The former president made multiple chilling warnings during an interview with Time magazine.
Donald Trump hasn’t quite let go of the possibility of utilizing mob violence if he loses the next election.
In a sprawling interview for Time magazine, Trump hinted that leveraging political violence to achieve his end goals was still on the table.
“If we don’t win, you know, it depends,” he told Time. “It always depends on the fairness of the election.”
And from Trump’s perspective, that’s winning rhetoric. According to him, his incendiary comments supporting a mob mentality, his early warnings of forthcoming abuses of power, and his threats to be a dictator on “day one” are only inching him closer to the White House. “I think a lot of people like it,” Trump told Time.
If the FEC had any fucking teeth they’d jail and disqualify him for that statement alone.
They have teeth. But half of the people who decide whether or not they pursue charges against someone are republican appointees.
So, you know… teeth, but corrupted leadership.
They’re the same picture
Yes and no. I can’t speak to the particulars of this situation but differences in means matter even if they currently produce the same outcome. A toothless dog and a dog in a muzzle are different in important ways.
That’s a great and succinct way to describe that.
I don’t really disagree in present circumstances.
But I feel it’s necessary to characterize it correctly. Characterizing the FEC as a whole to be deficient when it’s a few bad actors temporarily at the head of the FEC could be used as justification by other bad actors or well-intentioned but misled people to undermine the FEC - which would make it deficient should the leadership issues be corrected.Sort of the game that conservatives play with government services. Cut the funding until the service is flagging, then use that as justification to either further cut the budget or reduce the scope of the service until the service is no longer a real government service.
Can’t let ourselves buy into that.
January 6th was a failed coup attempt.
How is saying you’ll retry your failed coup attempt if you don’t get your way something were allowing a presidential candidate to do?
Because he “tells it like it is” or something. Idk. The kind of people still falling for his grift are too shameless to ever admit that they ever fell for his grift, so they’re doubling down, succumbing to the sunk cost fallacy. They just stay in their echo chambers and saturate their awareness with weird culture war shit and then never hear about what’s actually happening. Half of them probably don’t even know that their guy is a defendant in criminal court this week. Willfully ignorant.
No I’m fine with uneducated masses eating it up.
I’m not okay with judges pulling out their dentures to slobber on trumps balls over matters that threaten the whole country instead of figuratively castrating him the moment he says shit like this.
Agreed. But conservatives have learned over the past 10-20 years that they can more or less just do whatever they want without consequence because 1/3 of the people will fight to the death for whatever they do or say, 1/3 is completely unaware and uninterested in politics and current events, and the final 1/3 is people like us who want consequences but we’re too busy to do anything ourselves because survival is hard enough these days. There are a hundred things worthy of outrage and organized demonstration too, so which cause do we dedicate our summer to trying to fix? The right has an easier time because they just say “things used to be better” and then have one event where people complain about change. Pretty much everybody can identify with being pissed off that something used to be better until they changed it, and for some reason that’s strong enough to get some pretty average people to sit at the table with Nazis. There’s much more nuance and thoughtfulness on the left, so it’s much harder to get unity.
Because conservatives can grow and maintain a reliable base to keep them in power, they feel no need to even pretend to be decent most of the time. They can just fervently choose their own selfish goals over what the Constitution or other rules and laws demand. I don’t think it’s hyperbole to say that we’re rapidly approaching the era of post-democracy America. Some would say we’ve been there for decades already, but I think we’re in for some dictatorial, executions-in-the-streets type of shit if Biden loses. So conservatives in power who like trump or even suspect that he may win or get into power otherwise have to weigh doing the right thing which could hurt their party and draw targets on their backs vs low/no consequence siding with trump.
"If conservatives become convinced that they cannot win democratically, they will not abandon conservatism. They will reject democracy.”—David Frum
Because “not trying to overthrow the government due to losing an election” isn’t listed in the Constitution as a requirement to be elected. One would think that’s a pretty major oversight.
It is but the Senate failed to do their job as usual and enforce it, thanks Mitch
wouldn’t want this to appear politically motivated, now would we?
