Donald Trump invited two rappers who are members of the 8 Trey Crips gang onstage with him at his rally in the Bronx yesterday. Tegan “Sleepy Hallow” Chambers did eight months in prison on charges of gun possession and criminal conspiracy. Michael “Sheff G” Williams served two years in prison for criminal possession of a firearm. Both men were arrested last year along with 32 other gang members in a 140-count indictment for gang activity, murder, and conspiracy.
Those rappers are local, the story is local. The. NYDN broke it at 10:05 p.m. ET after the event and updated it at 9:07 a.m ET Friday. It should hardly be a surprise if the national media are not on top of it. When the unibomber case was breaking I read the Idaho papers. When M$ was in court for bad biz behavior I followed the news in the Seattle papers. Etc. Local papers usually get the story first, whatever it is. Saw a story earlier, CNN is down to fewer primetime followers than the Village Voice had when I was an editor there. Local news coverage has unique advantages.
The Times describes the appearance as "one in a series of Mr. Trump’s blunt and sometimes clumsy overtures to court Black voters, and particularly Black men." The Times updated their story at 8.45 p.m. ET.
The murder-case rappers are now part of the djt conversation. Again, congrats to reporters John Annese, Chris Sommerfeldt, Liam Quigley, and the NY Daily News for breaking the story!
Joe certainly loves to hear himself talk. If ever anyone needed editing, its Joe. He is out of control. I watch MJ segments on streaming, never the full show. To me, he is stunningly rude to his guests, who appear on split screen next to him, but then the segment ends without them speaking. When he is at home, it is a better show.
MJ's anti-campus-protest tirades and the guest back-up he dug up were my last straws. I'm back to NPR (by chance, in a real hour of need) and MJ's 180° opposite, Amy Goodman's 'Democracy Now!'
Amy is great. She was broadcasting live as the WTC came down, just down the street from the DL studio, describing the choking dust. How she escaped East Timor alive is beyaond me.
May 25·edited May 26Liked by Lucian K. Truscott IV
Everybody who lived/worked downtown was close enough to get dust-covered that morning (i blogged it and months of cleanup). When one tower came down WCBS-AM's Mary Gay Taylor rolled under a van and didn't know if she was dead or alive—unhurt but died, very young, of lung cancer a couple of years later. DN-NYDN's Juan Gonzales deserves credit for exposing Christie Whitman's EPA lies that WTC-smokey air was safe to breathe. East Timor happened before I became a DN listener, but I gather we're very lucky Allan Nairn was able to save Amy's life. Her sense of right and wrong is unfailing, and her pursuit of right is relentless. I'm out less these days but used to see her alone, schlepping around NYC sidewalks like any print journalist but no other broadcast media types I know. Or on the job. Seeing her turn up to interview Occupy Wall Street activists in Zuccotti Park was no surprise. (In combat boots, I noted with some amusement.) I'm not always on the same page but won't stray from her show again.
This IS the best media on this, the %$#@! damned legacy mass media is increasingly torn as to whether or not it's way past time to produce sane, lucid, relevant journalism like LKTIV produces routinely!
Those violent creeps had no business being released on bail. And of course, the orange traitor uses them. I hope every maga moron sees how he exploits black people, especially African Americans who may think the prick is a good candidate. And I hope they remember, or find out, that that orange piece of shit wanted the death penalty for 5 innocent black kids in the past, even after they were declared innocent after being railroaded into guilty pleas and serving years in prison.
Because that's what he would do to the black population given the chance.
Did he have the mike "cleansed of the poison" after the black criminal took it? I can't imagine the Orange Dump actually touching the mike afterward. Is there video?
I'm sad to read from some subscribers deliberating leaving the U.S. There are many people on substack with great, well thought comments, people who have critical thinking skills, compassion and with a moral compass. We, as citizens we have much invested in this nation and at this critical moment it's time to stand our ground, here, and make sure they don't win.
Thank you for your service David. It pains me to mention that the members of the veteran’s organization that I belong to are totally Trump supporters. I complain when the have FOX News on the bar tv but everyone just laughs at me. I hear from fellow veterans who returned to Vietnam on vacation that it is a lovely place to live. How ironic is that?
