'This is incredibly dangerous': CNN panel stunned by Trump's new call for protests if he's prosecuted
Reacting to some of the statements Donald Trump made at a rally in Conroe, Texas on Saturday night, where he called on his fans to launch protests if he is prosecuted, a CNN panel raised the red flag and warned it looked like he was encouraging another Jan 6th riot.
Joining hosts Christi Paul and Boris Sanchez, CNN's Brian Stelter said the former president left no doubt that he intends to run for president again in 2024 -- regardless of being the subject of multiple civil and criminal investigations.
The three grew visibly concerned after watching a clip of the former president stating, "If these radical, vicious, racist prosecutors do anything wrong or illegal, I hope we are going to have in this country the biggest protest we have ever had in Washington DC, in New York, in Atlanta and elsewhere because our country and our elections are corrupt," before the cheering Texas crowd.
"He's directly challenging the rule of law, a legitimate investigation and emboldening the very people who tried to undo the results of the 2020 election," host Sanchez remarked before adding, "This is incredibly dangerous."
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"It's January 5th all over again," Stelter replied. "Remember January 5th when Trump was telling his fans to come to the capital for a Save America rally? He wasn't telling them to go up to the Capitol [building] and try to attack lawmakers, he was just telling them to come to a protest. That's exactly where we are again now."
"What happened in 2020, 2021 was a slow-motion coup, now we have this slow-motion erosion of the rule of law," he continued. "If you say to yourself, 'well, he is out of office, he is a loser, it doesn't matter,' I'll tell you why it does matter. His speeches are live on Newsmax and other channels and they reach millions of people. Last week -- two weekends ago --when they aired one of these rallies, it was the highest-rated program on cable that day, on cable news. There is an audience for this, not as big as it used to be, but there is a base that wants to hear this from Trump, that wants to be animated and that may listen to him that say 'If I'm wronged, protest for me.' In Trump-speak that means if they find me guilty or if they find any evidence -- that's what he means and he's already saying it every day. Seems to me it's January 5th all over again."
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