‘I think the bigger problem are the people from within, we have some very bad people, sick people, radical left lunatics,’ Republican candidate tells Fox’s Maria Bartiromo

“And it should be easily handled by, if necessary, by National Guard, or if really necessary, by the military,” he said.

“I think the bigger problem is the enemy from within. Not even the people who have come in, who are destroying our country.”

It isn’t clear under what circumstances Trump would view it justifiable to call in US troops against his own countrymen.

But his comments mark a baseless attack and a particularly hollow one coming from someone whose supporters violently attacked the US Capitol in an attempt to stop him from being thrown out of office three years ago.


🗳️ Register to vote: https://vote.gov/

  • mkwt@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    This is a reminder to American service members:

    Your oath of allegiance is to the United States, not to Donald Trump, Joe Biden, or Kamala Harris. You have a duty to obey lawful orders issued under the authority of the commander in chief. But it is your duty to disobey unlawful orders.

    • rc__buggy@sh.itjust.works
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      The oath is actually to the Constitution of the United States. So it’s not even the country or the government but the idea, the founding document.

    • njm1314@lemmy.world
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      The military has never had any hesitancy at all in murdering American citizens when told to. They will not stand up.

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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    It isn’t clear under what circumstances Trump would view it justifiable to call in US troops against his own countrymen.

    Isn’t it though? He would view it justifiable to call them in for literally any reason.

  • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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    "I don’t think [immigrants] are the problem in terms of election day,” Trump told Bartiromo. “I think the bigger problem are the people from within, we have some very bad people, sick people, radical left lunatics.”

    At that point, he suggested a seemingly sinister solution.

    “And it should be easily handled by, if necessary, by National Guard, or if really necessary, by the military,” he said.

    “I think the bigger problem is the enemy from within. Not even the people who have come in, who are destroying our country.”

    He’s called Biden a “radical leftist”, it’s anyone who won’t vote for him…

    • SatansMaggotyCumFart@lemmy.world
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      If anyone actually believes Biden is a radical leftist it has to be a combination of a failure of the education system and systemic brainwashing.

    • Rhoeri@lemmy.world
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      "I don’t think [immigrants] are the problem in terms of election day,” Trump told Bartiromo. “I think the bigger problem are the people from within, we have some very bad people, sick people, radical left lunatics.”

      And yet there are SO many “radical left lunatics” right here on lemmy that seem to think both sides are equally as bad.

      • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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        I don’t see that often.

        What I see a lot of is accounts that say Kamala has to be “conservative” on some issues to get votes, but can’t give a valid reason why Kamala sticks with unpopular policy like pro-genocide or pro-fracking.

        But she doesn’t take the threat of trump seriously enough to make her want to aide with the platform of her own goddamn party. She like genocide and fracking too much apparently, and it would be cynical to imply it was the donations and not her genuine feelings on the issues

        • Rhoeri@lemmy.world
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          Not a single person is saying she needs to be conservative. You know this. Everyone knows this. So, nice bad faith straw man there.

          What people are saying is that she needs to play the centrist game to garner support. It’s a known thing that any candidate that dabbles in “leftists” territory is unelectable. Maybe it’s the stink of delusion and ignorance, or maybe it’s their lack of any semblance of organization.

          My guess if asked, is that no one takes their embarrassing “pRo GeNoCiDe” accusations seriously.

          You don’t get to threaten candidates with your sad little withheld votes and demand them to kiss your asses while they jump through your single-issue hoop.

          That’s not how politics work. It’s not how politics ever worked, and it’s not how politics ever will work.

          She’s trying to save democracy. With, or without your help.

          • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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            Not a single person is saying she needs to be conservative

            So why is she for:

            1. Fracking

            2. A border wall

            3. Coninuing support for genocide

            People defend her move to the right on those three and more fucking daily…

            Like, you think no one is pressuring her into that and she is willing to risk trump by being more conservative than the Dem voter base because she believes in those three things that much?

            If you want to “save democracy” you’d be doing anything you can to get her more votes, that means dragging her back left towards the party base.

            She keeps going right, and her numbers keep dropping. It ain’t a coinky dink bud

            • timbuck2themoon@sh.itjust.works
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              Be against fracking and lose Pennsylvania.

              Genius move there sport. It’s a wonder you aren’t a political consultant.

              • RestrictedAccount@lemmy.world
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                Dude. If you are against a modern economy with electricity, don’t be a hypocrite.

                Turn off your phone and go outside and sit there by yourself.

            • Rhoeri@lemmy.world
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              So… since you’re incapable of having a discussion without resorting to accusing people of supporting genocide- I’m going to end this here and flag you as a bad actor.

  • InverseParallax@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    And polls continue to call the race a tie.

    At some point we have to acknowledge that roughly 30% of our population are just evil, fascist monsters. Having lived in those states, this isn’t a surprise.

  • bitjunkie@lemmy.world
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    The guy’s a nutjob and the fact that his candidacy is still being framed as having any air of legitimacy by the media is fucking disgusting.

  • LANIK2000@lemmy.world
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    Oh hey, treason man is yet again announcing publicly that he’s a treasonous piece of shit and that he plans to continue committing treason? Wow, what shocking news. /s

  • ChronosTriggerWarning@lemmy.world
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    “I think the bigger problem are the people from within, we have some very bad people, sick people, radical left lunatics."

    Yeah Don, we know. They even wear a red hat to help identify themselves.

  • BadNewsNobody@lemmy.world
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    “There’s a reason you separate military and the police. One fights the enemies of the state, the other serves and protects the people. When the military becomes both, then the enemies of the state tend to become the people.”

