October 23, 2019

MARK KARLIN, EDITOR OF BUZZFLASH

Yesterday, Trump let forth an abominable tweet at 6:53 ET time comparing a Constitutional investigation of his criminal behavior to a lynching. His primary goal was to provide a diversionary story line to the Congressional damaging testimony of US Chargé d'Affaires to Ukraine, William Taylor, which was to begin later that morning.

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Trump is obviously fully aware of his violations of the Constitution and other lawlessness associated with his and consigliere Rudy Giuliani’s skullduggery in Ukraine. And he, no doubt, had advance notice that Taylor was a career diplomat who wasn’t going to pull any punches, as Trump’s EU ambassador, Gordan Sondland did.

So, Trump set off an improvised explosive device (IED) by claiming that he was the victim of a lynching by the Democrats in Congress. Trump is a master at manipulating the media, and his goal with the vile lynching tweet worked to a great degree. It sucked some of the news oxygen out of a damning indictment, delivered with clarity and details by Taylor, and created a competing narrative of grievance and victimhood that captured headlines to diminish the impact of Taylor’s testimony.

Here are just a few of the headlines from major press outlets that covered Trump’s lynching tweet:

The New York Times: Trump Calls Impeachment Inquiry a “Lynching.” President Trump described the Democrats’ impeachment inquiry into him as a “lynching” and said it was “without due process or fairness or any legal rights.”

Washington Post: Taylor’s Testimony on Alleged Ukraine Quid Pro Quo Called “Damning,” as Firestorm Continues Over Trump’s Lynching Tweet

HuffPost: White House Spokesman Attempts to Defend Trump’s “Lynching’" Remarks

Roll Call: Trump “Lynching” Tweet Just Latest Impeachment Myth — From Both Sides. Inquiry Has Featured Misleading Statements Thrust Into Either by GOP and Dems, Muddying Probe

The Daily Beast: Lindsey Graham Stands Up for Trump: Impeachment Inquiry a “Lynching in Every Sense.”

Trump’s goal was to muddy the waters, and he did. This is par for the course in his daily efforts to inject himself into news cycles that might otherwise amplify information that is harmful to him without a competing story line.

At least one news outlet, The Hill, understood Trump’s aim was to create fireworks that would suck some of the oxygen out of the coverage of Taylor’s devastating testimony:

President Trump created a firestorm on Tuesday when he deployed racially inflammatory language yet again — this time referring to the impeachment inquiry into his activities as a "lynching….

Trump’s “lynching” comment came at a moment when he was facing immediate peril…

He tweeted that “all Republicans must remember what they are witnessing here — a lynching” shortly before William Taylor, the head of the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine, testified on Capitol Hill. 

Trump was also again appealing to his white supremacist base by, in essence, paradoxically owning the horror of lynching as a privileged white male. Trump was despicably minimizing the unforgivable sin of lynching Blacks by asserting that he, a white billionaire born with a silver spoon in his mouth, could be a victim of such ignominious hangings. It’s racism born of grotesquely co-opting deadly racist murders.

After the El Paso massacre, which Trump incited through racial-priming, BuzzFlash wrote three commentaries, including: “Message to the Mainstream Media: Stop Normalizing Trump's Behavior. He Is a Racist, Liar and Instigator of Violence. Full Stop.”

When in a corner, Trump will revert to racism to rally his base and to inflame his supporter’s profound grudge of white grievance. Yesterday, he abhorrently also used his racism to counter the media coverage of Taylor’s revelations. To Trump, it doesn’t matter if the coverage is negative. His goal is to create a competing spectacle, which he did in his usual deplorable fashion.

The NAACP puts the lynching death toll at 4,743 since the Civil War.

The captivating late singer Nina Simone poignantly sang of the haunting legacy of lynchings in her signature song, “Strange Fruit”:

Southern trees bear strange fruit,
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root,
Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze,
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.

Pastoral scene of the gallant south,
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth,
Scent of magnolias, sweet and fresh,
Then the sudden smell of burning flesh.

Here is fruit for the crows to pluck,
For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck,
For the sun to rot, for the trees to drop,
Here is a strange and bitter cry.

Donald Trump is no lynching victim, but one can hope that he will receive his due on the scales of justice.

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