Jared Yates Sexton attended Donald Trump’s Charlotte, North Carolina rally on Thursday – the Republican candidate’s first event since his hiring of Breitbart CEO Stephen Bannon.
Sexton went to the rally undercover, as he received death threats for his previous report on a Trump rally in Greensboro, North Carolina. Sexton disparaged what he saw at that rally, describing the bigoted rhetoric voiced by Trump supporters as “clear and unabashed.” He recalled one particularly disturbing comment:
Seemingly emboldened by the atmosphere of serial transgression, a man a few feet away from me answered a warm-up speaker’s call for solidarity with the victims of the massacre in Orlando, Fla., by shouting, ‘The gays had it coming!’
But the Greensboro rally was nothing in comparison to Trump’s first Bannon-penned rally, Sexton says. He wrote about his second Trump rally experience in a New Republic piece:
For as long as Trump has run for president, he has criticized the media’s handling of his candidacy. But his rhetoric toward the press has heightened since the Republican National Convention as story after story—about his insults of the Khans, the dysfunction of his campaign, and the murky Russian dealings of his chairman, Paul Manafort—has chiseled away at his aura of invincibility.
Sexton writes that the crowd’s “deepest rage” had shifted from Hillary Clinton, who they referred to as a “bitch” as they chanted “lock her up,” to the media.
The consensus in the crowd Thursday was that this biased coverage was to blame for Trump’s sinking poll numbers. When I walked into the Charlotte Convention Center, the first pair of men I came across were leaning over the railing of the press pit and joking about how much fun it’d be to “beat the shit” out of a few reporters typing away on their laptops and smartphones at one of the media tables. Later, I heard several people say that certain reporters, including the entire lineup at CNN, should be jailed for their indiscretions—and that Trump would do exactly that once he was elected.
After Trump said goodnight, supporters moved to the barricade and engaged with reporters. Some just stood there, glaring. In the crowd, the talk was how unfairly Trump had been treated. Somebody said the media was full of ‘perverts and retards,’ while a man in a ‘Trump That Bitch’ T-shirt said ‘all reporters need lobotomies.’ His friend suggested that President Trump might sign an executive order to that effect, but Mr. ‘Trump That Bitch’ couldn’t see that happening—a President Trump, that is. ‘You know there’s no way they’ll let him get in the White House,’ he said.
On the sidewalk outside, the familiar vendors were selling their offensive merchandise. People drifted toward the street to hail cabs or tracked down their Ubers. Down a ways, in the shadow of the building, a pair of men were smoking cigarettes and shooting the bull. One wore a veteran’s hat, the other a ‘Make America Great Again’ cap.
‘It don’t look good,’ the veteran said. ‘Biased media’s gonna steal this thing.’
‘Yeah,’ his buddy said. ‘Reckon one of these days we’ll have to take matters into our own hands.’
Jared Yates Sexton also live-tweeted the entire Charlotte, North Carolina rally.
@JYSexton – Curated tweets by EndTrumpsLies
After Trump loses it will not stop. It will prove their suspicions even more, and Trump will find another another avenue to peddle them.
— Jared Yates Sexton (@JYSexton) August 20, 2016
Trump TV or Trump News will sell viewers a confirmation of paranoia with no concern for consequences. It's dangerous, dangerous territory.
— Jared Yates Sexton (@JYSexton) August 20, 2016
Say what you want about Fox News, and it has harmed the country and its people, but I think they thought they were helping.
— Jared Yates Sexton (@JYSexton) August 20, 2016
Trump's media will be like mercenaries. A for-profit reality distorting service with no ties or aspirations toward making life better.
— Jared Yates Sexton (@JYSexton) August 20, 2016
I mean, if you think Fox News is dangerous, and it most certainly is, you haven't seen anything yet.
— Jared Yates Sexton (@JYSexton) August 20, 2016
I'm not sure how Bannon figured out that people would rather hear a speech than a loudmouthed idiot bragging about how much money he had.
— Jared Yates Sexton (@JYSexton) August 20, 2016
I mean, Bannon sat Trump down and said, You need to give a speech instead of ramble incoherently for two hours. That? Revolutionary.
— Jared Yates Sexton (@JYSexton) August 20, 2016
Let Trump Be Trump is apparently idiot for morph into a pandering, scripted shell of your former terrible self.
— Jared Yates Sexton (@JYSexton) August 20, 2016
Trump's already tired of this prepared speech routine. You can tell it's eating him alive that he can't get out there and be himself.
— Jared Yates Sexton (@JYSexton) August 20, 2016
The inflection's different. When it was him rambling for an hour and a half he got worked up. Dull now. And he just shuffles off dejectedly.
— Jared Yates Sexton (@JYSexton) August 20, 2016
The question is whether Bannon will keep him on such a short lease he won't have interviews to act out in.
— Jared Yates Sexton (@JYSexton) August 20, 2016