I have strong doubts. The people most likely to “Jan 6” did. A number of them, particularly the mid-level leaders, that actually organized things, are in prison. They have not turned out in numbers since they started getting arrested.
They got light sentences. And let’s face it, the people that are going to organize yet another insurrection are going to be duped by the same logic that Trump will pardon them or that their acts are justified.
Trump is threatening our democracy. Again.
He’s saying that if he doesn’t win, there’s going to be another insurrection.
The sad reality is that over the last four years, fascist states have put laws into place that make it legal to overturn elections for little to no reason. No oversight.
He won’t need an insurrection because he has willing accomplices.
They got light sentences.
False. Some of the ones that took a plea deal got light sentences. They also can no longer vote.
The ones that didn’t take plea deals got sentences completely in line with the Federal Sentencing guidelines, because that is how our modern Federal courts work.
67% of sentences were below the federal guidelines as were 86% of felony sentences.
We’re talking about domestic terrorists who tried to overthrow the government.
17% difference from the norm. Picking nits.
Yeah but for the majority of federal crimes you’re probably comparing these sentences to drug offender sentences which are much harsher because of the seriousness of the offense.
/s before crucifixion; drug sentences are ridiculous and these traitors getting anything less than a felony disqualifying them from participating in the system they tried to break is madness.
Believing someone when they say the money in the cash register is rightly yours and should be taken by force does not mean you get a pass when you rob a gas station.
I don’t think voting was a concern when they committed to the coop. Hopefully they are not merely on house arrest after the next election
They also can no longer vote.
You say that like it matters.
Remember, the Beer Hall Putch failed. So we have nothing to worry about?
Per the new rules in my state, all my history books have had the pages from 1924 to 1957 torn out. So I’m assuming this part of history was just woke and soy and therefore unimportant.
No. Not my point at all.
All it takes is just one person with a gun and a grudge to kill dozens.
But that won’t take them any closer to toppling the government. Jan. 6 could only happen because Trump actively prevented the police from doing their jobs. That won’t happen under Biden.
Trump actively prevented the police from doing their jobs
I hear Trump did the same thing at Uvalde.
How many more Babbits will trump create when he can’t tell the capital police to stand down? Or even, how many of his idiot followers are even going to show up when they got fucked and abandoned last time?
You’re a pathetic weakling Donnie, go sit the fuck down and pout to a judge.
Imagine dying for a billionaire because he lost a popularity contest.
(again)
I think the best (and a frustrating) part is that he hasn’t won the popular vote once
God damn we need to get rid of the electoral college
I have no sympathy for Babbitt. Suicide by cop as far as him concerned
How many more Babbits will trump create when he can’t tell the capital police to stand down?
Enough Ashley Babbits and its less of a problem for conservatives than for the police.
Oh, fuck off, the only reason it got that far on Jan 6 is that he was already in charge and refused to call in troops to immediately shut it down. I doubt Biden sits on his hands for several hours while rioters attack the Capitol.
If Biden wins the election I can almost guarantee that there will be guards posted ahead of time.
I don’t expect a storm on the capital, I expect something more localized.
Don’t forget they were specifically instructed to let the MAGAts run wild.
Miller said Trump told him: “Do whatever is necessary to protect demonstrators that were executing their constitutionally protected rights.”
And trump’s sycophant “acting directors” were in place to thwart any attempt at control of the drunken hick mob.
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/12/12/meadows-jan-6-national-guard-trump-524133
Fucken Bolsonaro did the same shit and it’s looking like he’s actually gonna get prosecuted. Real shame the US government isn’t up to the high standards set by Brazil, but maybe we’ll get there someday!
These morons should be greeted by the National Guard
Specifically flying elements of The Maryland Air National Guard’s 175th wing based at Warfield Air National Guard Base.
Agreed
How many members of the National Guard are already MAGA Chuds?
You’re right, probably too many
So he is threatening to go full Mussolini then?
Hopefully, he gets the full Mussolini treatment. They will have to find an Exxon station since Esso changed its name in the 70s.
Well what’s important is that Mussolini eventually became a good fascist. I just wish he’d done it faster
I saw your comment and my thought process went: “What?! Good fascist? The only good fascist is…is…oh. Ohhhhhh!”
