Trump's 'twisted and demented' salute to Jan. 6 rioters wrecked by Morning Joe

Trump's 'twisted and demented' salute to Jan. 6 rioters wrecked by Morning Joe

MSNBC's Joe Scarborough condemned Donald Trump for celebrating jailed Jan. 6 rioters as patriots and hostages.

At a campaign rally in Dayton, Ohio, the former president saluted the J6 Prison Choir's alternate rendition of the national anthem, calling them "unbelievable patriots," and pledged to help those "hostages" on his first day in office, and both the "Morning Joe" host and co-host Mika Brzezinski called his comments "twisted."

"Donald Trump, again, the Republican frontrunner who basically clinched the nomination, addressing one of the first things he'll do in office, is free the – and I say this in quotes – 'hostages,'" Brzezinski said. "It's beyond twisted for him to use that word. Not surprised but as disturbed as we'll ever be."

Scarborough said the ex-president's remarks were insulting to Americans who have loved ones held as hostages by Hamas after the Oct. 7 attacks in Israel.

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"What if you were an American family with hostages still being held in tunnels underneath Gaza, people who actually are hostages, who were doing nothing but being in their home or at a musical festival, minding their own business, when Hamas terrorists came and seized them and beat them, raped them, abused them, took them underground," Scarborough said. "Donald Trump comparing those people in name to others that drove from across the country, came to the Capitol, used bear spray on police officers, beat the hell out of cops, beat the hell out of other people who got in their way, wanted to hang Mike Pence, were looking for Nancy Pelosi, destroyed a lot of offices, defecated in the United States Capitol. Again, jammed cops' heads in doors and tried to hurt as many people as they could."

"You know, Donald Trump, I remember the day after, Donald Trump and members of his family getting in trouble for calling these rioters patriots," Scarborough continued. "They backed off, some of them backed off. Donald Trump wading straight in, saying these people were patriots and that, you know, others saying this wasn't a bloodbath. I would suggest that you talk to the wives, sons and daughters of those police officers who lost their lives as a result of Jan. 6, and they will tell you that their loved ones lost their lives as a result of Jan. 6. Donald Trump continues to praise these people. He says, he says, everybody knows they're patriots. No, everybody doesn't, in fact. You have to be twisted and demented in your head if you can look at can rioting, people beating the hell out of cops, with police officers with American flags, trying to kill them, and call them hostages after they went through the court system. That is a sickness and a twistedness, and the continued -- you have people continuing to try to apologize for this behavior, starting with Donald Trump, trying to minimize what happened on Jan. 6."

"For those who say, why do you talk about Donald Trump?" he added. "We talk about Donald Trump because, yes, democracy is on the line. When Donald Trump says this is normal political behavior, the RNC said it was normal political behavior, Donald Trump says it, he says those people abusing police officers are patriots. Those that got sent to jail for trying to overrun the U.S. Capitol and for beating the hell out of cops are hostages, nothing – there is nothing normal about this. For those weak-kneed wimps that say we should never mention Donald Trump's name and just turn our faces from this and talk about something else, I would suggest there are Germans who tried that with Hitler – didn't turn out well."

Watch the video below or at this link.


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President Donald Trump and his supporters are furious at the National Football League over the selection of Bad Bunny, a Puerto Rican rap star who has criticized the administration, to perform at the upcoming halftime show. But the NFL is making clear that its decision won't be renegotiated.

According to ESPN, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell "addressed the Bad Bunny controversy at his news conference following the NFL's fall meeting. It is the first time he has commented on the move announced in late September that garnered worldwide attention, including an increase in streams of Bad Bunny's music, along with backlash."

"It's carefully thought through," Goodell told the conference. "I'm not sure we've ever selected an artist where we didn't have some blowback or criticism. It's pretty hard to do when you have literally hundreds of millions of people that are watching." He added of Bad Bunny, whose real name is Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, "He's one of the leading and most popular entertainers in the world. That's what we try to achieve. It's an important stage for us. It's an important element to the entertainment value."

Trump himself recently jumped into the controversy, telling the right-wing Newsmax network during an interview, "I don't know who he is. I don't know why they're doing it. It's, like, crazy. And then they blame it on some promoter they hired to pick up entertainment. I think it's absolutely ridiculous."

In addition to the criticism of Trump, MAGA supporters are enraged that Bad Bunny is expected to perform the halftime show in Spanish. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) proclaimed the performer's work is "demonic" and asserted it's further proof English must be made the official language of the United States.

Meanwhile, Turning Point USA, an infamous far-right youth activist group that is still reeling from the murder of founder Charlie Kirk during a political event in September, has announced plans to put on its own "alternative" halftime show packed with performers they deem patriotic and pro-American.

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President Donald Trump just "laid bare" the "absurdity" of Chief Justice John Roberts' catastrophic Supreme Court decision, according to new analysis published Wednesday.

A new Mother Jones report from reporter Pema Levy describes how Trump can make the decision to demand the Justice Department pay him $230 million of taxpayer money "because thanks to the Supreme Court’s recent decisions, the executive branch could accurately be described by King Louis XIV—L’état, c’est Trump."

