Just days after Donald Trump erroneously accused Kamala Harris of running a “campaign of hate” without a hint of irony, self-awareness or shame, Trump supporters in Mount Pleasant, Pennsylvania, have reminded us which presidential candidate has truly raised the bar in promoting bigotry and seething white hatred by participating in a Halloween parade with a float that appeared to depict Harris being led to a lynching by Trump.
This is not an exaggeration.
From CBS News:
Photos of the float in Wednesday night’s parade in Mount Pleasant, in Westmoreland County, show a utility vehicle decorated with American flags and campaign signs for former President Donald Trump and people dressed as United States Secret Service agents with what appears to be a rifle mounted on top and with a person dressed as Harris chained up and walking behind the cart. KDKA-TV later learned it was a fake gun.
The photos have gone viral on social media and the response was overwhelmingly negative, with many calling the float racist and offensive.
In a statement on Facebook on Thursday night, the Mount Pleasant Volunteer Fire Department apologized “for allowing the offensive participants” to be in the parade.
“We do not share in the values represented by those participants, and we understand how it may have hurt or offended members of our community,” the post said.
Don’t be surprised if MAGA conservatives explain this incident the same way they do every instance of Nazis, Klan enthusiasts and other assorted white supremacists showing up to their events: by claiming, without evidence, that it was actually liberal agitators posing as racist Trump supporters who were causing all of the trouble.
But nothing about this racist parade display is out of character for MAGA America. In fact, at recent Trump rallies, attendees have been chanting “Lock her up,” a throwback to what they chanted when Trump ran against Hilary Clinton, who was not charged with or guilty of any provable crime. This time, Trump supporters are aiming the “Lock her up” chant at Harris, who hasn’t even been accused of a crime, let alone charged with one. (You know who has been charged and convicted of 34 crimes and counting, though? Exactly!)
But MAGA minions have a woman depicting Harris being led out in chains by Trump, which either means fake Harris was being taken into custody for some ambiguous (not to mention fictional) offense — which still wouldn’t explain why she was chained to the back of a pickup truck — or the display’s creators were trying to bring their Roots fan-fic featuring “Kamala Kunta Kinte Harris” to life.
Either way, Donald Trump’s “campaign of hate” has struck again.
“This appalling portrayal goes beyond the realm of Halloween satire or free expression; it is a harmful symbol that evokes a painful history of violence, oppression, and racism that Black and Brown communities have long endured here in America,” Daylon A. Davis, the president of the NAACP Pittsburgh branch, wrote in a statement to CBS. “We urge the event organizers and local leaders to implement clearer guidelines to prevent this type of hateful and hurtful display from occurring in the future. We also ask that they offer an apology and make a public commitment to anti-racist values that affirm the dignity and equality of all people.”
Trump and his campaign are still struggling to shake off the backlash brought on by a MAGA comedian’s racist stand-up routine performed at the ex-president’s Madison Square Garden rally, so it’s probably not the best time for Trump supporters to be out here creating living Kamala Harris lynching art.
But hey — what’s that they say about the company you keep?
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