Over the weekend, Donald Trump went balistic on his fake-Twitter failing social media site, impliedly threatening to unleash his MAGA/QAnon domestic terrrorist mob on the country if he is indicted for any of his multiple crimes. “Nice country you got here, it’d be a shame if anything bad happened to it” in mob boss fashion. “I’ll burn it all down.”
It is also the tactic of authoritarians to use political violence as a means of gaining and retaining power. See, The Authoritarian Playbook: a media guide.
Sarah Burris reports, Trump’s social media rants criticized by legal experts as ‘threatening the country with violence’:
Former President Donald Trump has spent the weekend on his social media site throwing any possible complaints out in an apparent hope of finding someone to blame for his legal conundrum.
Lawyer and ex-Trump supporter George Conway posted a screen capture of the message, saying Trump is “essentially threatening the country with violence if the laws are applied to him.”
He's essentially threatening the country with violence if the laws are applied to him. pic.twitter.com/rmQ7Gp883w
— George Conway (@gtconway3d) August 28, 2022
Former FBI counsel and Robert Mueller prosecutor Andrew Weissmann said that it was reminiscent of Trump’s threats made ahead of Jan. 6.
“Exactly the same threats leading to violence. DOJ needs to step on it, as there is no prohibition against indicting a [former president],” he said.
He is referencing the Office of Legal Counsel for the Justice Department, which infamously claimed that a sitting president being indicted could disrupt the country. It has been the justification for refusing to indict Trump while he was serving as president. That no longer applies after Trump left office.
Former FBI agent Asha Rangappa agreed, noting that it was the exact same language used after the election leading into Jan. 6.
“And just adding on to the Pablo Escobar parallel here,” she also said.
Harvard Law School professor Laurence Tribe noted that the statement was similar to his claim that he wanted to calm the outrage of America after they searched his golf club.
“Like his recent message to AG Garland suggesting that he could help Garland turn down the ‘heat’ if only DOJ would back off,” Tribe said on Sunday.
As the day progressed, Trump promoted several reports, including a quote from elderly conservative radio host Michael Savage, saying that President Joe Biden’s administration “raped half the nation” with the search. It’s rare for people to compare sexual assault to a legally obtained search warrant.
He shared a report about “tea party” members who wants to see the judge who authorized the search to be removed from the bench. The judge has received death threats for the past three weeks since the attack. Fans of Trump also searched for details about his family and threatened his Synagogue.
Another article Trump shared was from by a conservative blogger, arguing that Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton were two presidents who faced impeachment for “high crimes and misdemeanors.” Trump was also impeached twice but wasn’t named. The blogger argues that the other presidents weren’t subjected to “inappropriate searches and seizures.” He’s referring, but misquoting, the Fourth Amendment, which cites “unreasonable searches and seizures.” He made the same argument that conservatives have about the incident being unprecedented, “a word meaning ‘it’s never happened before,'” the blogger defined. No president has ever stolen top secret documents before, however.
He also shared Trump Fluffer and ball washer/caddy Sen.Lindsey Graham (R-SC) threatening rioting in the streets from the MAGA/QAnon domestic terrorist mob if Trump is indicted for any of his multiple crimes (and presumaby if little Lindsey is indicted for his election interference in Georgia).
Huffington Post reports, Lindsey Graham Warns Of ‘Riots In Streets’ If Trump Is Charged Over Classified Docs:
Staunch Donald Trump ally Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) ominously warned Sunday of “riots in the streets” if the former president is hit with charges for taking classified documents to his Mar-a-Lago home when he moved out of the White House.
“If there’s a prosecution of Donald Trump for mishandling classified information, after the [Hillary] Clinton debacle … there’ll be riots in the streets,” Graham said on Fox News’ “Sunday Night in America,” hosted by former South Carolina congressman Trey “Benghazi!” Gowdy (R).
Graham says there will be riots in the streets if Trump is prosecuted pic.twitter.com/oE6MyuqjeA
— Acyn (@Acyn) August 28, 2022
Graham was referring to Clinton’s use of a private email server when she was secretary of state — a practice reportedly employed by both Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner to conduct official business when they were White House senior advisers in the Trump administration.
