Appearing on MSNBC on Monday, former FBI official Frank Figliuzzi warned that Jan. 6 was nothing more than a dry run for what will be another far worse attack on the U.S. from within.
"You know, about a year ago, if you had asked me about this or presented me this piece in The Atlantic I would have called this what intelligence officials call an over the horizon threat — something that's coming, something we should be aware of and think about as a future threat," he explained, referring to a new series in The Atlantic about the threats to American democracy. "But the horizon is here. This has been a dress rehearsal for at least a year for radical extremism."
He went on to explain that he thinks Jan. 6 was a "sneak preview" of what will come in Nov. 2022 as QAnon Republicans try to take over local, county and state levels of government.
"He's putting his people in place," Figliuzzi said of Donald Trump. "People who are moderate, reasonable Republicans have already announced, 'I'm out, I'm out of Congress, I'm out of the governor's office. I'm out.' Now we see people like [David] Perdue in Georgia who will be involved in the primary. Why? President Trump needs his guy in Georgia."
Looking at the politics from an intelligence and national security perspective, Figliuzzi said that what is coming "is going to make the Jan. 6 riot pale in comparison."
While the 2022 election will be a major test, what he said will be the "premier" will come in 2024 and whether Trump and his people have destroyed confidence in the United States institutions to such a degree that the balance of power flips.
"We need DOJ to step it up," he said, calling on law enforcement to prepare for the worst. "I have been the voice of reason with regard to those who say they are taking too slow at DOJ, with regard to the insurrection investigation. I am the guy that says, 'No, 700 defendants is not slow. They are doing a great job.'"
Where he sees something worthy of concern and where he thinks things are going too slowly is in protecting election laws, Republicans passing voter restrictions. He wants to see the DOJ "step in bigtime" and "forget the political appearance and optics. Move in. We need legal law enforcement intervention."
See the full conversation below:
2022 is going to be way worse than 2021: fbi official www.youtube.com
