Republicans ‘brought to their knees’ with ‘Trump’s insatiable appetite for violence’: Nicolle Wallace
Every day in America, people are charged with federal crimes and must appear in federal courthouses. There's rarely any violence and never an uprising. But as June 13 approaches, there is a fear that the "thinly veiled threats" about potential violence, at a federal courthouse in Miami, are more than bluster.
Mary McCord, who previously worked as the acting assistant attorney general for national security at the U.S. Department of Justice, spoke to MSNBC about it on Monday, saying that she was fearful Trump's arraignment could turn into another Jan. 6.
"This is something that's been building up over the years," McCord told MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace. "And you can already see it, if you just kind of compare this type of rhetoric from a few years ago, like pre-2020, to where we are now ... You see a consistent drumbeat of thinly-veiled calls to violence that get thinner and thinner. It seems like elected officials have continued to push the envelope of, you know, what they think they can get by with doing. What will come just short of crossing that line into a threat that is a crime or incitement to imminent violence, which is a crime, and others are not condemning it? So, it normalizes this type of rhetoric; it normalizes this type of violence."
Speaking to The New York Times over the weekend, McCord said that until there is some accountability for those using that kind of rhetoric, including elected officials, it's never going to stop.
"Instead, what happens is the people who listen to it, the people who feel like it's giving them permission to go out and engage in acts of harassment, intimidation, and violence, they're the ones who ultimately pay the price. We've seen that with the thousand prosecutions after Jan. 6th. If there are lone actors or groups that interrupt the judicial proceedings or engage in threats or intimidation near the courthouse, they may be arrested for various crimes they committed. Yet, too often, these elected officials who are really calling for it and normalizing it and giving permission oftentimes go scot-free. So, this is a dangerous spiral that we're in of continuing to escalate this kind of rhetoric that causes real-world actions."
Wallace harkened back to Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bomber, watching the drama unfold.
"Now you have a lot of the Jan. 6th enthusiasts pointing back to that and toward tomorrow in Miami," said Wallace. She then quoted people calling for "war" and for "blood." "MAGA will make Waco look like a tea party."
McCord noted that some of the threats could be actionable for the FBI. She's hoping that the mistakes of Jan. 6 helped law enforcement be more prepared to fully mobilize.
"It is surreal to have this conversation in private, having worked in the government," Wallace confessed. (She previously worked for George W. Bush's administration.)
"It is indescribable to have it on live TV and to have been a part of the party that is now part of the rot and threat to domestic security in the United States," Wallace added. "I remember, and I think based on his early messages as a candidate, he won't mind if I disclose this for the first time. I remember talking to Chris Christie after Trump said 'Stand back and stand by,' to the Proud Boys. I think him explaining why he wouldn't do it. I understood not just Trump's enthusiasm for the support of anyone and everyone, including David Duke, but Trump's insatiable appetite for violence carried out. And that was the fall of 2016. What it has brought is — it's brought the entire Republican Party to its hands and knees."
She went on to call the GOP "impotent" for being unable to do anything to stop the violence from their own side and, in some cases, their own officials.
"If they decided today, this is not how they want the country to be... it's too late. It's too late. If this is something I could find before I came on the air, do you know what the radicalized extremists found? They're awash in violent tactical instructions on exactly how to carry out retribution for their leader, Donald Trump. What do we do?"
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