During an appearance on MSNBC's "Morning Joe," Axios founder Jim VandeHei followed up on his own reporting from Monday morning about a growing "army" of Trump loyalists who are being vetted a year before the election with a plan to descend upon Washington D.C.
Speaking with co-hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, the concerned-appearing Axios editor pointed to the piece he co-authored with co-founder Mike Allen as he described the efforts to recruit Trump supporters who would take over running the government after the purging of career federal officials.
Using his reporting that, "Hundreds of people are spending tens of millions of dollars to install a pre-vetted, pro-Trump army of up to 54,000 loyalists across government to rip off the restraints imposed on the previous 46 presidents," VandeHei painted an even darker picture when speaking to the hosts.
"We always get sidetracked by the rhetoric that Trump uses." he began. "He is being very, very specific with us about what he's going to do."
"We have reporting this morning that what's different if he wins is that he's going to come into office with an army of 40- to 50,000 people, ready to staff the government," he continued. "He's not going to have the restraints of cabinet officials who disagree with him. He's going to do everything he can to purge anybody who's professional staff who has been there a long time and have a year's worth of vetting."
"They're asking people about their ideology, books they've read, name one figure who you believe captures your spirit, your political philosophy," he elaborated. "I think the obvious answer there for a lot of them is going to be Trump. And if you answer Trump, you pass this loyalty test. Then they can put you into the bowels of government where the action happens."
"It's one thing to have rhetoric," he continued. "It's another thing to take the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Defense, the Department of Justice and put in there people who believe what Trump believes so that you can do the things that he says he's going to do."
"So I won't assume he's saying these things with bombast. He'll come in hell-bent on doing it and this time it will be a much more organized government to be able to do it with which is why I think this is the most important election of our lifetime because the contrast is massive and both sides would come in with teams ready to do what they want to do," he warned.
Watch the video below or at this link.
MSNBC 11 13 2023 06 05 25youtu.be
