The President of the United States stood in Bullhead City, Arizona, on Wednesday and told a rally that people who leak information to the press should be shot. His exact words: “In my opinion, leakers should be shot.” The crowd cheered. He called them “the scum of the earth” for good measure. This was a campaign rally. On camera. Into a microphone. The man running a midterm blitz to protect his Congressional majority said the appropriate punishment for talking to a reporter is death, and said it out loud to applause.
This is the same week his Defense Secretary floated livestreaming a firing squad execution. “Shoot the people who embarrass me” at a campaign rally three weeks before an election is a new floor. The message is for the press: this is what you deserve for printing things I don’t like. And ten thousand people in Arizona clapped.