An aide to Donald Trump has claimed the FBI is investigating threatening tweets to the US Republican presidential hopeful that are purported to have originated from Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, the notorious Mexican drug lord who escaped from prison on Saturday.
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Trump, a real estate billionaire who has generated controversy by saying many illegal immigrants from Mexico are criminals and rapists, said in a statement on Sunday that “corrupt Mexican officials” had let Guzman escape.
The authenticity of the Twitter accounts from which the threats were allegedly made could not be verified, but one made out in the kingpin’s name, Joaquin Guzman Loera, that on Sunday had celebrated his escape sent a message threatening Trump if he continued to speak out.
“Keep screwing [with us] and I’m going to make you eat your fucking words you lousy white faggot,” said the Twitter account with the user name @ElChap0Guzman.
Four Mexican government officials said they could not say whether the account, as well as several others in the name of some of Guzman’s children that were linked to it, were genuine. “I am told they are apocryphal,” said Mexican deputy interior minister Roberto Campa.
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An FBI spokesman said the agency had no statement on the issue. “Standard practice is to neither confirm nor deny FBI investigations,” he said. A Trump aide said “the FBI is fully aware of the situation”.
A statement from Trump said: “I’m fighting for much more than myself. I’m fighting for the future of our country which is being overrun by criminals. You can’t be intimidated. This is too important.”
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Guzman, who escaped from a maximum-security prison through a tunnel, ran the powerful Sinaloa cartel after an earlier prison breakout in 2001 until he was arrested last year.
The cartel has smuggled billions of dollars worth of cocaine, marijuana and methamphetamines into the United States.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Guzman posed a threat to public safety in the United States and that Washington has “made quite clear to the Mexicans our interest in ensuring that he faces justice here in the United States”.
In his statement on Sunday Trump said: “Corrupt Mexican officials obviously let him go a second time. The last time he was free for 13 years. He has been selling drugs in the US big time – a major kingpin.”
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe its fairly fucking unusual for a drug lord to make threats against a US Presidential candidate. As a believer in the law and democracy, I find this deeply disturbing. Of course, this could just be some random asshole pretending to be El Chapo, but this is less the realm of ordinary crime and more the realm of terrorism/war.
And I fear Trump will actually gain popularity from it, since he can now play the hero standing up to threats from drug lords.
Well, the Twitter account ElChap0Guzman isn't verified, but it's been around long enough and made some reasonably convincing tweets, like one a week ago that to paraphase said "good things come to those who wait", before Mr. Guzman's jailbreak.
The most that's likely to come out of it is that the Oompa Lompa tycoon will use it as a soundbite in the August 6th debate.
Turns out that a five way cross over between It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, the Ali G Show, Fargo, Idiocracy and Veep is a lot less funny when you're actually living in it.
The Romulan Republic wrote:Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe its fairly fucking unusual for a drug lord to make threats against a US Presidential candidate.
Pretty unusual for a US Presidential candidate to publicly insult a foreign government and a large demographic within the US, or at least to be this unsubtle about it.
There are hardly any excesses of the most crazed psychopath that cannot easily be duplicated by a normal kindly family man who just comes in to work every day and has a job to do.
-- (Terry Pratchett, Small Gods)
Replace "ginger" with "n*gger," and suddenly it become a lot less funny, doesn't it?
-- fgalkin
Most Presidential candidates (even the perennial ones) don't going around boasting that they'll "Kick the ass" of fugitive drug cartel bosses either.
Turns out that a five way cross over between It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, the Ali G Show, Fargo, Idiocracy and Veep is a lot less funny when you're actually living in it.
What this country really needs is a tough, no-nonsense straight-talker like Trump who's not afraid to tell it like it is. He'll save us from the ravenous onslaught of merciless Mexican thugs and criminals that are rampaging across our border and taking our (lawncare-related) jobs!
He was leading before. Considering it's months until the whole process actually starts, there's no need to keep playing Chicken Little.
