Speaking to MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace on Monday, former director of counterintelligence at the FBI, Frank Figliuzzi, said that it has become clear that the insurrection isn't over.
The conversation was about some of the people who attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 and the ongoing effort to downplay the seriousness of the attack among Republican officials. That has now combined with Republican officials who are still attempting to overthrow the election using false "audits" and other legislative ways to overthrow the election.
"We're watching a slow-moving train wreck, and it needs to get derailed quickly or it's going to crash," said Figliuzzi. "And the train that's crashing is essentially our form of democracy. The insurrection's not over in a very real sense. We've got a former president, a significant percentage of at least one party believes he is still the president. He is undermining democracy, our system, and again, from my national security lens, I cannot help but think that in bureaucratic offices throughout Moscow and Beijing, they are sitting back and smiling at a former U.S. president who is doing their work for them. Never before has it been this easy for an adversary to actually impact negatively the United States and our democracy because they have the ultimate insider, now outsider, in the form of Donald Trump."
After the commercial, Wallace addressed the efforts by many insurrectionists to downplay their own actions by claiming that they were influenced by some sort of cult-like behavior or that they're outright unapologetic.
Wallace cited a recent ad from the liberal group Meidas Touch, which was banned from Fox News showing police officers testifying about their experience during the attack on the U.S. Capitol. Conservatives frequently claim that they love the police, but this ad shows that it's a lie.
"So, Frank, one of the dangers of the Republican efforts to erase our memories of 1/6 is that it becomes part of the right-wing disinformation chamber that that didn't exist," said Wallace. "I mean, that wasn't an ad. Those were clips on TV put into an ad and then banned from Fox News."
Figliuzzi said that he was grateful that Wallace connected the dots between the story of a Capitol attacker saying he "has no regrets" about what happened on Jan. 6. At the same time, Fox is refusing to allow its viewers to see the words of police officers they purport to uphold who were beaten by the Capitol insurrectionists.
"The story of the, really, mind-boggling interview that this guy gave voluntarily, I'm sure, if he has a lawyer, the lawyer's flipping out right now," said Figliuzzi. "And then the story of Fox News declining this ad. They go together because -- because we -- you and I have talked repeatedly about one of the antidotes to violent extremism and violent ideology being repeated exposure to the truth, right? So, when you hear this guy in his interview, you see someone that exhibits the signs that we looked for in law enforcement intelligence, which is dedication to the cause and the degree of dedication and the lack of remorse, even when confronted with arrest and his freedom being deprived, right?"
He explained that the attacker and those like him appear to be willing to die for their cause.
"All right, now, how do we get people like that out of that violent ideology?" he continued. "Exposure to the truth. Well, on Fox News, at least, you can't even pay them to air the truth. This becomes extremely difficult."
Wallace pointed to it not just being about the Capitol attackers, but now House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) are willing to whip votes to stop the truth from being heard on the record in the House and Senate.
"So, you're right. We have now, apparently, we will never have a bipartisan commission to look to the truth," said Figliuzzi. "This means that masterfully, what that party has done is they've pushed this over into a completely partisan inquiry if we have one at all so many in our population will say, these people are just doing politics. I can't believe anything. I'm not going to tune into the commission hearings. That's a problem."
The other, he said, that is scary, is that the GOP has made it clear that they are turning against the police while claiming to "back the blue."
"And what does this guy say?" he asked. "The police were a threat. Everything is on its head. How you counter that is an incredibly difficult task. The party essentially is collapsing on itself but becoming increasingly a national security threat as it happens. That's how I see it. I see it as a security threat."
See the segments below:
Part 1:
Frank 1 www.youtube.com
Part 2:
Frank 2 www.youtube.com
