Trump seizes memory of Capitol attack and warns there will be “death and destruction” if he is finally impeached

Last week he called on his supporters to “protest” his imminent arrest, which he expected to take place on Tuesday. It wasn’t — a grand jury convened by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office had yet to decide on it — but he managed to get all the press and political reps devoted to Legal, prison and political future from the boss.

Trump is an expert at keeping the media in suspense about his person, and he did so on Friday with a statement that is impossible to separate from the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6. The former president and White House nominee again in 2024 shared a message early Friday, around 1 a.m., warning of “potential death and destruction” if he is charged and arrested. He also accused the district attorney leading the investigation, Alvin Bragg, of being a “degenerate psychopath who truly hates America.”

He had declared the day before, with the same shade of violence, that “our country is being destroyed and we are called for peace.” These are statements that inevitably remind us of those he made in the days and weeks leading up to the Day of Violence 2021 at the headquarters of the People’s Sovereignty, An embarrassing and tragic episode – Many people died – for the world’s oldest and most stable democracy.

Then he accused Trump of inciting violence – there are investigations by the Justice Department in this regard – and now the same thing is happening. The former president clearly understands this and considers it an ideal electoral strategy: He takes the spotlight, torches his bases and harasses his Republican rivals — like Florida Governor Ron DeSantis — who have been compelled to condemn Hezbollah. Party leader or avoid speaking publicly.

Democrats condemnation

That’s what key Republican leaders did on Friday after Trump’s latest statement. The Speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy, declared that he had already dealt with Trump’s calls for protests in the previous days – he said there should be no protest if there was impeachment and called for “calm” – and he did not. Say anything else. of “death and destruction” warnings.

House Democratic Caucus Leader Hakeem Jefferies had no problem condemning Trump, as did other leaders in his party. “The former president’s speech is reckless, reprehensible and irresponsible,” he said in a press conference. “It’s dangerous. If you keep it, you will kill someone.”

Jeffries did not hesitate to relate these warnings to what happened in the Capitol. He is primarily responsible for He incited a violent rebellion It happened on January 6, but he clearly didn’t learn his lesson.”

You may have learned it. This incident did not undermine his base’s support nor did it cause—despite timid initial reactions and a few exceptions, such as that of Rep. Liz Cheney, now embattled in the party—that Republican leaders turn their backs on him.

Anecdotal Focuses

Trump’s calls for protests last weekend had little resonance, save for anecdotal rallies in front of New York courthouses and at his residence in Florida. But they have managed to bring the former president back into the media and everything indicates that he will continue to press the accelerator. Called this weekend March in Waco (Texas), a place that symbolizes abuses of state power against citizens: It now marks the 30th anniversary of the confrontation between an FBI military detachment and a religious cult that left 86 people dead, four of them members of the security forces.

There is no doubt that Trump will use the political rally to launch extremist messages and heat up the atmosphere before the Public Prosecution Office announces its decision on the upcoming indictment next week.