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

MSNBC’s Jen Psaki on Sunday systematically dismantled the Donald Trump campaign claim that criticism of the GOP nominee’s “bloodbath” warning was unjust and his comments had been taken “out of context.”

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 gonna be a bloodbath. That’s going to be the least of it. It’s gonna 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 Biden White House press secretary, 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. “’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 that 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