ask you, the president has been very vocal, forceful — “
Tyler: “He has been doing it for years.”
PSAKI: “It’s true.”