Over the weekend, the Twitter-troll-in-chief was in full-blown rage tweeting. This is an indication of a seriously mentally disturbed individual. This is not someone who should have the power of the presidency.
That aside, every time Trump tweets about the whistleblower scandal, he adds another allegation for impeachment. Trump demands to meet whistleblower and leakers of his Ukraine call:
On Sunday, the Twitter-troll-in-chef wrote on Twitter, “Like every American, I deserve to meet my accuser, especially when this accuser, the so-called ‘Whistleblower,’ represented a perfect conversation with a foreign leader in a totally inaccurate and fraudulent way.”
Trump also tweeted on Sunday that he wanted to meet not only his accuser, “who presented SECOND & THIRD HAND INFORMATION,” but also the person who gave the whistleblower this information.
“Was this person SPYING on the U.S. President? Big Consequences!” Trump wrote.
The president also elevated his attack on Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, saying he should be questioned for “treason” after labeling his actions as “fraud.”
Trump frequently abuses the word “treason,” which he inaccurately redefines as anyone who exposes “Dear Leader’s” corruption and criminality to the media or to the public. Threatening the House committee chairman who is leading the impeachment inquiry into Trump with arrest is intimidation, and if carried out, the end of constitutional government and the full fruition of Trump’s authoritarian tyranny.
Schiff prefaced the reading by saying, “In not so many words, this is the essence of what the president communicates.”
He then paraphrased the conversation: “I hear what you want. I have a favor I want from you, though, and I’m going to say this only seven times, so you better listen good. I want you to make up dirt on my political opponent, understand? Lots of it.”
After drawing sharp criticism, Schiff noted that his summary of the call was part parody. “The fact that that’s not clear is a separate problem in and of itself,” he said.
In other words, disingenuous Republicans playing semantics with what was clear to anyone who heard Schiff’s statement is the real problem.
This is witness intimidation to obstruct justice with respect to the whistleblower. On Saturday, the whistleblower’s attorney Andrew Bakaj wrote to the chairmen of the House and Senate Intelligence Committees and the acting director of national intelligence about “serious concerns we have regarding our client’s safety.” Bakaj specifically cited comments from a private event in which Trump was caught on tape comparing the whistleblower to a “spy” and suggesting that the U.S. used to handle “spies and treason … a little differently than we do now.”
On Monday, the Twitter-troll-in-chief doubled-down on witness intimidation to obstruct justice. Trump tells reporters that ‘we’re trying to find out’ the identity of federally protected whistleblower:
Per Los Angeles Times White House reporter Chris Megerian, Trump was asked about the identity of the whistleblower who has accused him of abusing his office, and the president replied that “we’re trying to find out” their identity.
Under federal law, whistleblowers are entitled to have their identities protected to prevent against retaliation.
Andrew Bakaj, an attorney representing the anonymous whistleblower, immediately fired back at the president on Twitter and emphasized the legal protections that his client must be allowed.
“The Intel Community Whistleblower is entitled to anonymity,” he wrote on Twitter. “Law and policy support this and the individual is not to be retaliated against. Doing so is a violation of federal law.”
Some legal experts have said that Trump’s attacks on the unidentified individual could wind up as articles of impeachment, as they amount to witness intimidation.
Recall that in the 2016 campaign, Trump tried to poison the public mind that the election was “rigged” by the Clinton campaign. Trump refused to support the election results as legitimate during the final Presidential debate, and then doubled down on his calls for his supporters to act as freelance election monitors at the polls. In August, he had hinted that pro-gun activists might take into their own hands the issue of Clinton appointing pro-gun control justices to the Supreme Court. Feds Concerned About Risk of Violence as Election Day Nears. This was just a precursor of things to come.
On Sunday night, the Twitter-troll-in-chief also retweeted an anti-democratic Christian Nationalist televangelist threatening “civil war” if their “Dear Leader” is impeached. Trump quoted right-wing Pastor Robert Jeffress in a series of tweets warning that civil war would break out if he was impeached. Trump’s dark ‘civil war’ threats were pushed last year by Russian trolls charged in Mueller probe:
Trump’s threats shocked and alarmed the public, but they sounded familiar to former FBI special agent Asha Rangappa — who pointed to similar language in a criminal complaint filed against the chief accountant of a Kremlin campaign to influence foreign elections.
