"After I left Donald Trump's rally in North Carolina, I walked a mile alongside his supporters"

[Nevilledog]

Link to tweet

Tweet text:
Olivia Nuzzi
@Olivianuzzi
After I left Donald Trump’s rally in North Carolina, I walked a mile alongside his supporters. I listened as they spoke to each other. This is what they said: https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/11/american-flag-collapses-at-trump-rally-in-north-carolina.html…
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Donald Trump had only been onstage for a few minutes in Hickory, North Carolina, when there was a loud bang. The lift holding up an American flag at the back of the venue had blown over and half the flag — the striped portion — was now thrashing wildly in the air, as if trying to break free.

Thirty hours from the election he is on track to lose, the president made his third of five scheduled stops across the Midwest and Southeast on the Lord’s day of rest: Michigan in the morning, Iowa in the afternoon, North Carolina at sunset, followed by Georgia and Florida after that. After months grounded in the White House due to the coronavirus pandemic and a weekend confined to Walter Reed due to the coronavirus itself, Trump has attempted to make up for lost time and for the gap in the polls, holding as many Make America Great Again rallies as he can manage each day.

The rallies are a means of energizing voters, yes, but just as importantly, they’re a means of energizing the president. The race in North Carolina is close now, as it was in 2016, when Trump led by about one point and won by 3.7. Now, Biden leads by 0.3 percent.

The rallies are many and they are scheduled, often, at the very last minute, creating chaos and drama and, increasingly, danger for those who attend. In Pennsylvania, a security guard told me that there’d been a series of communications failures between the campaign and law enforcement and that, overall, he’d never worked any event so disorganized in his life. In Nevada, a police officer reported similar dysfunction. After a rally in Nebraska last week, the crowd was stranded in the 30-degree cold, sending several to the hospital. And a rally in Florida ended with a dozen people treated for heatstroke.

MAGA rallies follow similar scripts and similar staging no matter where they’re held or what the president is supposed to be talking about. At arenas and airports, the press pen may be an island, surrounded by the crowd on all sides, or it may be at the very back of the event space, which was the case on Sunday in North Carolina. The crowd formed an arch around the metal barricades, protecting the Fake News risers (one in front for national media and one behind for local) and four rows of tables and chairs with electric plugs and bottles of hand sanitizer and sheets of paper that say “TRUMP PENCE” and the Wi-Fi code.

*snip*

[roamer65]

1. MAGAts.

[crickets]

2. FOX News kills brain cells. nt

[Nevilledog]

3. I have no use for these people. If they're so weak willed they believe this bullshit...fuck em.

[Budi]

4. Sounds pretty much like the state of the entire Country.

The rallies, the nation, his University, his Bank loans, his properties, our Government offices, the Postal Service, our foreign policy, our Borders, our immgration policy...

Chaos & Shambles

[Qutzupalotl]

5. This is troubling.

These people are being set up to foment a civil war if the vote counting process proceeds normally. They’re being fed a poisonous narrative. I blame poor civics education coupled with supporting an autocratic demagogue.

[andym]

6. They've gone too far down the rabbit hole.

Rush, Fox News, the right-wing internet/social networks, and especially Trump himself, the modern PT Barnum with a twist, he only cares about himself, amplifying everything and driving his supporters to an alternative reality.

[magicarpet]

7. The Greatest Show on Earth...

The trDump Reality TV pResidency show.

Ratings like no other,... thrills,... chills,... chaos,... and mayhem at every bend and turn in the road. 10X better than The World Wrestling Championship and NASCAR combined.

[SWBTATTReg]

8. I've seen reports of 700 former trump supporters (?) dead from the CV from attending trump...

campaign rallies. He doesn't care about anybody obviously.

[Mariana]

9. 700 dead and tens of thousands infected.

Then the infected (at least the ones who aren't in hospital) will go to the polls on Tuesday because they didn't vote early or by mail ...

[Squinch]

10. INNNNTERESTING!!!: Two trumpers are quoted as saying they have already voted, and they

don't know anyone who hasn't already voted.

This might indicate that the outpouring of voters for Donny Bodybags expected to show up on Tuesday may not be coming.