Kansas Militiamen Who Bombed Mosque Admit Trump Incited Them

While bobbleheads on Fox News insist Donald Trump did not incite a white nationalist to shoot up a synagogue or send mail bombs to targets of Trump's rage, lawyers for three Kansas militiamen who plotted to bomb a mosque claim that their clients should get more lenient sentences because . . . wait for it, wait for it . . . Donald Trump incited them.

Patrick Eugene Stein faces life in prison for conspiring with two other men to carry out the attack, which was supposed to take place on the day after the 2016 presidential election. On Monday, his attorneys filed a memo in U.S. District Court in the District of Kansas, requesting that Stein receive a sentence of no more than 15 years. They note that Stein was an “early and avid supporter” of Trump and argue that the climate in the months leading up to the 2016 election should be taken in account when evaluating the comments prosecutors used to build their case.

During the trial in the spring, prosecutors played back recordings in which Stein described Muslim immigrants as “cockroaches” that needed to be exterminated, and talked about killing Muslims with weapons dipped in pigs' blood. Two months before the conversation took place, The Washington Post’s Abigail Hauslohner noted, Trump had referenced a questionable tale about Gen. John J. Pershing killing Muslims with bullets dipped in pigs' blood.

"The court cannot ignore the circumstances of one of the most rhetorically mold-breaking, violent, awful, hateful and contentious presidential elections in modern history, driven in large measure by the rhetorical China shop bull who is now our president,” James Pratt and Michael Shultz, Stein’s defense attorneys, wrote in their sentencing memo, as HuffPost first reported.

No, Trump has not directly told his supporters to bomb mosques or shoot Jews. But he has told supporters to beat up protesters, praised politicians who assaulted journalists, and told cops to injure suspects. He has called Nazis marching in Charlottesville "very fine people" after one of their number ran down people with a car and killed a woman. He's always winking at politically motivated violence, so it should be no surprise when his supporters take the hint.

Conservatives used to heap ridicule on liberals by mischaracterizing their compassion for destitute blacks who who committed crimes as "blaming society," rather than taking individual responsibility for their actions.

Now we've got white conservatives blaming the political climate for their crimes, and that they should get a pass because Donald Trump is racist dickhead.

Yes, Donald Trump is morally culpable for the horrific political climate he created in this country. But his followers shouldn't get off the hook for committing the crimes he incited.

Next thing you know, Trump will be pardoning these "very fine people."