Militia men blame Trump's rhetoric for planned attack

[Dr. Winston O'Boogie]

Militia men blame Trump's rhetoric for planned attack

Attorneys for Kansas militia members who conspired to bomb a mosque and apartment complex housing Somali immigrants have asked the court to take into account at a sentencing hearing next month what they called President Donald Trump's rhetoric encouraging violence.

I'm really really hoping that the judge, instead of giving them leniency, decides to make an example of them and gives them the maximum sentence. Although I can kind of appreciate the following:

But defense attorneys in court filings Monday and Tuesday sought to humanize their clients and spread some of the blame.
"The court cannot ignore the circumstances of one of the most rhetorically mold-breaking, violent, awful, hateful and contentious presidential elections in modern history, driven in part by the rhetorical China shop bull who is now our president," according to a sentencing memorandum written by attorneys representing Stein.

(emphasis mine)

[Blatherskite]

Trump bears a lot of the responsibility for stoking the flames of violence, but these people should certainly not be granted leniency on the basis of 'The president made me do it'.

Everybody in the US was subject to the same rhetoric during Trump's campaign and yet, amazingly, most managed to avoid conspiring to commit hate crimes.

[E. Q. Taft]

Also, Trump would never have gotten this far if a lot of the anger and hatred hadn't been simmering under the surface. He's stoked it and directed it, but he didn't create it -- at least not most of it.

[crocoduck_hunter]

No, what he's done has been to legitimize it.