A three-year investigation into some 30,000 recovered messages sent to and from Clinton on the server concluded that there was no “persuasive evidence of systemic, deliberate mishandling of classified information.” [And eight Congressional committee witch hunts as well.]
In Trump’s case, after officials tried for several months to retrieve U.S. documents from him, FBI agents this month confiscated several boxes of material stashed at Mar-a-Lago, including classified documents and even highly sensitive top-secret information.
Graham insisted to Gowdy that Trump is treated with a “double standard.”
“Most Republicans, including me, believe when it comes to Trump, there is no law. It’s all about getting him,” Graham told Gowdy.
Critics on Twitter were outraged by yet another threat of violence during investigations into suspected crimes.
So you are saying Republicans are very violent people who do not believe in law and order?
Nice threat, Lindsey. And very revealing of your consciousness of guilt.
The truth is most Americans will celebrate just like we did when we kicked Trump’s ass to the curb. https://t.co/Y00vKCyvfz
— MeidasTouch (@MeidasTouch) August 28, 2022
Worth mentioning that he said it again at the end of the interview after he was asked about his subpoena and saying “I love the law”
— Acyn (@Acyn) August 28, 2022
The criticism of little Lindsey continued this morning on MSNBC’s Morning Joe. ‘Bold-faced liar’ Lindsey Graham buried for riot threat as he continues to ‘shill’ for Trump:
Early Monday morning, “Morning Joe” co-host Mika Brzezinski went on a rant when she lashed into Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) over a warning that came across as a threat that there will be riots if Donald Trump is arrested.
Speaking with host Trey “Benghazi!” Gowdy, the South Carolina Republican boldly proclaimed, “I’ll say this, if there is a prosecution of Donald Trump for mishandling classified information after the Clinton debacle … there will be riots in the street.”
Those words led the MSNBC host to wonder what has happened to Graham and why he continues to defend Trump.
“This just doesn’t end well,” she began. “I don’t understand Senator Graham, Senator [Roy] Blunt (R-MO), all the others. I mean, you know that you’re wondering — and this is basic — you’re wondering what those documents were doing there. You’re wondering what a former president would do with documents like that in his club where people from around the world come to party with him.”
“You know that he’s had questionable — and this is at best — questionable meetings and appearances on the world stage with dictators,” she continued. “Private meetings with Putin with no notetaker. Kim Jong-un. You even admitted, the former president, on television, that you would take dirt on a political rival; you would shake down a world leader for it.”
“Lindsey Graham has no question about what these sensitive documents were doing in the basement of Mar-a-Lago?” she scoffed. “It defies logic. That’s the thing; he’s not stupid, he knows this is a big question of national security. This is not drama. This is not overreaction. This is not an exaggeration. This is not the left going crazy — it’s just not.”
“You know it is a question: what the hell were those documents doing in the basement of Mar-a-Lago?” she exclaimed. “And you’re a bold-faced liar if you say you don’t have that question. And you jump, eagerly, like a fly to fly-paper to Hillary Clinton’s emails — it’s pathetic. It’s also really bad for this country.”
“And, yes, there may be violence, none of us like this, none of us wanted this,” she scolded. “True patriots who love this country, love our democracy, love the process and the rule of law that makes us great, we don’t like what’s happening. We’re not taking any joy in this. The question is why would you still shill for someone who has embarrassed you time and time again?”
Joe Scarborough also weighed in. Morning Joe slams Lindsey Graham for threatening ‘riots in the street’ to protect Trump from indictment:
The FBI executed a lawful search warrant on the twice-impeached former president’s private resort and seized boxes full of top-secret materials, and the “Morning Joe” host ripped Graham and other Republican lawmakers who went on TV over the weekend to defend Trump’s actions — and suggest that he be held above the law or else.
