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 finished last among nine men whom Americans were asked to rate as male role models, according to a poll from The Bulwark and “Pablo Torre Finds Out.”

YouGov surveyed 1,417 adults October 10 to 14, with a 3.6-point margin of error.

The result: 55 percent said Trump is not a strong male role model, while just 37 percent said he is.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, whom Bulwark writer Brendan Hartnett says “obviously sees himself as a paragon of masculinity,” was second-worst. About 28 percent of adults called him a strong role model, and 39 percent did not. Only 18 percent of 18-to-29-year-olds did, against 34 percent who did not.

As for who actually placed strongly, actor Matthew McConaughey rated highest, followed by former President Barack Obama and athlete LeBron James. Obama was called a strong role model by 59 percent, including more than a quarter of Trump voters. California Gov. Gavin Newsom landed slightly underwater.

The survey also found a plurality, 44 percent, think legal sports betting has hurt sports, and 36 percent want prediction markets regulated more. Only 5 percent said a TV-commentator background makes them more likely to back a candidate, versus 43 percent less likely.

Obama is a frequent target of anger and resentment from the president. His Ohio rally comment last week that Trump has decorated the White House "like Saddam Hussein opened a Cheesecake Factory" has left the MAGA movement stung and scrambling to make The Cheesecake Factory into a new culture war.

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A veteran GOP adviser has coined the term “Red Scream” to describe the frustration conservatives and independents feel at being ignored by Donald Trump and Republican leaders ahead of the midterm elections.

According to Axios, that frustration could keep those voters home and cost the GOP control of the Senate.

“The Red Scream is my biggest concern, not the blue wave,” warned Alex Castellanos, a veteran Republican consultant. “Republicans and independents are going to be screaming for attention, and many of them, including those who voted for Trump, may show their frustration by not showing up.”

According to the Axios report, Senate Republicans see Iowa "moving their way" and Ohio "slipping," with pessimism growing over Alaska and Kansas. According to half a dozen senior operatives, "even when they squint, top Republicans struggle to see a majority beyond 51 seats, according to half a dozen senior operatives."

Republicans are fighting on two fronts: unprecedented Democratic enthusiasm and undeniable Republican apathy. Trump’s strategy has been to fire up the MAGA faithful with rallies in the reddest parts of red states.

Axios compared Texas to "a late-season football showdown against an SEC rival": Republicans are still in the game, but defeat is a real possibility.

In Kansas, Sen. Roger Marshall "has stopped the bleeding," but it’s unclear whether there’s enough time left to save his seat, the report notes.

According to Axios, Republicans "are quietly bullish" on Michigan, though they acknowledge they need key groups, especially Black voters, to break heavily in their favor.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) sees multiple paths to 51 seats. No one disputes that North Carolina will elect a Democratic senator, and Republicans’ talk of flipping Georgia now seems a foregone conclusion.

According to the report, "If just two of the next tier of Ohio, Kansas and Alaska flip, the Senate would be split 50-50 before factoring in other competitive races, like Michigan, Iowa and Maine. In Maine, Republicans and Democrats are consumed by competing fears. Republicans are terrified that a national wave will be big enough to wash away Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME)."

A former Defense Intelligence Agency staffer is warning Americans that time is running out to prepare for a crisis. His post has been viewed more than 1.7 million times.

“Your window to prepare, even with the basics, is closing,” wrote Farijah “Doc” St. Clair on X. “For those tracking the indicators that an event is increasingly likely, you know that it is now undeniable that something is brewing.”

St. Clair is head of technology and intelligence at Crisis24, a GardaWorld-owned risk firm. There he leads AiiA, an AI-driven intelligence product built with Palantir that gives corporate executives a daily briefing modeled on the President’s Daily Brief. A combat-wounded Army veteran, he says he spent more than a decade in the Army and the “Defense Intelligence Enterprise,” including a stint at DIA around 2015 and 2016. His company bio says he supported efforts to counter Russian influence and deployed to multiple combat theaters.

In his post, St. Clair wrote that during his intelligence career he worked on “counterintelligence threats to Continuity of Government (COG) and Continuity of Operations (COOP).”

“Something I can say for absolute certain is that once governments signal that their citizens need to prepare, those preparations have already been conducted for national leadership,” he wrote.

He pointed to European governments urging citizens to keep supplies on hand. He also cited reports that the Pentagon wants U.S. military bases to be able to sustain themselves for 90 days, which he called “the loudest signal concerning how significant the situation is.”

“The gravity of this can’t be understated,” he wrote. “The calls for preparedness will escalate in their time frames. 3 days will turn into a week. A week will turn in to a few weeks. A few weeks into a couple months.”

His message to Americans was blunt.

“What Americans should know is that you will be on your own,” St. Clair wrote. “FEMA does not have the resources to help people in a time of need during an event at national scale. Your local authorities don’t either.”

He described a grim scenario that he said comes from an Army study of how big cities collapse when “just in time” supply chains fail.

“In 3 days, a major city is out of food in the major stores. Looting starts,” he wrote. “Suburbia is then the next harvest location. People organize and target food distribution warehouses. Then people head out into the country where people are prepared and things get ugly.”

St. Clair’s advice is to prepare, and to do it quietly.

“You, at some point, will hear, ‘well if something happens, I’ll just come to your house,’ stated as a joke. But this is not a joke. You have now become someone’s backup plan. Don’t allow this,” he wrote.

He urged readers to “randomize when you go to the store,” cut back on visible Amazon deliveries, and “start to think about how to feign poverty.”

He recommended stocking “water, rice, protein, canned foods,” along with basic medicines, and told people to watch the 1980s nuclear war films “The Day After” and “Threads.”

“We are now at the part of both movies where governments are telling people to prepare and some degree of panic is setting in,” he wrote. “This will get worse.”

He signed off with: “For everyone, hang in there. It’s going to get rough.”

St. Clair didn’t say what kind of event he believes is coming. He told readers “to not focus on the ‘what.’”

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has reportedly ordered U.S. military installations to become more self-sufficient, an effort covered by outlets including Fox News and the Daily Wire.

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