  • Fedizen@lemmy.world
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    “dictator day one”

    “prosecute my opposition”

    “prosecute my critics”

    It seems insane to think people are shooting at him because they’re listening to democrats (something the MSM largely does not do) and not because people are just listening to the things he’s saying he’ll do.

    • OlinOfTheHillPeople@lemmy.world
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      It seems insane to think people are shooting at him because they’re listening to democrats

      I’m confused by this sentence. What do Democrats have to do with any of this?

      • Furbag@lemmy.world
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        Trump has had multiple assassination attempts on him this year, and each time it happens Trump blames Democratic rhetoric as the motivating force.

        Of course, anybody who took even a cursory look into the motives of each would-be assassin (and let’s be frank, it’s a big stretch to call some of these guys assassins - getting caught with a loaded weapon near where Trump is located is apparently enough to be considered an assassination attempt, even if Trump was never in any danger) they are often Republicans who absolutely hate the Democrats, so they wouldn’t be listening to their political rhetoric anyway which has been nothing short of “Political violence is not the solution, let’s win at the ballot box in November.”

        Meanwhile, Trump is promising to be a dictator on day one, promoting eugenics, deploying the armed forces to deport legal residents, threatening to prosecute and jail his political opponents and revoke the 1st amendment rights of his critics, but refuses to answer calls to “turn the temperature down”.

  • njm1314@lemmy.world
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    For the millionth time all leftists should be armed. Cannot stress enough how important that is.

    • spyd3r@sh.itjust.works
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      lol, leftists here are doing everything they can to take away the right of the people to keep and bear arms.

      • D1G17AL@lemmy.world
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        That type of comment may have gone over well back on reddit but, sir, we are not idiots here. UTTER BULLSHIT, LEFTISTS DO NOT WANT TO TAKE AWAY YOUR RIGHT TO BEAR ARMS. We want that right too. We just don’t want mentally ill people having access to assault weapons with which they can kill many, many people with significantly reduced effort. Someone going on a rampage with a pistol or a shotgun is far less deadly than someone with a long rifle of any type, especially automatic rifles. BULL-FUCKING-SHIT LEFTIST DO NOT WANT TO TAKE THAT RIGHT AWAY.

        • RaoulDook@lemmy.world
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          You rant loudly but wrongly about “assault weapons”. The fact is that pistols are used to kill far more people in the USA (and elsewhere) than “assault weapons” and any other kind of rifle. 3% or less of all homicides involve any kind of rifle.

      • brucethemoose@lemmy.world
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        Military weapons? Yeah. They should be.

        Pistols? Shotguns? Not really. And yes, you can point to more extreme cases of ‘liberals’ who do want to amend the constitution, which is about the same thing as calling anyone even slightly conservative on one issue a fascist.

  • nifty@lemmy.world
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    This rhetoric is meant for voter intimidation because they know Republicans always lose when Democrats turn out to vote.

    The polls are meaningless because they could be manipulated or manufactured, we don’t know who’s being polled. People just need to cast their vote and not let this be a close election.

    • LaunchesKayaks@lemmy.world
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      I will never express my opinions in places where I can be easily identified unless I am among people I know and trust. I will vote and keep my leftist ideology to myself amongst strangers irl. I rather like living without being bothered.

      • nifty@lemmy.world
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        There’s no such thing as living without being bothered in an autocratic regime, doesn’t matter who you are. You could be the most ardent supporter and you’d still be shit out of luck for any reason. Stalin used to have his own cabinet members routinely disposed of

        • LaunchesKayaks@lemmy.world
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          I meant being bothered as in strangers harassing me for my beliefs lol. I live in a grossly red part of my state and I keep a low profile out of what I feel is necessity

          • Shark_Ra_Thanos@lemmy.ml
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            I do too but idgaf and start shit with anyone stupid enough to try with me. I made the religious sign holders leave Pride fest by simply talking absolute fucking nonsense with adamant of a mood. They left shortly thereafter. I was a volunteer for the event wearing the shirt and all.

            • LaunchesKayaks@lemmy.world
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              I had a sign in my yard that said “support trans kids” someone peeled into my driveway, leaving huge ruts in the gravel/mud, and stole the sign one day when I wasn’t home. That’s when I decided to not voice my opinion openly like that anymore.

              • Shark_Ra_Thanos@lemmy.ml
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                Oh I would post it only when I was ready to fish for evidence and…well…yeah. Once we caught them, fry them for dinner

  • JaggedRobotPubes@lemmy.world
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    He’s crying.

    He’s falling apart and going more batshit as his last-ditch attempt to grab power before crashing permanently.

  • Freefall@lemmy.world
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    Soldiers are not obligated to follow unlawful orders…the brass will say “no”.

    • Clbull@lemmy.world
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      How much support is there for Trump in the military though?

      I’m worried about the possibility that this kind of rhetoric could lead to an attempted coup or civil war.

      • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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        They lean conservative but not Trump. They voted blue in 2020 because the conservatives didn’t really come out to vote for him. They also have very complicated feelings about the Constitution and targeting Americans. So they probably would refrain from getting involved in anything but the most egregious conduct, like the Jan 6th insurrection, until we’re so far down the hole they can’t maintain unit integrity between left and right. At that point you’d probably see about a 60/40 split.

    • A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world
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      Just cause the big guy called Trump a fascist doesnt mean there arent plenty of supporters down the chain of command.

      • Freefall@lemmy.world
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        If the soldiers down the chain don’t get the order because the big guy ignored the fascist, then their feelings don’t matter.