Opinion: Trump’s Threats Against Members of Law Enforcement Are “Incredibly Dangerous”

Of all the criminal acts Donald Trump is guilty of, it is almost certain that many Americans would put inciting violence against other Americans at the very top of a very long list.

This past week Andrew McCabe, the former deputy director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), lashed out at dirty Don Trump for issuing a threat against a Capitol Police officer. Trump’s threat was part of the right’s attempt to portray the traitor insurrectionist Ashli Babbitt as a patriot/martyr/hero because she was shot and killed during Trump’s attempted coup.

Mr. McCabe told CNN’s Jim Acosta that Trump’s remarks painting the Capitol Police as murderers “were incredibly dangerous.” Mr. McCabe is right, of course, and he made a valid point to back up his assertion that Trump’s remarks about Capitol Police are dangerous. He said:

“We know this for a fact. It is not something we are theorizing about. We have seen before the impact that the president’s Trump’s words have on his most die-hard and emotional [fascist] supporters.

 We have seen an attempted bombing plot by a domestic extremist who was arrested some years ago who said he was following the directions of President Trump. We all saw the insurrectionists on January 6th acting on what many of them had said that they thought they were following his direction.”

McCabe’s comments were a reaction to Trump’s remarks after talking to the family of Babbitt who was shot while attacking the Capitol to get to members of Congress in a flagrant act of sedition. Trump said:

“I spoke to the wonderful mother and husband of Ashli Babbitt, who was murdered at the hands of someone who should have never pulled the trigger of his gun. We know who he is. If this happened to the ‘other side,’ there would be riots all over America, and yet there are far more people represented by Ashli, who truly loved America, than there are on the other side. The Radical Left haters cannot be allowed to get away with this. There must be justice!“(author bold)

According to Trump the Capitol Police should have allowed the insurrectionists to enter the Capitol unimpeded on their way to find members of Congress, and Trump’s then-Vice President Mike Pence, to dispense their brand of justice that included lynching Pence and assassinating Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi by running over her with a car.

McCabe rightly compared the thug Trump to a Mafia crime boss saying:

“Let’s face it. When he says ‘we know who you are,’ that’s a threat. That’s the same sort of language that a mob boss or a drug kingpin would use to threaten a subordinate.

You have the former president of the United States Trump threatening members of law enforcement. It’s just outrageous.”

Of course it is outrageous, but Trump was not just threatening members of law enforcement, he was threatening anyone he and his acolytes consider their enemies. And his remarks are yet another incitement to violence against anyone who does not toe the fascist line and support Trump. That is the message Trump’s devotees heard when he said:

“There are far more people represented by Ashli, who truly loved America, than there are on the other side. The Radical Left haters cannot be allowed to get away with this. There must be justice!“

Trump’s words are not simply dangerous for the Capitol Police, they are further attempts to incite his followers to violence against anyone he deems is a member of the “radical left.” And many of his followers are anxiously awaiting another Trump directive like he gave on January 6 to “march down Pennsylvania Avenue and if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.”

By now the results of that directive are well-documented and none know it better than the Capitol Police who were subjected to all manner of violence and beatings at the hands of the people Trump claims “truly love America.”

It is curious that Republicans who claim to be the only Americans supporting law enforcement are staying silent after their demigod Trump issued an honest-to-dog threat against a Capitol police officer for doing his job in protecting the Capitol as well as members of Congress and Trump’s then-vice president.

However, maybe it isn’t all that curious. Many Republicans have spent no small amount of time praising Trump’s January 6 insurrectionists, including the traitor Babbitt, despite they viciously attacked and beat Capitol police officers.

Donald Trump is a fat pile of human feces on his best day, but he is also guilty of inciting violence against any American who he perceives as his enemy – even those cowardly sycophants trapped in his own fascist party.