With an assist from one of his fans, President Donald Trump turned the idea of shooting migrants and asylum seekers who try to cross the southern border into a punchline during his campaign speech on Wednesday evening in Panama City Beach, Florida. Referring to border agents who deal with undocumented border crossers, Trump brought up the possibility of using deadly force, but quickly ruled out the idea, saying he “would never do that.” “And don’t forget — we don’t let them and we can’t let them use weapons. We can’t,” Trump said. “Other countries do. We can’t. I would never do that. But how do you stop these people? You can’t. There’s—” Before Trump could finish his thought, a woman in the audience yelled out. While it was unclear exactly what she said during television coverage of the event, numerous eyewitnesses reported she said, “Shoot them!” Trump apparently found the suggestion amusing. He gestured at the person who yelled and said, “That’s only in the Panhandle, you can get away with that statement. Only in the Panhandle!” Watch: Trump muses about shooting undocumented immigrants but says he wouldn't do it pic.twitter.com/2UWXIvvRad — Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 9, 2019 Trump’s latest rally came just a day after Ken Klippenstein of the Young Turks published information from a Freedom of Information Act request indicating that a border militia member said of migrants, “Why are we just apprehending them and not lining them up and shooting them. ... We have to go back to Hitler days and put them all in a gas chamber.” Trump may have laughed off the suggestion at his rally, but he has earnestly raised the possibility of shooting migrants in the past. During a news conference in November, he said of clashes along the border, “I will tell you this, anybody throwing stones, rocks ... we will consider that a firearm, because there’s not much difference when you get hit in the face with a rock.” Trump’s comments on that occasion were widely criticized, and he tried to walk them back the next day. Trump’s latest rally was an ugly scene Trump also explicitly mocked asylum seekers and their lawyers, who he ominously claimed are “paid by somebody that’s not exactly friendly to this crowd.” He pushed a conspiracy theory about migrants representing an “invasion” of the country — the same notion that motivated a gunman to open fire at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh in October, killing 11. He suggested, without evidence, that migrants avoid crossing the border at ports of entry because they have women tied up in their cars. Donald Trump thinks migrants aren't using ports of entry because they have women tied up in their cars. Yes, I know this doesn't make any sense so don't @ me pic.twitter.com/4ogBHhuylu — Andrew Lawrence (@ndrew_lawrence) May 9, 2019 Trump also spread his now-familiar lie about abortion — that Democrats and health care providers support legislation that would legalize the murder of babies. In short, the president’s 2020 campaign is shaping up to be extremely ugly. And his fans mostly continue to eat it up with resounding “lock her up!” chants and shouted comments that only reinforce Trump’s darkest instincts. The news moves fast. To stay updated, follow Aaron Rupar on Twitter, and read more of Vox’s policy and politics coverage.<doc-sep>Photo: BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images Trump rallies are not traditionally the place for decorum. But on Wednesday evening, at a rally in the Florida Panhandle, an audience member said the xenophobic quiet part loud, responding to a line from the president on immigration. “You have hundreds and hundreds of [migrants] and you have two or three border security people that are brave and great — and don’t forget, we don’t let them and we can’t let them use weapons,” Trump said, in Panama City Beach. “We can’t. Other countries do. We can’t, I would never do that. But how do you stop these people?” An audience member had an idea. “Shoot them,” he yelled, which caused the president, and much of the televised backdrop of crowd members, to laugh. “Only in the panhandle can you get away with that statement,” Trump said, interpreting the call to violence as a joke. At his rally tonight, Trump says the government is unable to violently attack immigrants, someone in the crowd shouted "Shoot them!" The crowd & Trump erupt in laughter & cheers. Trump says, "Only in the panhandle can you get away with that statement. "pic.twitter.com/SgQd2OH9ti — jordan (@JordanUhl) May 9, 2019 Trump’s response, of course, provides a tacit endorsement of the audience member’s call: If the president says you have gotten away with saying something horrendous, one might assume the behavior was okay. But it’s little surprise that Trump, swooning in rally mode, didn’t provide a defense of migrant rights.