They love him in Alabama. If they only knew what he really thinks of them.
by digby
This is the Nuremberg rally love he always wanted:
They love him down there in Alabama. Apparently, they are fine with the way he talks about southerners too. Remember what Rob Porter told Bob Woodward he said about Jeff Sessions:
“This guy is mentally retarded. He’s this dumb Southerner. He couldn’t even be a one-person country lawyer down in Alabama.”
There have been other reports of this too:
If Sessions’ recusal was his original sin, Trump has come to resent him for other reasons, griping to aides and lawmakers that the attorney general doesn’t have the Ivy League pedigree the president prefers, that he can’t stand his Southern accent and that Sessions isn’t a capable defender of the president on television — in part because he “talks like he has marbles in his mouth,” the president has told aides.
His loyal minion Laura Ingraham was inspired to issue a warning:
Very unwise if @realDonaldTrump is criticizing Sessions’ accent and legal pedigree—unless POTUS wants to offend his most ardent ‘Bama supporters.— Laura Ingraham (@IngrahamAngle) August 30, 2018
Whatever. They don’t care. He did an exaggerated impression of Sessions at CPAC and they all laughed and laughed. He could shoot someone in broad daylight on the Edmund Pettus Bridge and he wouldn’t lose any Alabama voters.
There are a few dissenters down there who staged a protest at the big game yesterday, but the Trumpers put them in their place:
A man who slashed open a giant “Baby Trump” balloon with a knife during the president’s trip Saturday to Tuscaloosa, Ala., for the Alabama-Louisiana State football game was free on bond Sunday, saying in a video that he’d “do it again if given the opportunity.”
A group protesting President Trump’s visit set up the 20-foot inflatable caricature in a park near Bryant-Denny Stadium ahead of the match between the top-ranked college teams. It was looming among the crowds outside when someone ran up and cut an eight-foot gash in the side, organizers said.
Police identified the suspect as 32-year-old Hoyt Hutchinson of Tuscaloosa. They said officers arrested him after he sliced into the balloon and tried to flee.
Hutchinson was charged with first degree criminal mischief, a felony, and was released on $2,500 bond, according to AL.com. It was not clear if he had retained an attorney. After his release, he posted a Facebook live video, saying as he stood in front of a TV with the game playing: “Some liberals tried to come to my hometown and start some trouble. That ain’t happening. I did get arrested. I got charged. That’s all right. I’d do it again given the opportunity.”
The appearance of the Baby Trump balloon marked the third time in recent weeks that the president has faced conspicuous opposition at sporting events. He was met with sustained boos and chants of “lock him up” when he attended a World Series game at Nationals Park in Washington last month. And he got a similar reception when he attended a mixed martial arts event in New York at the beginning of November. The reactions have incensed some of Trump’s supporters, who call the behavior disrespectful.
While the Baby Trump balloon caused a stir outside the Alabama-LSU game, Trump appeared to get a mostly warm welcome inside the stadium, where he was greeted with a mix of boos, cheers and chants of “USA! USA!”
By the time the game ended, a GoFundMe page titled “Restitutions for Baby Trump Stabber” had been set up by a user named Hoyt Hutchinson. It featured a video of a man resembling Hutchinson’s mug shot yelling “Trump 2020!” as officers push him into an SUV.
A description on the page read: “Hoyt made sure our beloved president didn’t have to see this disrespectful balloon on the streets of Ttown today!!” The paged had raised more than $21,000 as of Sunday morning, far surpassing its goal of $6,000. Hutchinson promised on Facebook to donate whatever is left after his legal expenses “to the Republican Party.”
To be clear, I think puncturing the baby balloon is pretty harmless hijinks. Arresting him is kind of ridiculous. On the other hand, they sicced the FBI on Kathy Griffin for holding up a bloody Trump mask and she was put on the no-fly list so it’s hard to get too worked up about his plight, especially since he’s collecting a nice little bounty for doing it.
Suffice to say that Trump voters in deep-red states just love them some Trump. And I would imagine he’ll stage a big reconciliation with Sessions too. His former AG is groveling at his feet with such mortifying servility that it must make him feel very, very strong.
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