MSNBC's Rachel Maddow walks through how Trump has inspired violence — from white supremacists to the MAGAbomber
MSNBC's Rachel Maddow on Friday outlined point-by-point the organizing links among white supremacist groups arrested for violence in recent weeks and their ideological similarities to the suspected MAGAbomber — all of whom were "inspired" by Donald Trump.
Maddow began the segment with an otherwise-huge news story that was swiftly forgotten in the frenzied coverage of the pipe bombs being sent to CNN and several prominent Democrats.
Earlier in the week, the FBI arrested the leader of a California-based white nationalist group after he fled the country for Central America. As the host noted, much of the group's notoriety came from videos of he and his cronies stalking counterprotesters at Trump rallies — all while holding signs bearing the president's name.
She then noted the headline-grabbing street brawl between members of the extremist Proud Boys group and antifascists in New York City that happened earlier in the month, as well as the subsequent arrests of a number of the group's members for their role in the fight that NYPD initially allowed to happen without interruption.
Finally, she pointed out that law enforcement recently revealed startling facts about another the pro-Trump, Oregon-based Patriot Prayer group. Last week, Portland police revealed that they found a cache of weapons with members of the group on top of a parking deck close to a planned Patriot Prayer rally that drew thousands of counterprotesters.
"There have always been violent extremist groups on the ragged edge of American politics," Maddow said. "Anti-abortion extremists who turn to bombs and snipers to kill people to try to get their way, to kill doctors. Left-wing groups in the '70s who carried out bombings of their own, hijackings, even prison breaks. Puerto Rican groups who shot up the capitol in the 1950s. More modern iterations of the Klan persist to this day."
But there's something "different" now, the host noted. As reports revealed, suspected MAGAbomber Cesar Sayoc is a Trump fanatic, going so far as to own thousands of dollars with of clothes emblazoned with the president's name and face and covering his van in Trumpian memorabilia.
"We are also in a historically unique time in which this particular president and his brand of Trumpism, for lack of a better term, in the Republican Party — it has inspired violent offshoot movements in a way that we haven't seen other presidents do, ever," Maddow said.
"Yes, there is always violent extremism in America," she continued. "We don't see violent extremist movements springing up to support the sitting president."
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