Trump’s Final Hate Rally

Hey, translash, fam. This is the mess Imara’s Guide to our political hellscape. And that’s me. I’m Amara. I’m so glad that you’re here, because this is the show where we’ve been breaking down and processing everything that’s been happening in politics with an eye of trying to keep a smile on through the absurdity while dealing with the reality. And I can’t believe that this is our last mess before the election will certainly be here afterwards, because it won’t be over on election night. And I just want to thank you for riding with us on this journey and being a translash fam subscriber, digging into politics is not easy, and the fact that you’ve joined our pay tier to go along for everything that’s been happening and find value in that is something that I appreciate, we all appreciate. It helps us do so many other things at translash. So thank you so much. And with that, let’s get into our last three topics before the election, on the mess. Today I’m going to tackle Trump’s vitriolic and wild Madison Square Garden rally, his three hour interview on Joe Rogan’s podcast, and Kamala Harris’s vague, possibly charitably cautious answer on the issue of gender affirming care. Now, as you know, we record this couple of days before it gets to your ears, and because things are changing and moving so quickly, if things do shift by the time you listen to this, well, now you know why. Okay, let’s get messy. You It’s been 48 hours since Trump’s rally in Madison Square Garden, which was billed as his final closing argument to voters, and it stretched almost six hours as one giant hate mob. Now, across that nearly workday long event, the Trump campaign rolled out the greatest hit of haters, Stephen Miller, who has done so much in terms of promoting anti immigrant sentiment, Rudy Giuliani, who piled on to anti Arab sentiment. It literally went on and on. But the person who stole the show, and not in a good way, was comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, who rolled out all of what he thought were going to be a series of racist jokes that were going to cement the relationship that the Trump campaign has with its base, and perhaps give him newfound fame. Well, it certainly gave him something. Among the jokes that got the greatest attention was one aimed at Puerto Ricans, and it didn’t go so well. Here’s that clip from CNN. There’s literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now. Yeah, I think it’s called Puerto Rico. Yeah, no one’s laughing, and especially the people who weren’t laughing were various stars with large followings, like Jennifer Lopez, like bad bunny, like Mark Antony, who tweeted out to their 10s of millions of followers the fact that they were now swinging behind Harris. That’s what happens when you call people who’ve contributed greatly to society trash. But he didn’t stop there. He said things even more crude, like quote these Latinos, they love making babies too. They just do there’s no pulling out. They don’t do that. They come inside, just like they do in our country. Again. No one’s laughing. But of course, because the final days of this campaign have been piling on both immigrants and trans people. Trans people certainly made their way into this Trump rally, and that was done by none other than Donald Trump himself, who said that we have to, quote, get transgender insanity the hell out of our schools and keep men out of women’s sports. Now the sad thing about this rally is that it actually echoes one from 1939 when a group called the American bund packed Madison Square Garden as well with fascist people who were supporting Hitler before the United States ended up being in a war with Nazi Germany. And you can’t help but see the parallels between these two rallies. It’s hard to think that Trump’s campaign, who has a long experience and sometimes downright infinity with extremist groups, didn’t know that the visuals from this rally and that rally would be side by side, perhaps sending a message to the people that they’re trying to activate, and it just underscores for us that the stakes in this election couldn’t be higher. We have literally been told right before the election what’s at stake through both visuals and what people said and echoes of the past, and that is just a terrible fascistic mess. So underscoring how, like I said in the last segment that the closing argument for the Trump campaign is immigration and anti trans hate. Donald Trump went on Joe Rogan’s podcast, the one that reaches 25 million people. You know, those male voters that he is trying to get as a part of his bid for the manosphere to talk about both issues, and he strung them together again. Here is Donald Trump on Joe Rogan’s podcast.

Who is going to vote for somebody that wants open borders? Who’s going to vote for somebody that wants to have men playing in women’s voice? You know, I have never had one person come up to me and say, President, you gotta do something to allow men to play in women’s sports.

