Milbank: Trump backers still jumping shark in inciting violence

But his longtime adviser Roger Stone has long argued for more.

“Hillary must be brought to justice — arrested, tried and executed for murder,” he tweeted two years ago.

Stone suggested anew this week at a rally that Clinton murdered her friend Vince Foster.

In Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan is imprisoning his foes without trial. In Russia, enemies of Vladimir Putin have been killed. But in America, we usually deal with political opponents in elections. Those at Quicken Loans Arena had other thoughts.

“Lock her up!” said Michael Flynn, retired general and Trump’s national-security adviser, chanting with the delegates. “If I did a tenth of what she did, I would be in jail today.”

“Lock her up,” veteran Jason Beardsley, another convention speaker, concurred.

Chris Christie, in his Star Chamber presentation to the convention Tuesday night, held a mock trial to “hold Hillary Rodham Clinton accountable.”

“Lock her up!” the delegates chanted. “We’re getting there,” Christie replied.

He and the audience went on to convict Clinton on numerous charges, including being “an apologist for an al-Qaeda affiliate in Nigeria, resulting in the capture of innocent young women.”

Those surprised by this week’s vengeful words probably weren’t paying attention earlier.

Trump lawyer Michael Cohen last month tweeted the allegation that Clinton “murdered an ambassador.” Corey Stewart, chairman of Trump’s Virginia campaign, accused Clinton of “essentially encouraging the murder” of police officers. Rocker Ted Nugent, a Trump supporter, said Clinton and President Obama “should be tried for treason and hung.”

Hateful feel emboldened

Trump, himself, often speaks favorably of violence (“Punch him in the face. … Knock the crap out of them”) and has talked of using presidential powers to torture suspects, target innocent relatives of terrorists, restrict press freedoms and go after a judge presiding over a fraud case against him.

Is it OK for political figures to talk this way? Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, asked about “how angry” the convention has been, Manafort replied, “The tone that I saw was of joy.” Asked about the “Lock her up” chant, Manafort opined that “it probably reflects the attitude of a lot of people in America.”

Reflects? Or encourage those who have violent thoughts of extraconstitutional remedies?

At the Republican convention, sales of “Hillary for Prison” T-shirts were brisk. And the hateful felt emboldened: Officials shut down the chat function on the convention’s live-stream after a barrage of anti-Semitic comments.

Will the cries for blood and vengeance cause a backlash outside this angry convention?

“Hillary Clinton now belongs in prison? C’mon,” Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz, a Never Trump holdout, tweeted. “We can make the case that she shouldn’t be elected without jumping the shark.”

Sorry, Fonzie. This shark was jumped many episodes ago.