'MAGA Bride' candidate warns of 'civil war' in bid to unseat GOP incumbent who voted to impeach Trump

Michigan GOP congressional candidate Audra Johnson, who became known as the "MAGA bride" after appearing at her wedding reception in a Make America Great Again Dress in 2019, is warning of an impending "civil war" as she attempts to unseat a Republican incumbent who voted to impeach president Donald Trump for inciting the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection.

"We're heading toward a civil war, if we're not already in a cold civil war," Johnson told the New York Times, for a story published Thursday detailing how two GOP incumbents in Michigan "face a backlash from Republican voters who are enraged by what they allege are an effort by the F.B.I. to hunt down peaceful protesters, a news media silencing conservative voices, a governor who has taken away their livelihoods with overzealous pandemic restrictions and a Democratic secretary of state who has stolen their votes."

Johnson, who is challenging Congressman Peter Meijer in the 2022 GOP primary, attended the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection but claims she did not go inside the Capitol. However, she "knew people who knew people who did."

"Honestly, they're terrified that the F.B.I. is going to come knock on their door," Johnson told the NYT.

Johnson also helped organized armed protests of COVID-19 restrictions imposed by Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who later became the target of a kidnapping plot.

Meijer, meanwhile, is attempting to defend his seat in the face of "an alternative reality in which Mr. Trump was re-elected, their votes were stolen, the deadly Jan. 6 mob was peaceful, coronavirus vaccines were dangerous and conservatives were oppressed," the NYT reports.

"The challenge is if you believe that Nov. 3 was a landslide victory for Donald Trump that was stolen, and Jan. 6 was the day to stop that steal," Meijer said. "I can't come to an understanding with somebody when we're dealing with completely separate sets of facts and realities."

At one recent event, a woman informed Meijer that he would soon be arrested for treason and hauled before a military tribunal to be shot.

"People are willing to kill and die over these alternative realities," Meijer said.

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