We rethink the week with Dean Spiliotis, Civic Scholar and Presidential Scholar at Southern New Hampshire University; Rick Newman, lobbyist and former NH state representative; Val Endress, professor of political communications, Rhode Island College; and Shawn Sebastian, senior strategist for People’s Action, a grassroots organizing network.
We discuss a Michigan militia’s plans to kidnap Gov. Whitmer (and maybe kill her), and similar threats to the governor of Virginia. Several Trump speeches seemed to encourage these dangerous conspiracies before the fact (“Liberate Michigan,” “Liberate Virginia”) and afterward (refusing to criticize the crimes nor to discourage future similar actions). We do not think Trump simply misspoke or didn’t know what he was saying. He knew how his words could incite some of his supporters to take violent action consistent with their baser instincts.
We wonder why Republican leaders – including very powerful officials in Congress – fail to call out such anti-American behavior? Why do they offer benign explanations for Trump (“Oh, he’s just kidding” or “He didn’t know that people would respond that way to his words”) even though they know these cover-ups are false? It seems that white-supremacist vigilantes (and QAnon conspiracy theorists) have been mainstreamed into the Republican party.
Will voters hold Republicans accountable for the militarization on our streets, for the treasonous attempts to forcefully overthrow the government (state and federal), for the white supremacists joining our military (who used to be vetted before being allowed to join until the Republicans repealed that requirement in 2019).
And why have the media allowed Trump and the Republicans to get away with this? Why haven’t they done their jobs, investigated the facts, confronted the politicians with those facts, insisted on actual answers to their questions instead of letting Trump and his enablers bully them, change the subject, and make up their own versions of the truth?
Of crucial importance, why haven’t the media (or Republican Senators) pressed Trump to commit to leaving office if he loses the election? We are especially concerned that armed right-wing vigilante militias are making plans to forcibly prevent the country from democratically getting Trump out of the White House. How can this not be a major priority for the media to pursue with vigor? How can a reporter even think: “OK, that’s your answer to this question, Mr. President. Now I’ll just move on to the next question.”