Do they know that Dumbass Donny called our heroes who died in wars, “Losers and suckers” and wondered, “What was in it for them?” Please remind them that he never served in Viet Nam because his daddy got the podiatrist who rented his office from daddy to declare that Little Donny had bone spurs.
No, I am not a veteran, but my husband served in the Air Force for almost four years during the Viet Nam war.
You're speaking to the choir. I'm a vet who is not very welcome at these Vet's groups eg VFW, Am. Legion etc. I'd never join these clubs that would have me as a member. And yes, I do see irony among magas, daily, who are clearly unable to see their own irony.
I'm betting it's mostly talk. Unless these people have independent incomes, jobs they can take with them, and/or close relatives in the country they want to move to, they're mostly blowing smoke. (Some people I know threatened to leave the country when Bernie didn't get the Democratic nomination in 2016. They didn't.)
I know. It's going to be very difficult. One solution (if possible) may be to create a small community of friends/family to share the cost of leaving and living outside the states.
Can we try to be a source of safety and sanity on the block where we live, in our town (even if we leave the US)? Not saying I've accomplished it. But it makes more sense than running to someone else's country where you haven't inherited the problems, can row gently downstream, or on the other hand may get caught in forces you don't understand.
I’ve performed my due diligence on this matter. Most desirable countries don’t want you and others that do require a very substantial investment that you will never get back or are too dangerous to live in. My first choice was Bermuda but you can only stay for two weeks on vacation or up to a year with a work permit with a valid job offer. I even offered to volunteer for their army but was told Bermuda doesn’t have an army.
Bottom line? Best bet is to find a woman(or man) in the country you want, marry them and automatically receive citizenship. I know, that may pose a problem for those of you who are already married but every problem has a solution.
Who specifically are you talking about? People who are not white, not straight, not male (or hitched to one), etc., have been dealing with danger all their lives.
Trump must be judged by the company he keeps, an old but very true saying.
And so must Trump voters!
If at a Trump rally, they should look around. In front of them they may see a skinhead nazi; to their right a religious nutjob; to their left, a woman-hating, basement-living, creep; and behind them a Proud Boy looking fatter than normal because he is packing a few concealed glocks.
What sort of person would want to be in such a crowd?
I am so embarrassed for my country and 'fellow citizens'. I actually can no longer consider them that; which is a sad commentary, but I am ashamed that so many people have gone in a hole for a man who has no business being anywhere near government levers of power - for SO many reasons of which the sane among us are aware. I will be holding my breath on election eve. Will we survive as a democracy if the MAGAts triumph? I tend to think no.
I have already decided to hand my ballot in early and leave the country for the election. Then when the dust settles after Biden wins, I’ll return. (Being hopeful here!)
I hope so! I certainly love it there. It could get dicey if I have to spend many nights in my sister’s garden shed. I mentioned to the other sisters that I had asked first, and that the shed was mine. One responded “we know dear! The rest of us will be in the house!” Ah…the stinging Irish wit!
But only for 3 months (or is it six?) in a year. Unless you have an in (job, family connections, student status, extremely rich), a long-term resident type of visa is no given in most countries an American would want to live in.
I will also turn in my ballot early, as I will be in Italy during the election and for a week or two afterward. I just hope there will be a country for me to return to!
First of all this guy is a convicted felon so he and the people he’s “shouting out “ are ineligible to vote anyway….However this is part of the bigger problem with Trump and his toxic masculinity with black and Latino men…. He’s telling you what he thinks of you… you’re criminals and drug dealers and he’s bringing people that can “relate “ to you… Funny I’ll bet these men wouldn’t have been at a rally in a red state especially below the Mason-Dixon Line… Trump with his long generational history of racism and bigotry has some black men brainwashed ….. If god forbid he’s elected everything he’s promised to do will affect them and people that look like them more… Building prison camps… talk of execution of drug dealers .. He’s not saying this at his rallies in the South or red states
And so will Bill Barr, J.D. Vance, Nikki Haley, Elise Stefanik, Chris Sununu, PA Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (former FBI) the morons at Fox, and many, many more, including any born-again relatives you might have(!!!). Let's see, also the Fox-watching nurses aides who took care of my mother (I had to block Fox on her TV). Then there's our neighbor, who I thought was a nice man, but hey, he's a BUSINESS MAN. They are everywhere these days, like pollen. It's just mind-blowing on a daily basis.
