Monday, October 28, 2024

Enemy Within



Well, this can't be good: 

It was not the first time that Donald J. Trump has referred to "the enemy within.when on October 13

“I think the bigger problem is the enemy from within,” Trump said. He added: “We have some very bad people. We have some sick people, radical left lunatics. And I think they’re the big — and it should be very easily handled by, if necessary, by National Guard, or if really necessary, by the military, because they can’t let that happen.”

Trump has repeatedly invoked the phrase “enemy from within” in recent speeches. On Saturday, he used it to refer to Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., a prominent Trump critic who oversaw the congressional investigation that led to Trump’s first impeachment. Schiff is now running for the Senate.

More recently, on October 20 Fox News' Howard

Kurtz asked Trump, “You talk about the enemy within, then America’s enemies outside, the enemy within is a pretty ominous phrase if you’re talking about other Americans. Who are you talking about?”

“I think that’s accurate,” Trump responded before taking a dig at Pelosi and Schiff.

“These are bad people. We have a lot of bad people,” Trump said. “But when you look at ‘Shifty Schiff’ and some of the others, yeah, they are to me, the enemy from within. I think Nancy Pelosi is an enemy from within.”

However, appearing on October 28 on CNN's State of the Union with Jake Tapper

Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance insisted that Donald Trump’s attacks on “the enemy within” were not directed at Democratic Party leaders but dissenting Americans he described as “far-left lunatics” poised to riot if the former president wins in November.

Grilled by CNN’s Jake Tapper on Trump’s use of the loaded phrase, Vance defended his ticket mate, saying the former president would not unleash the military on “Americans writ large.”

“He’s said publicly that he wants to use the military to go after the enemy within, which is the American people,” Tapper said in an interview that aired Sunday on “State of the Union"....

Yet according to Vance

He said that he wanted to use the military to go after far-left lunatics who are rioting, and … he also called them ‘the enemy within.’ He separately, in a totally different context, in a totally different conversation, said that Nancy Pelosi and Adam Schiff were threats to this country.

Well, no, Trump once singled out Adam Schiff as one of those enemies of the people and on another occasion argued "when you look at 'Shifty Schiff' and some of the others, yeah, they are to me, the enemy from within. I think Nancy Pelosi is an enemy from within."



However, this is not only Trump and the guy he once described as possibly "America's Hitler."  CNN noted also that Vance was

echoing a script other Republicans have stuck to when asked similar questions.

“I did not hear President Trump in that clip say he’s going to sic the military on Adam Schiff. That’s not what he’s saying,” the Louisiana Republican said. “You got two different clips in two different contexts.”

The week before, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, also speaking to Tapper, said Trump was not talking about political opponents.

I guess what I want to just make very clear is that it’s my belief that what former President Trump is talking about are the people that are coming over the border, that, in fact, are committing crimes, that are bringing drugs, that are trafficking humans and that are turning every state into a border state,” the Republican governor said.

There has been no known, credible threat from American leftists – many of whom have soured on Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris – relating to post-election violence or “riots.”

That was that nice Glenn Youngkin, a "moderate Republican" to much of the media, and who is rarely or ever considered "MAGA." It should be a warning to mainstream media that if Donald Trump is elected, he will move aggressively toward establishing a police state, and that major Republicans will not balk at his evisceration of the Constitution. The danger will come not only from a President Trump but also from his Republican Party, whose members will unhesitatingly line up behind him, because it is the Republican Party.



No comments:

"Not At This Table" Is Part of The Problem

Fareed Zakaria is right about the first and third point. However, the other guy makes an excellent point about factor #3. In fact, Trump ra...