"Oh no, oh yeah, tell me how can it be so fair
That we dying younger hiding from the police man over there
Just for breathing in the air they wanna leave me in the chair
Electric shocking body rocking beat streeting me to death"
- A.B. Original, Report to the Mist
"I think it’s the duty of the comedian to find out where the line is drawn and cross it deliberately."
- George Carlin
Oh, I don't think he'll actually win the Presidency, and there's really no need to insult me here. I don't have a negative enough attitude about America to think that Trump could win. But I'll admit that the mere fact that its theoretically possible is disquieting.
Its like there's a set of dice and if you roll two sixes ten times in a row, the world will blow up. It almost certainly won't happen, but wouldn't you still be afraid to roll the dice?
The Romulan Republic wrote:Its like there's a set of dice and if you roll two sixes ten times in a row, the world will blow up. It almost certainly won't happen, but wouldn't you still be afraid to roll the dice?
At a minimum, the chance of rolling 2 sixes 10 times in a row isn't zero, and history has shown many times how even crazier probabilities have occurred affecting human events, so it isn't an irrational notion by any means. One just needs to be cautious about long shots, especially since the more abnormal events get from the existing mean the higher the probability of odd things happening increases (such as Trump winning the presidency).
Sarah Palin was almost Vice President. Nothing further needs to be said.
Fortunately, shifting demographics probably preclude someone like Trump from ever gaining the Presidency. It's really not wise for a politician to align himself against Mexicans at this point. It's like, seriously, Karl Rove was the only intelligent Republican ever in the last decade or so, despite being a total sack of shit himself.
The Romulan Republic wrote:
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe its fairly fucking unusual for a drug lord to make threats against a US Presidential candidate. As a believer in the law and democracy, I find this deeply disturbing. Of course, this could just be some random asshole pretending to be El Chapo, but this is less the realm of ordinary crime and more the realm of terrorism/war.
And I fear Trump will actually gain popularity from it, since he can now play the hero standing up to threats from drug lords.
Is it normal for a Presidential Candidate to start it?
Well, Republican Presidential candidates play the tough on terrorism card and probably the tough on crime card all the time.
And I don't want to blame Trump for this. As big an asshole as he is, if he's receiving threats he's a victim, and this sort of thing is not acceptable no matter how much of a dick he is.
The Romulan Republic wrote:Its like there's a set of dice and if you roll two sixes ten times in a row, the world will blow up. It almost certainly won't happen, but wouldn't you still be afraid to roll the dice?
I've studied enough statistics to make a pretty good guess how worried I'd need to be that ten-in-a-row would inevitably happen, sooner than you'd think.
I'm reminded of a scene in one of my favourite webcomics a couple of years ago:
"Please make sure all your electronics are secure. This program is as dangerous as a mosquito."
"Ha! I was worried it was as dangerous as a shark or a lion."
"But sharks and lions kill only a few people, mosquitoes kill millions of people each year."
"... One of us needs our threat level assessment recalibrated, and I don't know if it's her or me."
(Yes, I managed to have a mental car crash betweeen the Freefall comic strip and US politics. )
“Despite rumor, Death isn't cruel — merely terribly, terribly good at his job.”
Terry Pratchett, Sourcery
The problem with that comparison is that the person said a mosquito rather than mosquitoes in general. A single mosquito isn't that large of a threat. It is because there are potentially millions of them that a single person could encounter that makes them deadly. So the final line of dialog is correct. It is the question of whether one considers a single specimen or the entire collection of species that could fit under that description(there are thousands of mosquito species).
The Romulan Republic wrote:
And I don't want to blame Trump for this. As big an asshole as he is, if he's receiving threats he's a victim, and this sort of thing is not acceptable no matter how much of a dick he is.
I do want to blame Trump for this. Trump fired off a Tweet effectively across the drug lord's bow in true Trump style. The Drug Lord fired back in true Drug Lord style. Trump got scared in true Trump style when someone gets guts. Read on. If the investigation reveals the tweet is legitimately from Mexico, guess what the FBI tells him. Sorry Trump, dude's out of our jurisdiction. Better lie in the bed you made.
