The same Republicans downplaying Trump 'dictatorship' lines begged Pence to stop him: aide

In a discussion between Geraldo Rivera and Olivia Troye, host Jim Acosta couldn't help but blame Republican lawmakers for being the ones to encourage Donald Trump's dictatorship fantasies.

On Thursday, CNN's Manu Raju interviewed several lawmakers asking about Trump's comment that he wanted to be a dictator for "one day" so he could build his wall and drill wherever he wanted.

“A joke,” one called it. “Entertainment,” said another, and “typical rhetoric.” That’s how GOP lawmakers downplayed his claim that he wanted to be a dictator. The former Fox host tried to make the case that these members were correct, but Troye flattened it.

ALSO READ: A neuroscientist explains how Donald Trump exploits the minds of conspiracy theorists

Troye sounded the alarm aboutTrump's daydreams about being a king. She pointed to the very same Republicans who were calling Vice President Mike Pence's office begging for help when Trump came up with a policy he wanted to enact based on something he saw on the Fox network.

"I know the Republicans on the Hill who were upset when Trump would say he was going to do something and he'd go do it, and then there would be phone calls to Mike Pence's office," said Troye. She specifically cited Trump targeting immigrants, who were a big part of the farmworkers willing to work for very little to pick crops. Republicans in farm country were desperate for help.

FoodProcessing.com from February 2019 charted: "The Immigration and Customs Enforcement service (ICE) conducted numerous enforcement actions on food processing facilities during 2018. Some of the higher-profile ones include: a meat processing plant in Morristown, Tenn., raided on April 6, with 97 arrests; a bakery in Chicago, audited in June and July, with a net loss of about 800 workers, or roughly a third of its workforce; a meat processing plant in Salem, Ohio, raided on June 19 with 146 arrests; a tomato plant, a potato processing facility and a cattle feedlot, all in O’Neill, Neb., raided on Aug. 8, with 133 total arrests."

"We need them," Troye said. "We need those immigrants here. They are hardworking people."

"Or how about those times when people would call up when there was going to be 'Liberty to Venezuela,'" she said, recalling the slogan. "Then one day he woke up and decided he didn't like the oppositional candidate. So, he just woke up on the wrong side of the bed and went off on that. The next thing you know, we were withdrawing our plans and trying to scramble to figure that out."

These Republicans who are downplaying his language now are the same ones who were "equally panicking" when Trump managed the presidency via tweet.

"I've seen what he does firsthand. Jim, I saw when you got kicked out of the press room and attacked and your press pass was revoked as media. What happened to freedom of the press?" said Troye. "I know what is coming. So, yeah, we can sit here and say that it's alarmist, but there are those of us who lived it, who saw this firsthand, who are incredibly concerned. Those checks and balances held because there were people in positions who weren't willing to compromise themselves, who really took their oath seriously and who took their service seriously. Those people won't be there anymore. It will be a circle of enablers."

Rivera tried to claim that the checks and balances would be in place to stop Trump because there are the necessary branches of government like the judiciary to keep him in check. Never before has a president refused to follow a Supreme Court ruling. Trump could very easily be the first, and unless the House and Senate are willing to remove him from office, there's nothing else in place to enforce it. The Supreme Court doesn't have any kind of police force. The commander-in-chief is the president and he dictates the military.

See the debate below or at the link here.

The same Republicans downplaying Trump 'dictatorship' lines begged Pence to stop him: aidewww.youtube.com