Donald Trump’s insistence that anything he doesn’t win is “rigged” was one of the highlights of last night’s debate where he whined about not winning an Emmy for The Apprentice. His insinuation that the 2016 presidential election is “rigged” since he’s not winning is, of course, a petulently childish stamping of his feet and, as is now well-documented, something he’s been doing since childhood.
However, it’s not clear exactly what Trump, his running mate Mike Pence, his surrogates, and his campaign staff actually mean by “rigged”. Until now.
Trump’s campaign coordinator in Livingston County, the rabid tea partier Wes Nakagiri, spells it out in an article about stolen Trump signs in the Howell/Brighton area:
Wes Nakagiri, coordinator for the Trump for President campaign in Livingston County, called the theft “a form of rigging the election” because the theft is one way to influence the election “in an unlawful way.”
“The extension of (the) finger suggests it’s not a Trump fan,” he added. “It’s amazing how mean-spirited some people can be. … It’s interfering with people’s First Amendment rights and political speech.”
Oh, yes, people can be SO mean-spirited. You know, like calling for Sec. Hillary Clinton to be put in prison or assassinated, amirite, Wes?
I’ll confess that I hadn’t realized that stealing yard signs was considered “rigging the election”. If that’s the case, I guess defacing yard signs falls into that category, too. Like this sign in my front yard, for example:
The other side, after our repair job.
Obviously, I jest. While it IS vandalism, trespassing, willful destruction of property, and annoying, defacing our 4′ x 8′ sign isn’t “rigging” anything. It’s the childish act of some idiot. Period.
Nakagiri elevating sign stealing to the level of vote rigging does nothing but reveal how much of a political novice he is. Given his lack of success in any way, shape, or form in the political process – his challenge to incumbent Lt. Gov. Brian Calley at the 2014 Republican convention was a colossal failure, for example – this is not exactly breaking news.
P.S. I am the Chair of the Washtenaw County Democratic Party and I have received at least a dozen messages in the past couple of weeks about stolen Clinton signs. So let’s not pretend this is anything unique to the Trump campaign.
