SAM STEIN (THE DAILY BEAST): Well, two things: One is, of those four clips you played of Trump, it's notable that three of them involved teleprompter reading or advertisements, which meant that those were scripted remarks, those weren't off-the-cuff remarks, so it's clearly a strategy.
And, second, I would just point out that it's not just Trump, obviously. You noted in the last hour that Kevin McCarthy, congressman from California, a somewhat establishment figure, reasonable person, was advertising this stuff on Twitter. The NRCC, the campaign committee that is designed to elect House Republicans, ran a Soros-themed ad two days after a bomb was sent to Soros' house. So, these aren't dog whistles at this point, they're bullhorns.
And I know that we can't jump to conclusions necessarily about who is responsible for any of this stuff, but I will say this: I think it's fair to say a climate has been produced vis-a-vis these type of attacks that are either inspiring these people, or creating the context for them to operate. This man, this lunatic who shot up a synagogue, during a bris, he referenced the fact that he was fearful that George Soros was funding a caravan of migrants in Honduras to come to the United States. This was his inspiration, and this is what the Republicans have run the election on in the closing weeks, and they're not stopping. This morning, a reference was made to the stuff on Fox & Friends. So, I agree with Tom. There's a lack of seriousness, in some respects, here. But I will say, it is also deadly serious and it's incredibly sad too.