I had to block Fox News on my Dad's TV. I would come over and he'd be all wound up about Schumer, Pelosi and AOC. When I'd ask him what they did that was so terrible he didn't know but they were definitely very bad people because Jeanine Piro (she was a Judge doncha know....) told him so.
I get it! I blocked my mother's because her caregivers had Fox on all day on her large flat screen and I didn't want that blaring, hateful programming upsetting the peace in my mother's home. The senior aide complained that I was being unfair to them.
Happened to my own Mom while I took care of her for 6 years when she had cancer. This was the same person who shook Ted Kennedy's Hand at a fundraiser in the 70's and she didn't wash it for two weeks.
This is so disgusting and repulsive I could barely finish reading it. That manipulative, orange arsehole is just a couple of camera shots away from some kind of blaxploitation movie and those two gang member criminals are so frickin' deaf, dumb & blind they don't even get that Trump is merely using them. Beyond nauseating.
I read this and the only thing I could come up with is something that has been said at least 100,000 times on this blog: Every time I think Trump has hit bottom he surprises me by going even lower.
Trump has always associated with criminals, starting with that piece of white trash, mafia lawyer Roy Cohn who taught him the ropes, Trump's links to the mafia for his defunct, failed casinos and getting non-union buildings constructed in Manhattan. He's using these thugs to intimidate the jury and others. That a NYC paper carried this story will reach the jury.
Once again, the GOP is using black people for their own nefarious ends. Clarence Thomas is Exhibit A—a self-loathing black man corrupt to his core, a man who could be seen as pathetic if he weren’t such an horrible human being. And now, t-Rump is trotting out men who actually ARE convicted criminals! The ridiculous part of the latest t-Rump ploy is that black people don’t like criminals any more than white people do—no person of color will be convinced to vote GOP by seeing t-Rump consorting with black gangsters!
Thanks Lucian. Great catch. No doubt will be mainstreaming soon!
How better to alienate lots of on the fence voters than to buddy up to what they most fear? What are those dear old folks waiting for Jeopardy or Dancing with the Stars going to think? "Wow Margy! We need to vote for Trump!" Not hardly.
Big nasty indicted for murder black dudes out on bail and all tattooed up and blinged to the max right there arm and arm on the stage with the blithering buffoon. What could be better? Maybe if Epstein reincarnated to take the VP spot, but I'm not holding my breath on that one.
Power. It's gone to his mush brain as it has to others of his ilk. Unhinged and off the rails. Just like Alito and the stupidity of his flag obsession. He couldn't just leave it with destroying our country from within. He had to scream his bias from the rooftops, or masthead in this case. No care how it'll fly with the sane public that's paying attention to his asinine gall.
Keep it up boys. We need all the help you can muster for us as you show exactly who the fuck you are for all the world to see. Bravo!
WTAF? Where is the media on this?!?
No wonder local news is in so much trouble. Why are you (and so far 36 others) bashing the media instead of recognizing John Annese, Chris Sommerfeldt, and Liam Quigley's enterprise in breaking this news—'Brooklyn rappers accused of murder conspiracy join Donald Trump at Bronx rally' https://www.nydailynews.com/2024/05/23/brooklyn-rappers-accused-of-murder-conspiracy-join-donald-trump-at-bronx-campaign-rally/
Not to mention lktiv's role spreading the story with credit to the New York Daily News.
Because I live in California and I have not heard a word about it on any msm out here.
NY Daily News has a limited reach, although, good for them for trying to break this story out.
Those rappers are local, the story is local. The. NYDN broke it at 10:05 p.m. ET after the event and updated it at 9:07 a.m ET Friday. It should hardly be a surprise if the national media are not on top of it. When the unibomber case was breaking I read the Idaho papers. When M$ was in court for bad biz behavior I followed the news in the Seattle papers. Etc. Local papers usually get the story first, whatever it is. Saw a story earlier, CNN is down to fewer primetime followers than the Village Voice had when I was an editor there. Local news coverage has unique advantages.
Hopefully it'll break wider over the next few days.