“These members of Congress that are suggesting that, or newspaper editorialists who are suggesting it is much to do about nothing, they’d all be in jail,” Scarborough said. “I know because of the briefings I got when I was in the Armed Services Committee and the warnings we got. Yet here you have Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina saying in an interview yesterday, not that what Donald Trump did was okay, he didn’t do something that would have Lindsey thrown in jail in a day.”
“But now this threat of violence,” Scarborough continued. “If you hold — and this is where — isn’t this where it ends, really, for the Republicans? Joe Biden said the MAGA Trumpists, the semi-fascists, I don’t know where the word ‘semi’ came from from. Isn’t this where it ends? They say, if you hold our people to account, if it is really true that in America, no man is above the law, well, there’s going to be violence. Because Donald Trump is above the law, Lindsey suggests. If Donald Trump is indicted for taking 25 top-secret documents, 67 confidential documents, 92 secret documents, and taking them from the White House and refusing to give them back to the federal government, despite them trying to work with him patiently. If he is indicted for doing something that would have members of Congress in jail immediately, well, there may be riots out there, there may be violence. That’s Lindsey’s warning.”
“Riots in the street, there’s a threat of violence,” Scarborough added. “Of course, Lindsey at least admitted the truth. When it comes to Donald Trump, he and other Republicans believe, quote, there is no law.”
William S. Cohen, a former secretary of defense, and William H. Webster, a former director of the FBI and the CIA write at the Washigto Post, The reckless rage of the lawless:
The Justice Department’s decision to execute a search warrant of former president Donald Trump‘s Florida home was unprecedented in our nation’s history.
Prominent Republicans reacted with predictable fury and heated threats of retaliation against the attorney general — unprecedented acts of vitriol based on the belief that the FBI’s conduct was politically motivated rather than legally necessary.
In doing so, they recklessly and knowingly undermined respect for a “law and order” institution and the men and women who risk their lives to protect us.
We are confident that Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher A. Wray, both honest and honorable men, gave careful consideration before authorizing a search of Trump’s residence, knowing the historical significance and potential for political backlash.
The controversy, while significant in its legal implications, should not be allowed to overshadow the far larger issues surrounding the conduct of the former president.
The House Select Committee investigating Jan. 6, 2021, has produced compelling evidence that Trump and his supporters engaged in an orchestrated six-step plan to prevent the peaceful transfer of power, culminating with the assault on our Capitol.
We share disgust and deep disappointment that the Republican Party’s decency and respect for the rule of law has been defined down to a cultish devotion to a demonstrably unprincipled man of greed and blind ambition.
Sadly, the task of rescuing the banner of conservatism has been left to Republican Reps. Liz Cheney (Wyo.), Adam Kinzinger (Ill.), Peter Meijer (Mich.) and others who have been willing to fulfill their Pledge of Allegiance to our flag and Constitution. They have been noble exceptions to those who clutch their titles and sacrifice their honor; these heroes will likely be replaced with sycophants rather than serious legislators.
While the House committee’s focus is necessarily directed to recommending legislative measures to help preserve our democratic republic, we should not ignore what is at stake for America’s role in international affairs.
In November 2021, nearly 100 former national security officials, both civilians and military officers of both parties, signed a letter decrying the threats that the Trump presidency created for the United States internationally. “The insurrection on January 6th,” the letter stated, “has left other countries to wonder if the American Experiment is failing and if American democracy is the best path forward.”
Our allies are rightly worried about the possibility of a resurgence of Trump and his hyper-nationalist methods of governance. Foreign adversaries who believe that we are in a state of moral and social decline see the deepening racial, ethnic and cultural divisions in our society as target-rich opportunities for exploitation in an age of cyber and social media propaganda. They recognize Abraham Lincoln’s insight that “a house divided against itself cannot stand” and are working to turn those sage words into our reality.
In her book, “How Civil Wars Start: And How to Stop Them,” political scientist Barbara F. Walter raises valid concerns about the United States slipping into a place where civil war is possible. She writes about a netherworld of anocracy — between democracy and autocracy — a breeding ground for political violence, where the grievances and resentments of a large White underclass have greatly increased the potential for civil war.
