Coachella, Donald Trump & the Sheriff

Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco’s deputies stopped a guy with some guns and fake ID’s and driving an unregistered car from entering the Donald Trump event in Coachella over the weekend.

Those are the facts and show that Bianco’s team did what it was supposed to do.

It is also a fact that the man in question, Vem Miller, claimed to be a “journalist” and to have a “VIP” pass given to him by, um, someone (Nevada Republicans?) to enter the event.

As a reporter (oh God, not a journalist) when reporters actually existed and wrote for things like newspapers, I can say without fear of contradiction that I did not show up to any event with illegal guns in an illegal car with a dodgy invite (oh, and while I am dating myself, Bob Dole was actually funnier in person.)

“The red flags started raising themselves” when he drove up to the perimeter of the event, Bianco said.

Miller was taken into custody, transported to the local sheriff’s office, arrested upon suspicion of  a few gun charges and immediately released.  California has the toughest gun ownership, etc. rules in the nation for proper gun ownership, but you can still walk away with a couple of misdemeanors when you have them at a political rally.

Bianco, interestingly, finds it ironic/humorous/odd that– no matter what the eventual investigation reveals – a person who shows up to a presidential candidate event with guns in the state with the strictest gun laws in the nation simply gets a citation is released.

By the way, Miller’s side of the course of events is here. He says he was in no way trying to kill Donald Trump.

It’s interesting that someone who carries two guns around with him claims to have never shot a gun.

I’ve never owned a gun, but even I have shot one or two or three or more, so that statement in the Miler’s video seems, um, odd.

In other words, feel for Miller all you want but that is absolutely not how that works at all.  It was not a conspiracy that got Miller arrested – it was Miller.

Oh, but he’s an independent “truth seeker” that doesn’t play by the rules?  

Again, no – you cannot build being a “truth seeker” on  a bed of lies.

Anyway, whether Miller was engaged in an assassination attempt is highly unlikely. Bianco himself even said (as have the FBI and Secret Service since the incident) that he never directly called Miller’s actions part of one.

As for the event itself, Bianco  – a Trump supporter – said he found the crowd “excited and happy and friendly” and that the crowd estimate of about 27,000 seems about right.

Additionally, Bianco noted that his office is, unlike most local law enforcement around the nation, is extremely used to dealing with elected officials, local, state, national, or even international.

In other words, the president of Indonesia may stop by to meet rich/important people in Palm Springs or La Quinta or Bermuda Dunes or Rancho Mirage far more often than they swing by, oh, North Platte, Nebraska.

So they know what they are doing and they did the job right.