Former Donald Trump campaign advisor David Urban freaked out on CNN on Thursday while attempting to defend President Donald Trump's latest veiled threat of physical violence against his political opponents.
“I 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’t play it tough until they go to a certain point, and then it would be very bad, very bad,” Trump told right-wing Breitbart.
CNN anchor Anderson Cooper read from a new opinion column by former White House press secretary Joe Lockhart.
"It's hard to overestimate the damage President Trump has done to our political climate when comments like this go virtually unnoticed," Lockhart wrote. "We've all become numb to the lying, bullying and physical threats the President makes almost daily."
Lockhart and Urban joined Cooper to discuss.
"It was another of these veiled threats, that if I don't get my way, things, bad things can happen," Lockhart noted. "And in fact when you're talking about political discourse, you don't often refer to the Hells Angels and bikers. That had meaning, words have meaning."
"And I'll take it even further, which is the rest of the world watches what happens here in the United States and when we send a message that, you know, maybe we won't transfer power peacefully, what does that say to emerging democracies around the world?" Lockhart wondered.
"Joe, that is nowhere in this interview and that's irresponsible for you to say that -- even fan those flames to say that this interview somehow, somehow says the president won't do it," Urban charged. "It's irresponsible for you to come on here and intimate that's what the president was saying."
"Shame on you," Urban added.
"I'm talking about something broader than this interview, I'm talking about the way this president sees the office of the presidency," Lockhart noted.
"Let's talk about this interview. He intimates here that he's got the military on his side in a political battle. What does that mean? Take it to its logical extreme, which is if he doesn't get his way, if the voters aren't with him, he has the military," Lockhart noted. "That has real meaning around the world -- they call that a military coup."
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