Members of the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol have warned America for three years to take former President Donald Trump at his word.
Now, as Trump is poised to win the Republican presidential nomination, his criminal trials face delays that could stall them past Election Day, and his rhetoric grows increasingly authoritarian, some of those lawmakers find themselves following their own advice.
In mid-March, Trump said on social media that the committee members should be jailed. In December he vowed to be a dictator on “day one.” In August, he said he would “have no choice” but to lock up his political opponents.
“If he intends to eliminate our constitutional system and start arresting his political enemies, I guess I would be on that list,” said Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-San Jose). “One thing I did learn on the committee is to pay attention and listen to what Trump says, because he means it.”
Lofgren added that she doesn’t yet have a plan in place to thwart potential retribution by Trump. But Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Burbank), who has long been a burr in Trump’s side, said he’s having “real-time conversations” with his staff about how to make sure he stays safe if Trump follows through on his threats.
“We’re taking this seriously, because we have to,” Schiff said. “We’ve seen this movie before … and how perilous it is to ignore what someone is saying when they say they want to be a dictator.”
Non-American just double-checking I’ve got his right…
Private citizen makes actionable credible threat to unlawfully detain legislators, legislators choose to do nothing for about half a year before slowly murmuring without specifics other than “yeah he said it” and “I think he means us”.
You OK USA? Just checking in.
There is, unfortunately, no law against saying you're going to be a power abusing jackass. And the Republicans have decided that if he gets into office, they'll protect him from impeachment and removal no matter what. His lawyers have literally argued that the president can order assassinations of their political rivals.
So no, we're not okay.
I would argue that Trump committed sedition and terroristic threats. The trouble is that everyone in the Federal government is either too chickenshit or too traitorous themselves to prosecute.
I see. I should have my lawyers argue buying a $1,000,000 house for $0 is reasonable, that way a deal for $500,000 is perfectly reasonable. In the same way that threatening to illegally detain is a halfway compromise between nothing and threatening murder.
And it seems that imprisoning political opponents goes beyond carting down a hill in a shopping trolley which is what we here overseas associate with “jackass”, but what do I know.
We are not okay. Nothing will happen to him about it, though. He can be literally court ordered to not talk shit about courtroom staff or families, then talk shit about them, and he gets nothing other than a reduced bond and an extension to pay that.
Going after Trump for his crimes would set a precedent for going after the rest of them for their crimes. It's in their interests to not open that door.
Yes this is exactly why the impeachments failed. It would have been easy to take him down for the violation of the emoluments clause (profiting from their office), but nobody in power would do it because then they'd face corruption charges for it too
https://images.app.goo.gl/fQWwqgb2CPyjUDkM7
Jokes aside, if the US falls to fascism, it’s gonna be a massive problem for Europe. Imagine fascists in charge of the biggest nation with a history of colonialism, and the world’s largest stockpile of nukes.
It would be awesome if the other first-world nations started taking this threat seriously, before it’s too late.
We need the world to issue sanctions against the US. Please sanction us. We lost control of the government and need your help
Giving our oligarchs the same treatment as russian oligarchs would be a good start. Seize their property and assets wherever and whenever possible.
Certainly I think it would be fair that they pay reparations for their crimes.
Europe? Nuclear war is a threat to all animals on earth.
Very true. But I doubt elephants have the capacity to intervene.
As soon as Botswana delivers the 20,000 elephants to Germany, you will observe the world being reshaped by German war elephants.
Well, we have animals in Europe. Like, um... rabbits.
European here.
This comment takes assumption that by "US falling to fascism" you meant Trump taking control of the USA. Please ignore everything if I misunderstood.
Trump's among the few US presidents that didn't start a new war. Source: https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN2A22QR/
He also scaled down wars in Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq. I AM NOT SAYING THOSE ACTIONS WERE GOOD OR BAD FOR THE USA, or for the rest of the world for that matter. And I'm really not qualified to discuss that.
This comment is ONLY a direct reply to a concern that Trump's rule should have Europe worried in the sense that he'll nuke us.
Maybe someone else nukes us as a consequence of his inaction, idk. But Trump nuking Europe is what you said, and I disagree.
I’m not talking about trump, actually. He’s just a carnival barker. If he wins the next election, he’ll do whatever his handlers want him to do, which will hasten things. But him losing will not stop the fascist movement in progress. There’s a group of actual fascists who have been working on this for decades. Some are in Congress, some are high up in organisations like the Heritage Foundation and the Federalist Society (writing bills and selecting judges), and others are consultants and advisers.
I’m actually concerned that when trump loses, people will think the threat has passed. His loss will mitigate it somewhat, but it won’t stop them. A large part of the threat is Christian nationalists in Congress, the Supreme Court, and in many other seats of power throughout the country.
Got it, ignore what I said then, I don't have enough knowledge to talk about what you're talking about.
We are not. Please send help
No we're not ok.
On the one hand moderate and liberal voters, the DNC, establishment Democrats, centerist corporate news stations, past presidents and Biden himself are talking about how dangerous Trump is. He cannot be allowed to win.
Okay, sounds serious. Serious enough to make some big moves in order to get the votes necessary to win by a comfortable margin? If you check out Biden's insistence on continuing to ship weapons to Israel the answer is "no".
And really this encapsulates the problem with so called moderates and liberals. When faced with a choice between left or right when the center cannot hold they just fuck around, stall or outright sabotage leftist efforts. Effectively cementing a rightward victory and then blaming it on leftists.
It's pretty pathetic how often they play this game and considering they actually do seem sincerely worried about Trump it's bewildering why they aren't seeking more cooperative efforts with leftists and progressives. They remain steadfastly confident stern lectures, as if leftists and progressives owe their votes, are all that is necessary.
No, we are not.
Let me correct that for you: legislators pointing this out are prevented from doing anything because the opposing party has enough numbers to stop anything from happening that'd piss off their base regarding trump.
And no, we're not ok