Note: It would not be a civil war, but rather an anti-democracy insurgency of White Christian Nationalists who make up the core of the MAGA/QAnon domestic terrrorist mob engaging in acts of political violence and domestic terrorism. They would be the American Taliban.
These predictions once sounded like the fever dreams of far-right lunatics who would welcome such a bloody conflict; today, such predictions are coming from responsible voices such as Walter and others who have carefully studied this phenomenon around the world.
Not long ago, we thought that with the collapse of the Soviet empire, the march of freedom and democracy was in unstoppable ascendancy. Today, the tide is moving in the opposite direction. Autocracies are surfacing even among members of NATO, such as Hungary and Turkey. Similar anti-democratic forces are gaining strength in France and Italy. Without America’s sustainable pro-democratic leadership, this trend is bound to accelerate.
Garland’s actions upholding the principle that no one is above the law reaches well beyond our borders. Surely, he is not eager to be the first person to initiate criminal proceedings against a former president. To do so will establish a woeful, even if justified, precedent and possibly will set off a level of civil strife we have not witnessed in more than 150 years.
But our nation’s senior law enforcer, a man who has an impeccable record of fairness and impartiality as a distinguished jurist, cannot tailor his judgment to accommodate the rage of the lawless [Republicans.]
Those lawless Republicans who engage in acts of political violence and domestic terrorism will be arrested, charged and convicted under the rule flaw. We can always build more prisons.
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Philip Bump reports that the anti-democracy MAGA/QAnon insurrectionist mob longs for a “civil war” (so they can cosplay by dressing up as traitor Confederate soldiers, like Pennsylvania MAGA/QAnon gubernatorial nomine Doug Mastriano?) “Analysis | Most Trump voters see civil war as somewhat likely within a decade”, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/08/29/trump-voters-civil-war/
This is far from new and it has real-world consequences for many of us. The magamob is depraved, sadistically violent and acts with complete impunity. WHY is this allowed? I live surrounded by them and it’s been 5-years of nonstop politically-motivated death threats, especially if I dare exit the house (particularly to do any type of yardwork), stalking, maiming my animals (one is now blind), intimidation, following me in their vehicles. A person shouldn’t have to hire back-up security so they can do yardwork on the property they own — but some of us do. Again, WHY is this allowed? It’s the middle of the night and I had to take my dog out, and of course there was a magalooser hiding by my back fence waiting, just as he is there several nights a week. Once again, WHY is this allowed? Angered and fueled by the recent audacity of law enforcement’s initial attempt to enforce the law, they have escalated partly because they have been encouraged to and partly because they have been permitted to. Law enforcement needs to step up and start protecting the law-abiding citizens and stop coddling these criminals that have dominated and destroyed our neighborhoods. Sadly, I know many people have these types of stories. Unfortunately, the media has not covered this to the degree it should, but the small picture is an accurate reflection of the larger one. Those of us that actually obey the law and respect this country, shouldn’t be offered up as sacrifices to appease these trumpdrunk criminals and their fetishized lust for fascism– yet that is exactly what is happening . Once again, I ask: WHY is this allowed?
“White House: Lindsey Graham just proved Biden’s ‘semi-fascism’ claim is correct”, https://www.rawstory.com/graham-riots/
The White House says U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham’s threat of “riots in the streets” should the Dept. of Justice decide to prosecute Donald Trump proves President Joe Biden’s label of “semi-fascism” for the “MAGA Republicans” is correct.
“We have seen MAGA Republicans attack our democracy. We have seen MAGA Republicans take away our rights. Make threats of violence, including this weekend, and that is what the President was referring to when you all asked me last week about the ‘semi-fascism’ comment,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told a reporter Monday (video below) when asked about Sen. Graham’s threat.
President Biden “was clear, not all Republicans,” Jean-Pierre stressed.
“But we have seen these MAGA extreme Republicans making these kinds of comments, which is, which is dangerous. And and this is what we are talking about,” she said, “when President Biden was making his comments last week.”