I. Will. Laugh.
Maybe he'd learn something form it. But then again. It's Trump. He probably wouldn't. He'd continue on in true Trump style.
The Romulan Republic wrote:
And I don't want to blame Trump for this. As big an asshole as he is, if he's receiving threats he's a victim, and this sort of thing is not acceptable no matter how much of a dick he is.
I do want to blame Trump for this. Trump fired off a Tweet effectively across the drug lord's bow in true Trump style. The Drug Lord fired back in true Drug Lord style. Trump got scared in true Trump style when someone gets guts. Read on. If the investigation reveals the tweet is legitimately from Mexico, guess what the FBI tells him. Sorry Trump, dude's out of our jurisdiction. Better lie in the bed you made.
Yeah right. The FBI will definitely shrug off a threat against a Presidential candidate.
Even if they can't arrest whoever's responsible, you can bet they'll do anything they can. Though they were probably doing everything they could to catch El Chapo before this.
I. Will. Laugh.
Yeah, murderous drug lords and their threats are great as long as they're targeting a politician you don't like.
Trump is a disgusting moron and he may have unwittingly provoked whoever made these threats, but their are worse things you can do than insulting a drug lord (indeed, the world would be a better place if more people stood up to them), and I do not feel that he deserves to be threatened, much less, God forbid, actually hurt or killed.
Maybe he'd learn something form it. But then again. It's Trump. He probably wouldn't. He'd continue on in true Trump style.
The Romulan Republic wrote:
And I don't want to blame Trump for this. As big an asshole as he is, if he's receiving threats he's a victim, and this sort of thing is not acceptable no matter how much of a dick he is.
I do want to blame Trump for this. Trump fired off a Tweet effectively across the drug lord's bow in true Trump style. The Drug Lord fired back in true Drug Lord style. Trump got scared in true Trump style when someone gets guts. Read on. If the investigation reveals the tweet is legitimately from Mexico, guess what the FBI tells him. Sorry Trump, dude's out of our jurisdiction. Better lie in the bed you made.
Yeah right. The FBI will definitely shrug off a threat against a Presidential candidate.
Even if they can't arrest whoever's responsible, you can bet they'll do anything they can. Though they were probably doing everything they could to catch El Chapo before this.
Hint: they're called the Secret Service. If it's considered a viable threat he might be able to beg for an escort 10 months early before he's even a viable candidate. But the FBI isn't the one that decides.
I. Will. Laugh.
Yeah, murderous drug lords and their threats are great as long as they're targeting a politician you don't like.
I may not do much of my laughing here, but I do a lot of laughing. And not just at politicians I don't like. You don't believe that? Get the fuck over it.
Just noting here that Guzman, if it is him, didn't actually say anything about killing Trump, he just responded to a threat to kick his ass with a vague threat to make him eat his words, which would most logically translate to kicking Trump's ass. All things considered (guy whose job requires that he act badass hopped up on adrenaline and a shitload of blow following a jailbreak), he may actually be taking that literally, and implausible as it would be, if he somehow managed to compromise the guy's security enough to successfully arrange a simple fist fight I'd laugh my ass off, win or (especially, from sheer surprise factor) lose.
"Do I really look like a guy with a plan? Y'know what I am? I'm a dog chasing cars. I wouldn't know what to do with one if I caught it! Y'know, I just do things..." --The Joker
Ghetto Edit: He might even be able to manipulate Trump into doing it voluntarily, if he played his cards brilliantly in the social and professional media. They could do it in international waters, with boxing gloves and a doctor. There'd be enough free publicity to get Trump's dick hard for the first time since the 80s, and the more he gets beat up the more he can work the, "I'll stand up to the evil Mexicans," meme to appeal to the people who dislike them.
"Do I really look like a guy with a plan? Y'know what I am? I'm a dog chasing cars. I wouldn't know what to do with one if I caught it! Y'know, I just do things..." --The Joker
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