Before the 2016 election, Marco Rubio warned about it. Ted Cruz warned about it. Nikki Haley warned about it. Rick Perry even previewed it in an eerily prescient way.<\/p>\n
All of these prominent Republicans linked Donald Trump\u2019s rhetoric to the potential for political violence. Then we saw such violence on Jan. 6, 2021.<\/p>\n
Despite the predictability of it \u2014 and indeed, the fact that it was predicted \u2014 Trump has wrangled control of the Republican Party again, and he continues to not-at-all-subtly raise the specter of unrest and violence as a political bargaining chip.<\/p>\n
The most recent example: In his first interview since being convicted on 34 felony counts in Manhattan, Trump this past weekend addressed the possibility of being imprisoned or put under house arrest by saying, \u201cI\u2019m not sure the public would stand for it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it would be tough for the public to take,\u201d Trump told Fox News. \u201cYou know, at a certain point, there\u2019s a breaking point.\u201d<\/p>\n
This is vintage Trump. He\u2019s not explicitly advocating unrest. He\u2019s not even explicitly mentioning unrest in this case. But he is suggestively pointing to something very bad around the corner if he doesn\u2019t get what he wants.<\/p>\n
And as with his recent \u201cbloodbath\u201d comment, the point is not that this comment is a particularly egregious example of a dog whistle to his supporters; it\u2019s that it\u2019s merely the latest in a long line of suggestive comments. The context is key, and the track record is unmistakable.<\/p>\n
Trump wants his foes to worry about things getting ugly \u2014 and to perhaps adjust their behavior accordingly. The problem is that we\u2019ve seen how supporters can take his comments as a call to action. (And Trump\u2019s comments, crucially, almost never come with an admonition to stay peaceful.)<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s recap that long line.<\/p>\n
March 2016 (warning about being denied the Republican nomination)<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it would be \u2014 I think you\u2019d have riots. \u2026 I think you would have problems like you\u2019ve never seen before. I think bad things would happen, I really do. I believe that. I wouldn\u2019t lead it, but I think bad things would happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
August 2016 (warning about Hillary Clinton picking judges)<\/p>\n
\u201cIf she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks. Although the Second Amendment people, maybe there is, I don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n
March 2019<\/p>\n
\u201cI have the support of the police, the support of the military, the support of the Bikers for Trump. I have the tough people, but they don\u2019t play it tough \u2014 until they go to a certain point, and then it would be very bad, very bad.\u201d<\/p>\n
May 2020<\/p>\n
Amid racial justice protests, tweets a video featuring a supporter saying, \u201cThe only good Democrat is a dead Democrat\u201d (the supporter clarified he wasn\u2019t being literal). A day later, tweets, \u201cWhen the looting starts, the shooting starts.\u201d<\/p>\n
September 2020 (when challenged to condemn white supremacists and militia groups threatening violence)<\/p>\n
\u201cProud Boys, stand back and stand by. But I\u2019ll tell you what: Somebody has to do something about antifa and the left.\u201d (The Proud Boys later led the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, with several being convicted of seditious conspiracy.)<\/p>\n
November 2020 (responding to an adverse ruling from the Pennsylvania Supreme Court)<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Supreme Court decision on voting in Pennsylvania is a VERY dangerous one. It will allow rampant and unchecked cheating and will undermine our entire systems of laws. It will also induce violence in the streets. Something must be done!\u201d<\/p>\n
August 2022 (after the search of Mar-a-Lago)<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople are so angry at what is taking place. Whatever we can do to help because the temperature has to be brought down in the country. If it isn\u2019t, terrible things are going to happen.\u201d (Even Fox News\u2019s conservative hosts were skeptical that Trump was in fact interested in taking down the temperature.)<\/p>\n
February 2023 (amid talk of disqualifying Trump from holding office)<\/p>\n
Reposts a supporter who warns that advocates of disqualification \u201cwill have to figure out how to fight 80,000,000 + it\u2019s not going to happen again. People my age and old[er] will physically fight for him this time. \u2026 They got my 6 and we Are Locked and LOADED.\u201d<\/p>\n
March 2023 (before his Manhattan indictment)<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat kind of person can charge another person \u2026 with a Crime, when it is known by all that NO Crime has been committed, & also known that potential death & destruction in such a false charge could be catastrophic for our Country?\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump added, \u201cOUR COUNTRY IS BEING DESTROYED, AS THEY TELL US TO BE PEACEFUL!\u201d<\/p>\n
January 2024<\/p>\n
\u201cI think they feel [prosecuting Trump] is the way they\u2019re going to try and win, and that\u2019s not the way it goes. It\u2019ll be bedlam in the country. It\u2019s a very bad thing. It\u2019s a very bad precedent. As we said, it\u2019s the opening of a Pandora\u2019s box.\u201d (A Washington Post reporter asked Trump as he was walking away if he would tell his supporters not to get violent. Trump ignored the question.)<\/p>\n
April 2024 (on whether there will be violence if he loses)<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think we\u2019re going to have that; I think we\u2019re going to win. And if we don\u2019t win, you know, it depends. It always depends on the fairness of an election.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Before the 2016 election, Marco Rubio warned about it. Ted Cruz warned about it. Nikki Haley warned about it. Rick Perry even previewed it in an eerily prescient way. All of these prominent Republicans linked Donald Trump\u2019s rhetoric to the potential for political violence. Then we saw such violence on Jan. 6, 2021. Despite the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":5191,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5190"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5190\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}