Trump Lies About Women; His Crowds Chant for Revenge

[Content Note: Misogyny; authoritarianism.]

This is becoming a pattern: Donald Trump uses his Make America Clap for Me Again rallies to tell straight-up lies about women who challenge him and/or members of his regime (i.e. female dissidents) and his audience responds by chanting "Lock her up! Lock her up!" despite the woman — whether it's Hillary Clinton, Maxine Waters, or Nancy Pelosi — having committed no crime.

Last night, it was Senator Dianne Feinstein's turn.

Chants of "Lock her up!" rang once again throughout an Iowa arena as [Donald] Trump rallied supporters Tuesday night.

...Trump, who was in the state boosting Republican candidates ahead of the Nov. 6 midterm elections, claimed that Feinstein, the ranking Democratic member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, had leaked a letter written by California professor Christine Blasey Ford alleging Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh had sexually assaulted her when they were teenagers.

..."Can you believe that?" Trump said, as his supporters turned the chant once deployed against the former secretary of state on another Democratic woman.

"Did she leak that? 100 percent," Trump said, adding: "I don't want to get sued, so 99 percent."

In a statement, Feinstein called Trump's remarks "ridiculous and an embarrassment."

..."Dr. Blasey Ford knows I kept her confidence, she and her lawyers said so repeatedly," Feinstein said. "Republican senators admit it. Even the reporter who broke the story said it wasn't me or my staff."

The descriptions of these eruptions are always so anodyne. The video is chilling: Trump provokes the crowd, who launch into the chant, and he grins and chuckles like a proud papa who just watched his hellspawn spew toxic venom for the first time.

Donald Trump’s Iowa crowd chants “lock her up!” at his mention of Senator Dianne Feinstein.

The president laughs playfully. pic.twitter.com/a6KLrf8kzS

— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) October 10, 2018

Trump, standing at a podium in front of a crowd: How 'bout — how 'bout Senator Feinstein? That's another beauty. [crowd boos and grumbles loudly] That's a beauty! "Did you leak the documents?" [puts on voice and demeanor of nervous woman] "Wha? Wha? No, I didn't!" [crowd jeers and laughs] 'Did we leak? Did we leak?" [he turns to crowd behind him and points; they are laughing] "No, no! No we didn't!" Do you ever see— [gestures to someone in crowd] No. He just said, "No, we didn't leak." [crowd begins chanting "Lock her up! Lock her up!" Trump laughs and shakes his head with a grin as the entire place chants]

He basks in their malice; in the malice he invited.

This is terrifying to watch — the President of the United States leading seething misogynist crowds in round after round of "Lock her up!" chants.

And it's extremely scary to me to see how many people still greet it with jokes. This isn't funny. Every woman who resists this regime under her real name every day is at increasing risk. We are watching with horror.