<doc-sep>President Donald Trump appeared to joke with a supporter about the possibility of shooting migrants at the border on Wednesday evening at a rally in Panama City Beach, Florida. The president had once again been deriding migrants and asylum seekers arriving at the border, ridiculing them for carrying the flags of their home countries as they made their way to the U.S. "They want to fly the flag of Guatemala and Honduras and El Salvador right into our border," Trump said. "Save that flag, we love our country. We love our country, but we're afraid of it for purposes of getting into the United States, we're afraid of our country." The U.S. leader then turned to how his long-promised border wall between the U.S. and Mexico "would stop" migrants from crossing into the U.S., while noting that using "weapons" was not option, despite the fact that that's what "other countries do." "I mean, when you have 15,000 people marching up and you have hundreds and hundreds of people and you have two or three border security people that are brave and great, and don't forget, we don't let them and we can't let them use weapons," Trump said. "We can't. Other countries do. We can't. I would never do that." "But, how do you stop these people? You can't," the president said. At that point, a crowd member could be heard in video of the rally shouting: "Shoot 'em!" as laughter and cheers rang out across the room. Grabbing onto the statement, Trump seemed to laugh and pointed to the crowd member who said it, before joking: "That's only in the Panhandle you can get away with that statement," as the crowd continued to clap and cheer. "Only in the Panhandle! "It's a tough situation," the president said. "But, if they change the loopholes, we'll have it perfectly and when the wall is finished, it's gonna be great." Newsweek reached out to the Trump campaign for comment on the incident. The president had previously seemed to lament the fact that military troops deployed by his administration to the border could be more "rough" with migrants and asylum seekers arriving at the border. Last month, the president told reporters in Texas that they should not forget that U.S. military members "can't act like a military would act... Because if they got a little rough, everybody would go crazy." The U.S. leader then went on to blame "horrible laws that the Democrats won't change." In recent months, Trump has ramped up his rhetoric on immigration amid a surge of asylum seekers arriving at the border, including many families. On Wednesday, U.S. border officials speaking at a Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Border Security and Immigration hearing said the number of people caught crossing the border and taken into U.S. custody in April had topped 100,000 for the second consecutive month. The U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency said it had detained 109,144 migrants along the southern border last month, representing a 6 percent increase from March, with monthly arrests reach their highest point since 2007.<doc-sep>
President Donald Trump was tickled Wednesday when an audience member at a Florida rally suggested shooting migrants arriving at the U.S.-Mexican border. Trump was bemoaning the legal protections afforded migrants and espousing the need for a border wall when he asked rhetorically, "How do you stop these people?" "Shoot them!" someone shouted from the Panama City Beach crowd, according to multiple news media reports. The remark drew a chuckle from the president, who shook his head, pointed in the audience member's direction and said, "Only in the Panhandle you can get away with that statement." "Only in the Panhandle," he repeated to laughs and cheers from the crowd. Before the interruption, Trump mentioned "border security people" who he said are not permitted to use weapons on the migrants. "I mean, when you have 15,000 people marching up, and you have hundreds and hundreds of people, and you have two or three border security people that are brave and great – and don't forget, we don't let them and we can't let them use weapons. We can't. Other countries do. We can't. I would never do that," he said. Florida rally:Trump announces Florida disaster relief in Panama City Beach Border barrier:Environmental groups rip plan to replace 63 miles of border fence in Arizona Border Patrol agents are limited in the use of force. In November, Trump suggested that the U.S. troops he deployed could fire on migrants who throw rocks. Later that month, the White House approved a memo authorizing those troops to use lethal force on migrants if necessary. The Wall:Border vigilantes, and the wall they might watch During an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity in March, Trump said the threat of deadly force is a "very effective" way to deter migrants, but the United States "can't do it." "We need to defend our country. You have people pouring in," he told Hannity. "Now, we're capturing these people, we're getting them. But we don't do like other countries. Other countries stand there with machine guns ready to fire. We can't do that, and I wouldn't want to do that."