Skip straight to the head-kicking.
Always has been
More and more
Oh? I thought Jan 6th was AntiFA?
By all means fuck around & find out. The Capitol police will have their submachine guns this time.
Not to mention the fact your supporters won’t even show up to your trials after you abandoned them & stabbed them in the back last time, you wretched piece of shit.
He OBVIOUSLY learned his lesson Last Time!
Someone go kick Susan Collins in the butt
Oh it’ll absolutely happen. We all know this already. And he won’t be held accountable for that either.
Traitor
I know what the headline actually means but i’m choosing to believe that donny just found out about calendars.
Question is what exactly does he mean? That MAGA republicans from around USA will visit the capitol city and go to see congress, all completely peacefully. we just have to hope the LGTB people don’t make a mess of it.
Because isn’t that what he claimed happened?
Trump is such a malignant idiot, and so is everybody who supports him.
Question is what exactly does he mean?
Terrorism.
But the little bitches in the government are too afraid to call a spade a spade.
I was referring to Trump’s rhetoric that nothing happened, it was mostly a garden party where everybody from MAGA were nice and didn’t do anything wrong. Despite all the evidence of violence and even policemen/security people dying and threats of executing politicians. But hey, that’s just another day of being American I guess.
Nothing bad happened on Jan6… It was AntiFa and BLM… But the people in jail are patriot MAGA hostages?
These people will say those three things together and not see a problem with it
“hE jUsT teLLs iT liKe It iS”
He is their license to act like an asshole, because everything is changing and they don’t like it
Can’t upset conservatives or they won’t vote for me. And my entire election strategy hinges on winning over as many moderate conservatives as possible.
Yikes, forgive me if this is a naive question but how are these kinds of veiled threats against American democracy okay with Homeland Security?
Our positions of authority are infested with conservatives.
Makes sense. But conservativism pre-dates Trump and realistically will soon outlive him.
It seems odd to me that they are happy to have someone random dismantle bedrock US political system? Or are conservatives less keen on democracy?
Also I get the impression he doesn’t have a conservative ideology himself, he seems like more of an opportunist than a believer.
Historically, unchecked conservatism leads to oppressive regimes. The conservatives here have been getting worse and worse since the civil war. When Reagan sold their party to the Christians, they basically cut the brake lines. Conservatism has been unchecked ever since.
The severity of this infection gets worse here every year. Unfortunately, if history is our guide, treating a disease like this is not a peaceful process. Maybe this time it will be different.
Thanks.
I always forget/underestimate the religious element in the US.
The “conservative” part of right-wing republiQan ideology was largely a lie from the start. The true goals of preserving power in the hands of rich white men were neatly folded into every “deregulation”, “fiscally conservative”, “tough-on-crime” and “trickle-down” talking point for forty years.
See “The Southern Strategy” for more on how important those ideals were to the GOP.
Trump’s success revealed the people who voted for those things don’t care a single bit about them because they could have enacted policies that would follow those supposed ideals, but instead they either did nothing or in some cases did the opposite.
“Barry Goldwater conservative” voices which had a claim to environmental protections were subsumed almost as a first act of the modern era starting with Nixon’s downfall.
Thanks, hadn’t heard of that and it’s interesting. I think the stumbling block for me is I always forget how many non-rich people want to facilitate the rich. Kind of like Salacious Crumb on the shoulder of Jabba.
Conservatives are lot just less keen on democracy; many of them are actively and openly opposed to it. For example.
Oh it’s because “homeland security” is a false flag term used to spy and control their population.
Kind of like how “weapons of mass destruction” was used to fuel an entire war.
Once you’re rich enough and have enough corporate power you can do whatever you want at the expense to greater population.
I was going to say CIA at first but then I remembered my parents telling me that is its own country.
Idk I feel like as citizens we need some kind of organization that protects our political systems. There’s a weird assault on democracy in my country at the moment too (not coups just unconstitutional legislation) and it really highlights the dangers now that disaster capitalists are on the rise.
I agree but rich people will break up any attempt to create such a thing.
