Jen Psaki Uses Donald Trump Campaign's Own Plea To Dismantle Key Claim

MSNBC’s Jen Psaki on Sunday dismantled the Trump campaign’s claim that the GOP nominee’s “bloodbath” warning was taken “out of context.”

Former President Donald Trump told a rally in Dayton, Ohio, that: “We’re going to put a 100% tariff on every single car that comes across the line. And you’re not going to be able to sell those cars, if I get elected. Now, if I don’t get elected, it’s going to be a bloodbath for the whole… that’s going to be the least of it. It’s going to be a bloodbath for the country. That’ll be the least of it, but they’re not gonna sell those cars.”

Critics said Trump’s “bloodbath” line was the latest instance of his violent rhetoric. His campaign, though, claimed Trump was just talking about the economy and said it was being taken “out of context.”

Psaki, a former White House press secretary for President Joe Biden, decided to consider “the full context,” as Trump’s campaign has urged, which was that Trump at the same event saluted those “convicted for the deadly assault on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, all to the tune of the national anthem sung by a choir of imprisoned insurrectionists.”

“‘The full context’ is that some of the first words out of Trump’s mouth last night, same rally, were thanking those rioters and calling them ‘patriots,’” she continued on “Inside with Jen Psaki.” “‘The full context’ is that he also said, in this same rally, ‘If this election isn’t won, I’m not sure that you will ever have another election in this country.’”

“‘The full context’ is that he went on to say some undocumented immigrants are, quote, ‘not people,’” she added. “And, of course, ‘the full context’ is that this is much bigger than one single speech.”

Psaki noted just some examples of Trump’s yearslong “embrace of political violence” and use of “dehumanizing language” — from his threat of “bedlam” if he was prevented from running for president again to his refusal in 2017 to condemn white supremacists in Charlottesville, Virginia.

“I could go on and on and on,” Psaki said. “So, no. We did not miss the full context. This was not some meandering off-message comment. This is his message.”