Bloomberg’s Heilemann Predicts Violence in Streets at RNC Would Hurt Trump’s Chances

Bloomberg’s Heilemann Predicts Violence in Streets at RNC Would Hurt Trump’s Chances

John Heilemann, co-host of Bloomberg TV’s With All Due Respect, surely leans left, but is generally a savvy political analyst in my book. But Heilemann went haywire with his prediction today. He suggested that violence in the streets of Cleveland would hurt Donald Trump’s chances of being elected president.

Really? If there are, as Heilemann said,”images of chaos and disorder” in the streets, wouldn’t Americans tend to turn to Trump, who has cast himself as “the law and order candidate?” And violent anti-Trump protesters, whether or not they expressly say so, would be in essence urging people to support Hillary, not Trump. Are Americans likely to reward Hillary for the violent actions of her, at the very least, tacit supporters? Just as Trump’s numbers went up when unruly protests shut down his rally in Chicago during the primaries, violence at the RNC would likely benefit Trump, in this Insurrectionist’s opinion.

John Heilemann- Violence at Republican Convention Would Hurt Trump’s Election Chances from Mark Finkelstein on Vimeo.

Weigh in, readers: what do you think would be the effect on the election if during the RNC, are TV screens are filled with images of violence perpetrated by anti-Trump protesters?

JOHN HEILEMANN: Reports are that Trump’s family will play a big role [at the convention], and Ted Cruz, Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell and Scott Walker will all be speaking. But after a week of daily promises that the full convention schedule will be released, we ain’t got it. And this comes amid widespread concerns about the lack of organization, logistics and security to deal with tens of thousands of demonstrators on the streets of Cleveland. So Mark, considering all of this, how likely do you think it is that the Republican National Convention is going to be a total fustercluck?

MARK HALPERIN: Well look, they are well behind in terms of what they said publicly and according to our reporting what’s going on behind the scenes in slotting a convention that begins in just a few days. On the other hand, this is an area where I think Trump can, and the Trump operation, can kind of defy gravity as long as they fill the time on the stage, as long as stuff happens every day that feeds the beast, that keeps the action moving in the roomj, they’ll be ok. It’s not that much programming. It’s not 24 hours of programming. But it is a high-wire thing here and they are a little bit in danger of falling off the wire.

HEILEMANN: Yes, and look: the big caveat, and I don’t think you’re going to disagree with me when I say this, the big caveat here is the security issues and what happens on the streets of Cleveland. Because given what has happened in America over the course of the last week, images of chaos, images of disorder, images that could get worse than just chaos and disorder, that could involve violence, those kinds of images could quickly overwhelm anything going on the convention stage over the course of the next week. And if that happens, this could really be a mess. Not just in terms of the television production but politically for Donald Trump and his chances to become the next President of the United States.

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