OK, here they come. 5.11p.m.ET Friday, the Times has moved its version. 'Courting Black Voters, Trump Turns to Rappers Accused in Gang Murder Plot'
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/24/us/politics/trump-rappers-bronx.html
AP moved its story at pretty much the same time. A search turns up others. CNN? PoliticalWire locates it at https://www.cnn.com/2024/05/24/politics/trump-rappers-bronx-rally-indicted/index.html
MSNBC? Joy Reid has it too.
The Times describes the appearance as "one in a series of Mr. Trump’s blunt and sometimes clumsy overtures to court Black voters, and particularly Black men." The Times updated their story at 8.45 p.m. ET.
The murder-case rappers are now part of the djt conversation. Again, congrats to reporters John Annese, Chris Sommerfeldt, Liam Quigley, and the NY Daily News for breaking the story!
good
Let's nag. … UPDATE Success. No need.
Can felons vote in New York State?
Somebody else will have to answer that definitively. I *believe* imprisoned felons can't, ex-felons can.
Yes, someone confirmed that in a later comment.
Good question. Morning Joe covered this speech at length and didn't mention this as far as I know.
You look to MJ for *news*? I'm off him for life: MoJoe nomo. Ever.
Joe certainly loves to hear himself talk. If ever anyone needed editing, its Joe. He is out of control. I watch MJ segments on streaming, never the full show. To me, he is stunningly rude to his guests, who appear on split screen next to him, but then the segment ends without them speaking. When he is at home, it is a better show.
MJ's anti-campus-protest tirades and the guest back-up he dug up were my last straws. I'm back to NPR (by chance, in a real hour of need) and MJ's 180° opposite, Amy Goodman's 'Democracy Now!'
Amy is great. She was broadcasting live as the WTC came down, just down the street from the DL studio, describing the choking dust. How she escaped East Timor alive is beyaond me.
Everybody who lived/worked downtown was close enough to get dust-covered that morning (i blogged it and months of cleanup). When one tower came down WCBS-AM's Mary Gay Taylor rolled under a van and didn't know if she was dead or alive—unhurt but died, very young, of lung cancer a couple of years later. DN-NYDN's Juan Gonzales deserves credit for exposing Christie Whitman's EPA lies that WTC-smokey air was safe to breathe. East Timor happened before I became a DN listener, but I gather we're very lucky Allan Nairn was able to save Amy's life. Her sense of right and wrong is unfailing, and her pursuit of right is relentless. I'm out less these days but used to see her alone, schlepping around NYC sidewalks like any print journalist but no other broadcast media types I know. Or on the job. Seeing her turn up to interview Occupy Wall Street activists in Zuccotti Park was no surprise. (In combat boots, I noted with some amusement.) I'm not always on the same page but won't stray from her show again.
In his pocket? Hiding in his baggy pants?
This IS the best media on this, the %$#@! damned legacy mass media is increasingly torn as to whether or not it's way past time to produce sane, lucid, relevant journalism like LKTIV produces routinely!
Those violent creeps had no business being released on bail. And of course, the orange traitor uses them. I hope every maga moron sees how he exploits black people, especially African Americans who may think the prick is a good candidate. And I hope they remember, or find out, that that orange piece of shit wanted the death penalty for 5 innocent black kids in the past, even after they were declared innocent after being railroaded into guilty pleas and serving years in prison.
Because that's what he would do to the black population given the chance.
Let's never give him the chance.
Did he have the mike "cleansed of the poison" after the black criminal took it? I can't imagine the Orange Dump actually touching the mike afterward. Is there video?
I'm sad to read from some subscribers deliberating leaving the U.S. There are many people on substack with great, well thought comments, people who have critical thinking skills, compassion and with a moral compass. We, as citizens we have much invested in this nation and at this critical moment it's time to stand our ground, here, and make sure they don't win.
US Marine Corps, RVN
Thank you for your service David. It pains me to mention that the members of the veteran’s organization that I belong to are totally Trump supporters. I complain when the have FOX News on the bar tv but everyone just laughs at me. I hear from fellow veterans who returned to Vietnam on vacation that it is a lovely place to live. How ironic is that?
Do they know that Dumbass Donny called our heroes who died in wars, “Losers and suckers” and wondered, “What was in it for them?” Please remind them that he never served in Viet Nam because his daddy got the podiatrist who rented his office from daddy to declare that Little Donny had bone spurs.
