Donald Trump appears to be assembling a team to help him carry out his promised vengeance against perceived enemies — and an NBC News correspondent sketched out how that might look in practice.
The president-elect is expected to appoint hardcore loyalist Kash Patel to a key role in the Department of Justice or FBI, and reporter Vaughn Hillyard told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" how that MAGA extremist might target and torment Trump's enemies.
"Let's be clear that Kash Patel is not a veteran of U.S. spy agencies or the intel community," Hillyard said. "He did float around during the first Trump administration, the right hand to the director of national intelligence, and ended up jumping over to be the chief of staff to acting defense secretary Chris Miller during the events of the Jan. 6 attack.
"This is a political ally of Trump's, a loyalist, who has been a frequent presence, for instance, on Steve Bannon's 'War Room' podcast. He is somebody of that ilk who has been very open, whether it's criminally or civilly, that they will go after not just folks that were part of the Biden administration, but also members of the press, arguing they have been part of the conspiracy to undermine Donald Trump and the political efforts that went forward."
"They could very well use the levers of the FBI or DOJ to try to mount and convene a grand jury and try to seek an indictment over some conspiracy charge that loops in the press," Hillyard added. "It could be a very vast effort they would try to put forward."
MSNBC's Sam Stein, who's also managing editor of The Bulwark, said Patel's likely appointment mirrored other nominations ahead of Trump's second term.
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"This is a larger pattern of potential appointees who want to take their institutions and agencies and effectively weaponize them against their opponents," Stein said.
"I was talking to Chris Murphy, the senator, last week about what he was preparing for and he very soberly said, 'I'm preparing for them to try to arrest lawmakers,' and, look, it may not happen, it may happen. The fact they are considering the possibility certainly is frightening. In recent days the mayor of Denver, I believe, has said, 'I'm not going to cooperate with mass deportation efforts, and the response from Trump officials has been, 'Great, we'll arrest you.'"
"That's really chilling, honestly, to see that people will cavalierly throw around the idea that elected officials," Stein added, "members of the Fourth Estate, could end up in the crosshairs and end up incarcerated because they disagree with the administration."
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