“Look, this is a president that believes when you are President of the United States, it is your duty, it is your responsibility to have the strongest voice we have when it comes to democracy, when speaking about democracy. And that’s what you’re going to continue to hear from this President.”
Sunday evening in what some, including legal experts saw as a clear threat, Sen. Graham declared, “If there’s a prosecution of Donald Trump for mishandling classified information … there’ll be riots in the streets.”
Thursday night at a Maryland rally President Biden infuriating the right told supporters, “It’s not just Trump, it’s the entire philosophy that underpins the — I’m going to say something, it’s like semi-fascism.”
“The MAGA Republicans don’t just threaten our personal rights and economic security,” Biden said. “They’re a threat to our very democracy. They refuse to accept the will of the people. They embrace political violence. They don’t believe in democracy.”
“I want to be crystal-clear about what’s on the ballot this year,” Biden continued. “Your right to choose is on the ballot this year. The Social Security you paid for from the time you had a job is on the ballot. The safety of our kids from gun violence is on the ballot.”
“I respect conservative Republicans,” Biden added. “I don’t respect these MAGA Republicans.”
Dana Milbank writes, “Biden just used the f-word — and he’s correct”, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/26/biden-called-republicans-semi-fascist/
President Biden on Thursday offered some harsh words about those of the “extreme MAGA philosophy” currently hacking away at our democracy.
“It’s not just Trump,” he said at a fundraiser. “It’s the entire philosophy that underpins the — I’m going to say something: It’s like semi-fascism.” [He meant crypto-fascism, but they are full blown fascists, Uncle Joe.]
He expanded on the theme later at a rally. “The MAGA Republicans,” he said, are “a threat to our very democracy. They refuse to accept the will of the people. They embrace — embrace — political violence.”
Good for him. Those who cherish democracy need to call out the proto-fascist tendencies now seizing the Trump-occupied GOP.
Republican candidates up and down the November ballot reject the legitimate outcome of the last election — and are making it easier to reject the will of the voters in the next. Violent anti-government rhetoric from party leaders targets the FBI, the Justice Department and the IRS. A systemic campaign of disinformation makes their supporters feel victimized by shadowy “elites.” These are hallmarks of authoritarianism.
Americans are taking notice. A new NBC News poll finds that “threats to democracy” has become the top concern of voters, replacing the cost of living as the No. 1 concern. The 21 percent who cite it as the “most important issue facing the country” include 29 percent of Democrats, and even 17 percent of Republicans. (Many Republican voters have been deceived into believing there’s rampant voter fraud, but at least they care enough about democracy to be concerned.)
The Republican response to Biden’s warning? “Despicable,” Republican National Committee spokesman Nathan Brand said in a statement. “Biden forced Americans out of their jobs …” (For the record, the economy has added nearly 10 million jobs during Biden’s presidency, after losing 2.9 million during Trump’s.)
That’s emblematic of the GOP response generally when called out on its assaults on democracy: victimhood and fabrication.
Princeton historian Sean Wilentz, writing in The Post, has condemned Sen. Marco Rubio’s contributions to “a culture of fakery,” saying the senator’s “fake populism and anti-intellectualism … are necessary ingredients of an authoritarian takeover.” Rubio, writing in the Federalist, a Trumpist publication, responded with more fakery, and by portraying himself as the victim. “This cisgender white male reeks of privilege,” Rubio wrote of Wilentz, borrowing the language of the woke left.
Rubio, misrepresenting a Post account of a Biden meeting with historians (including Wilentz), said that those warning about authoritarianism are “peddling … imaginary threats.” Rubio added: “If you’re looking for authoritarianism, look no further than what happened under the watch of Anthony Fauci and his allies in the elite establishment.” [So now “Little Marco” is an anti-masker and anti-vaxxer QAnon conspiracy theorist, just not just a retread Teabagger from 2010?]
The day after Rubio alleged that the true authoritarian threat is the head of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases (a job Fauci has held since the Reagan administration), the senator joined Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis at a campaign event. There, DeSantis said this about Fauci: “I’m just sick of seeing him. … Someone needs to grab that little elf and chuck him across the Potomac.”