No, I am not a veteran, but my husband served in the Air Force for almost four years during the Viet Nam war.
You're speaking to the choir. I'm a vet who is not very welcome at these Vet's groups eg VFW, Am. Legion etc. I'd never join these clubs that would have me as a member. And yes, I do see irony among magas, daily, who are clearly unable to see their own irony.
My husband is a Vietnam vet. He has absolutely no desire return there.
I'm betting it's mostly talk. Unless these people have independent incomes, jobs they can take with them, and/or close relatives in the country they want to move to, they're mostly blowing smoke. (Some people I know threatened to leave the country when Bernie didn't get the Democratic nomination in 2016. They didn't.)
Unfortunately, some of us (many) will be in danger if Trump wins.
For many, even if in danger, not so easy (or possible) to relocate to another country.
I know. It's going to be very difficult. One solution (if possible) may be to create a small community of friends/family to share the cost of leaving and living outside the states.
Can we try to be a source of safety and sanity on the block where we live, in our town (even if we leave the US)? Not saying I've accomplished it. But it makes more sense than running to someone else's country where you haven't inherited the problems, can row gently downstream, or on the other hand may get caught in forces you don't understand.
And they may have to learn a new language. And they should definitely research the political climate of the country before relocating.
And who they let move in. As a start.
I’ve performed my due diligence on this matter. Most desirable countries don’t want you and others that do require a very substantial investment that you will never get back or are too dangerous to live in. My first choice was Bermuda but you can only stay for two weeks on vacation or up to a year with a work permit with a valid job offer. I even offered to volunteer for their army but was told Bermuda doesn’t have an army.
Bottom line? Best bet is to find a woman(or man) in the country you want, marry them and automatically receive citizenship. I know, that may pose a problem for those of you who are already married but every problem has a solution.
Who specifically are you talking about? People who are not white, not straight, not male (or hitched to one), etc., have been dealing with danger all their lives.
Yes - all of the above and add to it, not Christian, not Evangelical, atheist, pro vax, etc.
I've got nowhere to go but I am sure that even in my own bed I will not get a moment's sleep the night before or the night of Election Day.
Trump must be judged by the company he keeps, an old but very true saying.
And so must Trump voters!
If at a Trump rally, they should look around. In front of them they may see a skinhead nazi; to their right a religious nutjob; to their left, a woman-hating, basement-living, creep; and behind them a Proud Boy looking fatter than normal because he is packing a few concealed glocks.
What sort of person would want to be in such a crowd?
A republican.
This is just another gang of many he has long association with.
But hey he only brings on the best people🙄🙄
there are no words...
I am so embarrassed for my country and 'fellow citizens'. I actually can no longer consider them that; which is a sad commentary, but I am ashamed that so many people have gone in a hole for a man who has no business being anywhere near government levers of power - for SO many reasons of which the sane among us are aware. I will be holding my breath on election eve. Will we survive as a democracy if the MAGAts triumph? I tend to think no.
I have already decided to hand my ballot in early and leave the country for the election. Then when the dust settles after Biden wins, I’ll return. (Being hopeful here!)
Biden will win, not wishful thinking.
Thank you!
Great idea. I should book a cruise.
That's a good plan. I should renew my passport.
Yes
Eire will be overjoyed to see you!
I hope so! I certainly love it there. It could get dicey if I have to spend many nights in my sister’s garden shed. I mentioned to the other sisters that I had asked first, and that the shed was mine. One responded “we know dear! The rest of us will be in the house!” Ah…the stinging Irish wit!
But only for 3 months (or is it six?) in a year. Unless you have an in (job, family connections, student status, extremely rich), a long-term resident type of visa is no given in most countries an American would want to live in.
I will also turn in my ballot early, as I will be in Italy during the election and for a week or two afterward. I just hope there will be a country for me to return to!
I live 25 minutes away from Windsor Ontario Canada, all 4 of my grandparents were born in Canada, I'm investigating.
That might be good enough to claim right of return. I'd definitely look into it.
I too am planning an exit - if he wins. In fact, I know of several people who have already done their homework on where to go next.