That "colossal cash transfer" Trump is requesting can happen due to the high court opinions from Roberts, "in which the court has shifted the fundamental structure of American government such that federal agencies, including the Justice Department, are mere extensions of the president’s will."

The reality is that Roberts set the groundwork for Trump's latest "shakedown."

"The absurdity of Roberts’ decision was laid bare Tuesday: The president gets to pay himself hundreds of millions in taxpayer dollars, because he controls all executive branch personnel and all of their decisions, and there’s probably nothing anyone can do about it," Levy writes. "It sure doesn’t feel like our democratic accountability has increased. Of course, Congress could and should pass a law prohibiting such payments, and dare the Supreme Court to strike it down—but this Congress is unlikely to do even that bare minimum in response."

Trump wants to be compensated after the investigations over Russia's involvement and interference in the 2016 election, and Trump's alleged mishandling of classified documents that he took after leaving the White House the first time.

"Now that he’s back in the White House, Trump plans to make the government pay for its appropriate use of its ability to investigate and prosecute to safeguard our democracy. And he grasps the fact that he has the absolute power to do that," Levy writes.

He even admitted it.

“With the country, it’s interesting, because I’m the one that makes the decision,” Trump said Tuesday in the Oval Office, following questions about the payments he requested.

“That decision would have to go across my desk. And it’s awfully strange to make a decision where I’m paying myself,” Trump said.

Roberts has claimed to be increasing democratic accountability in his opinions.

"But at this point, we can all see the mess he’s created. A man who takes from the voters to line his pockets is not feeling all that accountable to anyone," Levy writes.

A coalition of labor unions and progressive advocacy organizations on Tuesday launched the “Take Back Tesla” campaign, urging shareholders of the electric vehicle giant to reject a pay package that could make CEO Elon Musk the world’s first trillionaire.

Musk is already the richest person on the planet, with an estimated net worth of $458-485.9 billion as of Wednesday. His previous 10-year proposal, worth $56 billion, was invalidated by a judge. He’s now on an interim plan that has not been approved by shareholders, who are set to vote on the $1 trillion package at the company’s annual meeting next month.

Tesla’s board unveiled the proposed $1 trillion plan—which would be the biggest corporate compensation package in history—last month. Musk would get the full amount if he boosted share value “eightfold over the next decade” and stayed at Tesla for at least that long. He would own 29% of the company, one of several in which he holds a leadership position.

Top unions, such as the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and Communications Workers of America (CWA), joined groups including Americans for Financial Reform, Ekō, People’s Action Institute, Public Citizen, and Stop the Money Pipeline for the new campaign against “Musk’s money grab.” As part of it, they launched the website TakeBackTesla.com.

“How shareholders vote on Musk’s trillion-dollar pay package and other important Tesla ballot items will likely set the stage for similar attempts by other oligarchs to consolidate their own power.”

Several coalition leaders pointed to Musk’s recent efforts to get President Donald Trump elected and then help the Republican gut the federal government—which has been shut down for 22 days due to a congressional funding fight—via their so-called Department of Government Efficiency. The billionaire’s DOGE activities provoked nationwide protests targeting Tesla.

“In the last 12 months, Elon Musk’s attempts to destroy the American government have caused huge damage to the Tesla brand and contributed to a significant decline in the company’s sales in multiple key markets,” Stop the Money Pipeline’s Alex Connon noted, urging shareholders to “reject this insane proposal.”

AFT president Randi Weingarten said that “the Tesla board, instead of upholding basic governance standards, wants to green-light an outrageous $1 trillion pay package for a CEO who has spent most of the year engaged in childish political brawls, rather than working to create shareholder value.”

“To reward this destructive behavior with an obscene salary is a slap in the face—not only to the federal workers he’s fired, but to the retirees whose pensions are invested in Tesla stock,” she declared.

Dubbing the proposal “Musk’s corporate heist,” CWA president Claude Cummings Jr. similarly stressed that “Elon Musk is enriching himself by stealing from the American worker—from our infrastructure dollars for rural broadband to workers’ private data from the Department of Labor—and now he wants to steal $1 trillion from our pensions and retirement accounts.”

Natalia Renta, Americans for Financial Reform’s associate director of corporate governance and power, emphasized that the vote is bigger than Musk. She said that “how shareholders vote on Musk’s trillion-dollar pay package and other important Tesla ballot items will likely set the stage for similar attempts by other oligarchs to consolidate their own power.”

“This new website allows people to get their voices heard by sending letters to their state financial officer and mutual fund manager (if they have one),” Renta added. State treasurers of Connecticut, Nevada, and New Mexico have already joined mounting calls for shareholders to vote down Musk’s compensation package.

Ekō executive director Emma Ruby-Sachs argued that “no CEO is worth a trillion-dollar pay package, but especially not Elon Musk, who has wiped billions off of Tesla’s share value, trashed the company’s reputation, and driven millions of its customers away. Tesla’s shareholders need to show the judgment Musk so clearly lacks, and reject this pay deal.”

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