Elena Alekseevna Khusyaynova kept detailed payment records for the Internet Research Agency and other Russian “troll farms” which pushed divisive and inflammatory content on social media designed to influence U.S. politics.
That campaign, known as Project Lakhta, set up accounts posing as Americans that pushed pro-Trump propaganda.
One of those themes, according to the complaint, piggybacked on a piece by right-wing broadcaster Michael Savage warning that civil war would break out if Trump was removed from office as part of the Mueller investigation.
“Any attempt to remove Trump is a direct path to civil war in the United States,” Savage warned. “In case Republicans will not stop acting as traitors, they will bring upon themselves forces of civil retribution during the 2018 elections.”
Accounts associated with Project Lakhta promoted that message, which Trump pushed himself months later on Twitter.
Trump’s tweet invoking civil war marks a notable escalation in his rhetoric about the impeachment inquiry and also highlights his close relationship with Jeffress, a pastor known for viciously attacking other faiths who holds sway over both evangelical voters and the president. ‘Beyond repugnant’: GOP congressman slams Trump for warning of ‘civil war’ over impeachment:
The tweet drew an immediate reaction, becoming the lead story on the Drudge Report and prompting critics — including one sitting Republican congressman — to accuse Trump of stoking violence and diminishing the reality of true civil war.
“I have visited nations ravaged by civil war. @realDonaldTrump I have never imagined such a quote to be repeated by a President,” tweeted Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), a decorated Air Force veteran who served as a pilot in Iraq and Afghanistan. “This is beyond repugnant.”
House Democrat Don Beyer of Virginia urged other Republicans to join Kinzinger in denouncing Trump’s rhetoric, tweeting, “The president is testing to see who will echo or silently accept threats of violence.”
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Since Democrats began moving toward impeachment last week, Jeffress has repeatedly sounded grim warnings. On Friday, he told Fox Business Network host Lou Dobbs, “I really don’t like what’s going to happen to this nation” if impeachment succeeds, adding, “If he is removed, this country is finished.”
The Jeffress quote that Trump tweeted Sunday evening is the first time the president has referenced civil war on Twitter. But as The Washington Post’s Greg Jaffe and Jenna Johnson have reported, cable news pundits on both sides of the spectrum have already begun using the term with regularity to describe the nation’s political conflict.
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It’s not clear from Trump’s tweet or Jeffress’s interview whether he was referencing actual violence as the outcome of an impeachment, but many critics said that the president’s use of the term was troubling. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment clarifying the president’s intentions.
The Oath Keepers, a far-right militia group composed of former military and law enforcement officers, apparently took the message literally, saying in a Twitter thread that the United States is “on the verge of a HOT civil war. Like in 1859.”
The group claims to protect the Constitution “against all enemies,” which, they say, includes Democrats who are trying to impede Trump’s “rightful power.” The organization is described by the Southern Poverty Law Center as “one of the largest radical anti-government groups in the U.S. today.”
“Lincoln created the Republican Party and gave his life in order to save the Union. Trump ruined the Republican Party and now threatens to destroy the Union in order to save his job,” tweeted Rep. Jamie B. Raskin (D-Md.).
Schatz echoed that concern.
“This is just a reprehensible way to talk and people could get hurt,” Schatz tweeted.“It’s clear now [Trump] will allow the Republican Party to eat itself and will tear the country apart if he thinks it gives him an advantage of any kind.”
Trump’s tweet is grounds for impeachment, according to Harvard Law Professor John Coates. Harvard law professor: Trump’s ‘civil war’ threat is ‘independent basis’ for impeachment:
“This tweet is itself an independent basis for impeachment – a sitting president threatening civil war if Congress exercises its constitutionally authorized power,” he wrote.
Trump is inciting violence against the lawful government of the United States from his MAGA personality cult followers to keep their “Dear Leader” as an autocratic tyrannical leader in the White House.
If Trump wants to throw about the word “treason,” this is what it means.
Once again, Trump is engaging in psychological projection: he accuses his opponents of what he himself is guilty. His accusations should be understood as admissions of his own guilt. As Matthew Yglesias says, Trump’s Twitter tirades about treason and civil war reveal a dangerously unfit president.
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