It’s been a tumultuous day for markets following Theresa May’s surprise decision to hold snap elections in the UK and following Goldman’s FICC fumble, so I thought I’d look around for a little comic relief.
And wouldn’t you know it, I found it in the usual place: Trumplandia.
As you might recall, Trump is being sued by protesters who were harmed at a campaign rally last year when then-candidate Trump effectively incited a riot by urging supporters to silence dissent by removing unfriendlies.
Trump’s defense team articulated a simple counterargument last Friday:
Mr. Trump is immune from suit because he is President of the United States.
Well, since you put it that way.
But the real ‘punch’line comes in when you look at who some of the defendants are and, more poignantly, what they’re arguing after the fact.
Enter Alvin Bamberger and Matthew Heimbach.
Bamberger now says he “would not have acted as he did without Trump and/or the Trump Campaign’s specific urging and inspiration.” Furthermore, his lawyer says, Bamberger “accepts as true [a 21-year-old college student claims] that Trump’s speech was calculated to incite violence.” Bamberger, according to a filing, is asking that Trump be forced to pay his damages, if he’s found liable.
Meanwhile the above-mentioned Matthew Heimbach (who is also charged with assault and battery) agrees.
To be sure, Matthew is an otherwise good guy. As WaPo notes, “he spoke last summer before a gathering of skinheads [and] was once photographed at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington holding a sign that read: ‘6 million? More like 271,301.'”
See what happened is, Trump became agitated at protesters who turned up at a rally inside the Kentucky International Convention Center. He subsequently urged the crowd to “get them out.”
Well, Heimbach shared Trump’s enthusiasm for ejecting the protesters, specifically one Kashiya Nwanguma.
Inspired by Heimbach’s shouting (which was itself inspired by Trump’s shouting), retiree, Korean War veterans association member, and grandfather Alvin Bamberger “ushered” (and by “ushered” I mean shoved) Nwanguma out of the arena. You can watch the clip below.
Alvin wishes he hadn’t done that.
“I have embarrassed myself, my family, and Veterans,” he told a local radio station, calling this “a very unfortunate incident.”
Yes, “a very unfortunate incident.”
Well now, Heimbach is blaming Trump too. He’s representing himself (of course) and here’s what Matthew Heimbach, J.D. thinks needs to happen (according to a court filing):
I acted pursuant to the directives and requests of Donald J. Trump and Donald J. Trump for President [so] any liability must be shifted to one or both of them.
Not to put too fine a point on it, but this is one of the most absurd situations I have had the pleasure of weighing in on in these pages.
Unfortunately for Heimbach and Bamberger, they now find themselves in a situation where their request (that Trump pay damages) will likely be denied because they (Heimbach and Bamberger) made him President.
Karma’s a bitch.
In all my years (there’s a lot of them too) of presidential elections and voting I have never seen such behavior as displayed at Trump rallies. No doubt he encouraged it, loved it, bragged about it. He even ranted he would pay the legal bills for some that took it too far. From the looks of Alvin’s behavior, that was not the first time he got unruly in a loud crowd of misfits…..deplorables. He should pay his own bills and own his personal behavior. The minute he put his hands on that young woman, he lost his case!
He’s not old enough to have been in the Korean War, so why is he in the “Korean War Veterans Association”?