I mean, not only does Joe Rogan’s laugh stand out, underscoring that his anti trans, anti gender ideology bent that he has with the just asking questions kind of approach is, you know, alive and well, after it had been tamped down for a while, it just kind of came out there in a subtle laugh. But is also Donald Trump, right at every single turn Donald Trump makes this argument. It’s not something that is accidental or marginal. It is something that is planned. And by the way, no one, including trans people, are not asking for men to play in women’s sports. What people are saying is that people should be able to play in the sport which aligns with their gender identity. And that’s echoed by a whole slew of people in athletics, like winning coaches from women’s basketball teams and even in the WNBA. So it’s not actually a fringe or an outside of the mainstream idea, just to be clear about it, but all of this just underscores that Trump is trying to speak to men, and that he is saying and telegraphing that what his campaign is all about is a return to patriarchy, a return to men being on top and everyone else having to follow. And that’s the way that he thinks his voters want it. And honestly, that’s a Father Knows Best mess, because he really doesn’t know.

Let me ask you this question, very broadly speaking here, do you believe that transgender Americans should have access to gender affirming care in this country? I believe we should follow the law. I mean, I think you’re probably pointing to the fact that Donald Trump’s campaign has spent 10s of millions of dollars. They’re trying to define you on this yes, I’m asking you to define yourself, though, just broadly speaking, what is your value? Might you believe they should have that access? I believe that that people as the law states, even on this issue about federal law that that is a decision that doctors will make in terms of what is medically necessary. I’m not going to put myself in the position of a doctor. That

was a clip from NBC with Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, and, of course, current vice president. She was being interviewed by Hallie Jackson. Now, in all fairness, the rest of the quote does go on, and she does say that she believes that all people should be treated with respect and dignity, period. But the answer, quite clearly, is cautious, and I think that that very much defines Kamala Harris’s campaign in the closing days of the election. We’ve talked about in two segments during this show how Donald Trump’s campaign is throwing caution to the wind. It’s anything but cautious, and her campaign is the exact opposite. Now what’s interesting is that Kamala Harris has gotten up before juries and made full throated arguments about the need for the respect for trans people’s lives and for trans people to receive equal justice. She’s also argued against trans panic defenses, and works to make that illegal in the state of California. So we know that Kamala Harris has the ability to be able to stand up 10 toes down and make really strong arguments about trans people and trans dignity. What’s fascinating is that it didn’t happen in this case, it was a very measured response trying to walk the line. And I think that it telegraphs to us exactly where that campaign thinks that it is, you know, it thinks that it pretty much has the progressives and, you know, traditional Democratic base lockdown, and they’re just trying to appeal to some of those Nikki Haley voters, some of whom may or may not be comfortable with trans people and trans equality and gender affirming care, and so they’re just trying to walk this line. And it’s a tightrope, you know? And sometimes when you walk tight ropes, if you keep going down them long enough, you lose your balance, and we won’t really know until election day, whether or not this tightrope walk pays off, whether or not this caution will pay off, because this campaign knows how to not be cautious around transitions, not only the Vice President, but also Governor Walz, who knows how to be very clear about trans issues as well, but this also under. Scores the fact that, in reality, Kamala Harris and Tim walls are just traditional politicians. They are traditional in the political mold. And as Michelle Obama said, when we look at both Harris and Trump, are we holding them to the same standard? Right does, in her words, as many people have said, Does Harris have to be flawless while Trump gets to be lawless? I don’t know. Voters will have to make that decision, but the answer here was a high wire mess. Thanks so much for allowing me to get messy with you one last time before the election. If you like this show, please, please, please, go to Apple podcast. Leave a review, tell us that you like it and love it. Lead five stars. We really need that it helps us in so many ways, and it also helps us know that you listening and we might read it out on the show if you leave a comment, but you have to leave a comment, I’ll be back in your feed in a couple of weeks to sort through all the shenanigans that have happened. Maybe we’ll have a winner by then. Maybe we won’t, but either way, we will be here with you to sort through it all. And by the way, thanks for being a transpam subscriber, I said it at the top of the show, but I can never say it too many times. I’m your host. Amara Jones, this show is produced by Aubrey Callaway. Sandra Adams is our senior sound engineer and contributing producer, and this episode was engineered by Lucy little Oliver ash Klein oversees production as the director of podcast translash media. The show gets to your ears the help of our social media team, Oliver Whitney and Courtney Cobb. And of course, this show is made possible by translash fam subscribers like you. Thanks for listening and hang in there.