Dehumanizing a foe’s appearance and fantasizing about violence against him: Where have we seen this before?
Earlier this month, a man was sentenced to prison for threats against Fauci — including, as the Daily Beast reported, a wish to break every bone in his “disgusting elf skull.” It was one of countless violent threats against the scientist as Republican officials targeted him for, among other things, the “sweeping shutdown” during the pandemic, as Fox News’s Neil Cavuto put it to Fauci this week.
“I didn’t shut down anything,” Fauci replied.
That’s true. All Fauci could do was give advice. Some governors followed it. Gov. “DeathSantis” didn’t. Instead, he fueled conspiracy theories, dubious treatments, and hostility to masks and vaccines. And Florida, after vaccines became available, had by far the highest covid-19 death rate among big states.
Since then, DeSantis has devoted himself to book banning, voter intimidation and restrictions on what schools can teach about race, history and sexuality — all while DeSantis, a graduate of Yale University and Harvard Law School, bashes “elites.”
Such relentless attacks on facts, expertise, learning and voting, like fantasies of violence against a nefarious elite, are tools of the authoritarian. But don’t take Biden’s word for it.
At DeSantis’s alma mater this week, Yale President Peter Salovey opened the academic year with a speech on the current “assault on truth,” in which he quoted Hannah Arendt, revered philosopher of the pre-Trump right: “The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the convinced Communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction (i.e., the reality of experience) and the distinction between true and false (i.e., the standards of thought) no longer exist.”
This is where the MAGA Republicans are taking us. It’s past time to call it what it is.
Kurt Bardella, a former Breitbart staffer turned Democratic operative, labeled the MAGA Republican caucus as so far to the extreme that they’re dangerous. “‘The MAGA Republicans are a domestic terrorist cell’: ex-Breitbart staffer”, https://www.rawstory.com/republican-party-domestic-terrorism/
Bardella argued that the level of lawlessness seen by MAGA Republicans has included the attempted insurrection, voter fraud, a kidnapping attempt, bombing plots, assassination threats, slaying of an anti-racist protester in Charlottesville, two attacks on the FBI, threats against the National Archives, threats against IRS agents and threats against judges, reporters, FBI agents and a slew of elected officials.
“Let’s be clear. The Republican Party, the MAGA Republicans are a domestic terrorist cell operating in America,” said Bardella. “This is a group of people who have decided that it is acceptable to use violence and threats of violence to try to achieve their political means. That it’s okay to threaten law enforcement to stop them from doing their job and anytime you have people dedicated to using violent rhetoric, to incite violence against other people — that’s terrorism. That’s what we’re seeing from the Republican Party.”
Christina Greer, associate professor at Fordham University, agreed with the assessment, saying that President Joe Biden is finally realizing that the far-right groups are domestic terrorists and that it’s his responsibility to call it like it is.
[Note to Biden: Semi-Fascist is not a term. The word you are looking for is crypto-fascist. They are in fact fascists, nothing half-way about it.]
Christina Greer, associate professor at Fordham University, agreed with the assessment, saying that President Joe Biden is finally realizing that the far-right groups are domestic terrorists and that it’s his responsibility to call it like it is.
“This is the Republican Party,” she said.
“This is who they are. They can no longer hide behind tax breaks. If you are in for a penny, you are in for a pound. You are supporting, aiding and abetting people or threatening journalists and other citizens, threatening other politicians and threatening law enforcement. It is all part and parcel. If you’re in the Republican Party this is what you stand for. I think Joe Biden has finally reached a point where he believes the larger issue on the ballot is American democracy, she said.
“I always said that Joe Biden is a bridge president. He will take us over the bridge to help us fortify some of our American democratic principles that have been weakened under the former president, or we will see the destruction of these norms that we’ve realized, haven’t been calcified,” Greer continued. “They’re fragile. The American democracy is a series of daily decisions we have to make collectively. We’ve seen that far too many Republicans are going in the opposite direction.”