Trump’s assassination joke isn’t just a threat to Secretary Clinton | Hacker News Reader

Trump’s assassination joke isn’t just a threat to Secretary Clinton

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13 pointsokket13 comments

I've been reading the word unprecedented a lot today. For reference, here's Obama unambiguously joking about drone-murdering the Jonas Brothers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWKG6ZmgAX4

Political assassination is a real thing that happens; federal drones attacking celebrities is not as common. The Jonas Brothers are not Obama's political opponents. Our country is not full of weaponized drone owners. These are two very different "jokes".

My concern is more about the many foreign civilians killed by America's drone program than any real belief that it would be used against the Jonas Brothers.

Except this is at the Whitehouse correspondents dinner - a well known comedy event. AND the threat/joke wasn't made against a rival/adversary.

""" On January 8, 2011, U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords and eighteen others were shot during a constituent meeting held in a supermarket parking lot in Casas Adobes, Arizona, in the Tucson metropolitan area. Six people died, including federal District Court Chief Judge John Roll; Gabe Zimmerman, one of Rep. Giffords' staffers; and a nine-year-old girl, Christina-Taylor Green.[1][2][3][4][5] Giffords was holding the meeting, called "Congress on Your Corner" in the parking lot of a Safeway store when Jared Lee Loughner drew a pistol and shot her in the head before proceeding to fire on other people.[2][3] One additional person was injured in the immediate aftermath of the shooting.[6] News reports identified the target of the attack as Giffords, a Democrat representing Arizona's 8th congressional district.[2] She was shot through the head at point-blank range, and her medical condition was initially described as "critical".[2][3] """

I'm glad we can find the humor in situations like these.

Well, I'm actually pleasantly surprised that the media is reporting this as joke, and not as "Trump openly threatens to kill Hillary Clinton."

Why is this news again? Is there nothing more to be reported on than another Trump off-color insult? Couldn't we, you know, actually have a serious discussion of "issues", or do those not exist anymore?

No, not a mere crass joke.

Trump's style is to try saying different nasty things in order to see which sticks and makes his opponent to lose balance.

Trump did this on Ted Cruz, insinuating threats to his family. It was something that affected Cruz and contributed to him having a bad campaign. Cruz even mentioned this recently when he refused to endorse Trump.

Trump and his media team repeat adjectives when refering to opponents, like "crooked hillary". Cruz was the "zodiac killer".

I thought Trump called him "lyin' Ted" and the zodiac killer thing came from Reddit.

Someone who wants to go shoot Secretary Clinton doesn’t need Donald Trump to tell him (because it’s always a man who does this sort of thing)

That is incredibly sexist.

Well, it could be a former man, or it could be a female partner of a man Clinton has had an affair with.

Is it beyond imagination to think women might at times choose violence too? Or is in Will Wheaton's mind, women are simply incapable of violence?

Yes, it happens:

https://au.news.yahoo.com/a/30392942/mistress-jailed-for-lif...

Or, maybe its just a factual statement that political assassinations in the US are, almost without exception, carried out by men, without any commentary on the reason for this fact.

Second Amendment Remedy to take care of another high-profile woman who bothers him

No mention of politics, only whether it is "bothering" the potential killer, which might as well be a due to relationship dynamics. If he was going to make a statement that maligns half of the population, make it specific.

the one exception that I know of is president Ford. 2 different women tried to assassinate him!

Thanks, I remembered Squeaky Fromme, but had completely forgotten about the other one. Here's the history:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_Ford#Assassination_atte...

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