Quote of the Day: First Thing We Do, Let’s Kill All the Women and Children

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


From the New Yorker’s Ryan Lizza, after attending a Donald Trump rally in Arizona:

I had never previously been to a political event at which people cheered for the murder of women and children.

This is the crowd response to Trump’s confirmation that “he meant it when he said that he would ‘take out’ the family members of terrorists.” As usual, it’s pure affect. Trump talks big on national security: he’s the most militaristic guy you’ve ever met, he’ll ban Muslim visitors and crush ISIS, and other world leaders will unanimously back down under his steely gaze. But when you actually look at the policies he supports—giving him the benefit of calling them “policies” in the first place—Trump has made it clear that he’s actually pretty dovish. He doesn’t really want to intervene around the world. He doesn’t especially want to do the hard dealmaking of negotiating treaties. He wouldn’t instantly tear up the Iran deal because, after all, a deal’s a deal. He wants to boost military spending, but only because he thinks a big army will scare other countries away from messing with us to begin with.

But he’ll kill the families of terrorists, and his fans love it. Booyah.

BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And the essential ingredient that makes all this possible? Readers like you.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to devote the time and resources to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

payment methods

BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And the essential ingredient that makes all this possible? Readers like you.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to devote the time and resources to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate