The article points out that numerous incidents like this, and the threats to public officials, have occurred since the 2020 election, and ominously notes how it is “casting a shadow over the 2024 campaign as Americans prepare to vote … .”
Along those lines, we can thank Trump, Lake and others for adding a new and disturbing phrase to the American vernacular: “stochastic terrorism.”
In essence, it is a way to describe the actions of a high-powered person who vilifies another person or group in such a way that could lead to violence, but allows the instigator plausible deniability.
…
Of course, none of the high-profile individuals who trashed the supervisors and others by way of lies and innuendo would say they had anything to do with that. They’d say they were simply … talking.
It’s why Trump continues to ridicule New York Attorney General Letitia James. This week he called her a “racist scoundrel who thinks she has total power over the judge.”
That would be Justice Arthur F. Engoron, who is overseeing Trump’s civil fraud trial, which Trump calls a “witch hunt” and has told the judge to “do the right thing” because “the whole country is watching.”
…
When a reporter asked Trump to rule out violence by his supporters he walked away without answering. Should anything bad happen, he’ll claim he had nothing to do with it.
There’s a new phrase in the American vernacular for that.
…