First of all this guy is a convicted felon so he and the people he’s “shouting out “ are ineligible to vote anyway….However this is part of the bigger problem with Trump and his toxic masculinity with black and Latino men…. He’s telling you what he thinks of you… you’re criminals and drug dealers and he’s bringing people that can “relate “ to you… Funny I’ll bet these men wouldn’t have been at a rally in a red state especially below the Mason-Dixon Line… Trump with his long generational history of racism and bigotry has some black men brainwashed ….. If god forbid he’s elected everything he’s promised to do will affect them and people that look like them more… Building prison camps… talk of execution of drug dealers .. He’s not saying this at his rallies in the South or red states
He’s a garbage magnet.
What’s amazing is he thinks this will win him minority votes because in his syphilitic brain all minorities are criminals.
Up vote for garbage magnet.
The traitor fits right in with these low class low lifes. No big surprise…
And the cops will still support him 🥹
And so will Bill Barr, J.D. Vance, Nikki Haley, Elise Stefanik, Chris Sununu, PA Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (former FBI) the morons at Fox, and many, many more, including any born-again relatives you might have(!!!). Let's see, also the Fox-watching nurses aides who took care of my mother (I had to block Fox on her TV). Then there's our neighbor, who I thought was a nice man, but hey, he's a BUSINESS MAN. They are everywhere these days, like pollen. It's just mind-blowing on a daily basis.
I had to block Fox News on my Dad's TV. I would come over and he'd be all wound up about Schumer, Pelosi and AOC. When I'd ask him what they did that was so terrible he didn't know but they were definitely very bad people because Jeanine Piro (she was a Judge doncha know....) told him so.
I get it! I blocked my mother's because her caregivers had Fox on all day on her large flat screen and I didn't want that blaring, hateful programming upsetting the peace in my mother's home. The senior aide complained that I was being unfair to them.
That crap is brain solvent - cruelty to seniors!
Happened to my own Mom while I took care of her for 6 years when she had cancer. This was the same person who shook Ted Kennedy's Hand at a fundraiser in the 70's and she didn't wash it for two weeks.
Fox needs a Surgeon General warning like the one for smoking - consume at your own risk
This is so disgusting and repulsive I could barely finish reading it. That manipulative, orange arsehole is just a couple of camera shots away from some kind of blaxploitation movie and those two gang member criminals are so frickin' deaf, dumb & blind they don't even get that Trump is merely using them. Beyond nauseating.
They're *all* using each other, angling for something they want.
Tell it! 😠
I read this and the only thing I could come up with is something that has been said at least 100,000 times on this blog: Every time I think Trump has hit bottom he surprises me by going even lower.
Trump has always associated with criminals, starting with that piece of white trash, mafia lawyer Roy Cohn who taught him the ropes, Trump's links to the mafia for his defunct, failed casinos and getting non-union buildings constructed in Manhattan. He's using these thugs to intimidate the jury and others. That a NYC paper carried this story will reach the jury.
Once again, the GOP is using black people for their own nefarious ends. Clarence Thomas is Exhibit A—a self-loathing black man corrupt to his core, a man who could be seen as pathetic if he weren’t such an horrible human being. And now, t-Rump is trotting out men who actually ARE convicted criminals! The ridiculous part of the latest t-Rump ploy is that black people don’t like criminals any more than white people do—no person of color will be convinced to vote GOP by seeing t-Rump consorting with black gangsters!
This must have been what Anthony Scaramucci meant when he talked about Trump's inability to avoid self-destruction.
Thanks Lucian. Great catch. No doubt will be mainstreaming soon!
How better to alienate lots of on the fence voters than to buddy up to what they most fear? What are those dear old folks waiting for Jeopardy or Dancing with the Stars going to think? "Wow Margy! We need to vote for Trump!" Not hardly.
Big nasty indicted for murder black dudes out on bail and all tattooed up and blinged to the max right there arm and arm on the stage with the blithering buffoon. What could be better? Maybe if Epstein reincarnated to take the VP spot, but I'm not holding my breath on that one.
Power. It's gone to his mush brain as it has to others of his ilk. Unhinged and off the rails. Just like Alito and the stupidity of his flag obsession. He couldn't just leave it with destroying our country from within. He had to scream his bias from the rooftops, or masthead in this case. No care how it'll fly with the sane public that's paying attention to his asinine gall.
Keep it up boys. We need all the help you can muster for us as you show exactly who the fuck you are for all the world to see. Bravo!