At the beginning of his first rally on Sunday, Donald Trump said, “I love being off these stupid teleprompters because the truth comes out.” That statement was an omen of what was to come when the former president said he wouldn’t “mind” if a would-be assassin had to “shoot through” members of the media in an attempt to kill him.
“I have a piece of glass over here,” Trump said during a rally in Lititz, Pennsylvania, pointing to his far right. Since the assassination attempt against Trump in July, both he and Vice President Kamala Harris have spoken behind panels of bulletproof glass as a safety measure.
“And I don’t have a piece of glass there,” Trump added, pointing between the panes of glass.
“I have this piece of glass here,” Trump continued, pointing forward. “But all we really have over here is the fake news, right?” The crowd laughed.
“And, to get me, somebody would have to shoot through the fake news, and I don’t mind that so much. I don’t mind. I don’t mind that,” he said.
As CNN senior producer Sarah Boxer pointed out, “The riser facing [Trump] head-on is full of reporters and cameras.”
The former president then breezed by essentially wishing death upon reporters and camera operators, likely including employees of outlets that are friendly to him, and started to talk about how the glass means he doesn’t “look great on television.”
“So I have a piece of glass,” he said, “and the problem with the glass is I don’t look great on television when you have a four-inch piece of glass that a Howitzer can’t go through. When you see yourself on television, you say… you’re really not very recognizable to be honest with you, which is good.” (Trump is, in fact, extremely recognizable, in part because of his ever-increasing orange hue.)
Even though Trump quickly moved on from his dangerous remarks, it’s important to point out his threatening rhetoric for what it is: a call to violence.