Republican loyalists to Donald Trump are encouraging violence ahead of the 2024 election, and MSNBC brought the receipts.
MSNBC's Katie Phang mentioned the "red light" of warning was flashing about American democracy.
"Harrowing new threats from right-wing leaders saying out loud what the vengeance and retribution that Trump vows is going to look like," she said.
The latest warning is from John Yoo, a little-known W. Bush administration staffer at the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel. What he has become most known for are the memos justifying the use of torture on those captured in Iraq and Afghanistan during the so-called "War on Terror."
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Phang explained that Yoo isn't trying to justify the use of torture on possible terrorists. Now, "he's trying to justify Trump's attacks on domestic political rivals."
"You have to retaliate against them in exactly the same way until you get some deterrence ... If we're not going to become a banana republic, unfortunately, we're going to have to use banana republic means," Yoo said during a conservative conference.
Speaking on Fox, Yoo told Tucker Carlson's replacement, Jesse Watters, that Republican district attorneys have a right to indict Joe Biden.
"That's the only way I think you can get Democrats to stop abusing the legal system, to stop breaking the norms that they have," Yoo said.
Trump has been convicted so far of sexual abuse and defamation in civil court, and 34 felonies in New York state court. He still faces two federal cases, each with multiple felony indictments.
"They're so worried because once they've destroyed all these norms and the way they've gone after Trump, they realize Republicans can turn around and do the same things to them," Yoo said. "I don't want this norm to have been broken. I wish we were not using the criminal justice system to interfere in politics, but how else could you deter Democratic D.A.s from doing the same thing?"
"So, don't do what Jesus would do," laughed Watters. "Don't love thy enemy."
"Jesus wasn't running for president," Yoo said.
Yoo adds to a list of the Republicans, like the GOP candidate for governor in North Carolina.
A video posted on Lake Church's Facebook page shows Republican Mark Robinson telling the group, “We now find ourselves struggling with people who have evil intent. There was a time when we used to meet evil on the battlefield, and guess what we did to em’, we killed it.”
"When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, what did we do? We flew to Japan, and we killed the Japanese army and navy. We didn't even quibble about it," he continued.
“Some folks need killin’,” he proclaimed in the church. “It's time for somebody to say it. It's not a matter of vengeance, it's not a matter of being mean or spiteful, it's a matter of necessity. We have wicked people doing wicked things, torturing and murdering and raping."
"We're gonna come after you," top Trump adviser Kash Patel promised Steve Bannon his allies were ready for revenge. "Whether it's criminally or civilly, we'll figure that out."
They are just a few of a growing list of Republicans who are already prepared to go to war, Phang explained.
See the clip in the video below or at the link here.
MSNBC shows a supercut of Republicans promising they’re ready to get violent www.youtube.com
