“What we really need to do is be willing to get shot.” Those words to a Democratic member are part of a chilling Axios story on the rising violent rhetoric on the American left. As alleged Antifa members are arrested in Texas for the attempted murder of ICE agents, Democratic members are beginning to express private concerns over unleashing uncontrollable rage after their election defeat.
Axios reported on conversations with Democratic members who admit that followers are turning to violence and rejecting messages of political reform.
One House member explained that there is a “sense of fear and despair and anger” among voters that “puts us in a different position where … we can’t keep following norms of decorum.” The member does not address how Democratic leaders are fueling the rising violent rhetoric and imagery (including the most recent posted picture of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D., N.Y.) brandishing a baseball bat).
One House Democrat told Axios, “Some of them have suggested … what we really need to do is be willing to get shot.”
Yet another admitted that constituents have told them to prepare for “violence … to fight to protect our democracy.” Others reported that liberals are talking about the need “to storm the White House and stuff like that.”
One explained that “They’re angry beyond things.” Another said, “It’s like … the Roman coliseum. People just want more and more of this spectacle.”
Some are discussing triggering or staging violence. One member said, “What I have seen is a demand that we get ourselves arrested intentionally or allow ourselves to be victims of violence, and … a lot of times that’s coming from economically very secure white people.”
We have recently seen such performative acts with members like Sen. Alex Padilla (D., Cal.) heckling a press conference by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Democratic members storming an ICE facility.
In one encounter, a lawmaker told Axios: “I actually said in a meeting, ‘When they light a fire, my thought is to grab an extinguisher’. And someone at the table said, ‘Have you tried gasoline?'”
The answer is clearly yes.
Across the country, Democratic leaders are resorting to what I have called “rage rhetoric” in my book “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage.”
We have already seen violent protests and planned assassinations directed against Trump Administration figures. Democrats ratcheted up claims of a “coup” and called for Democrats to “fight in the streets.”
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D, Mass.) declared, “Elon Musk is seizing the power that belongs to the American people.” Rep. Jamie Raskin (D, Md.) claimed on MSNBC’s “The ReidOut” that Musk and Trump were conducting a “rapidly expanding and accelerating coup.”
Sen. Ron Wyden (D., Ore.) appeared to be working off the same talking point and declared that a “coup” was being carried out.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) warned that Musk was “taking away everything we have.”
Rep. Maxine Waters (D., Cal.) said, “We are here to fight back.” Sen. Cory Booker (D., NJ) called on citizens to “fight” and declared, “We will rise up.”
Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D., TX) yelled, “We are gonna be in your face, we are gonna be on your a–es, and we are going to make sure you understand what democracy looks like, and this ain’t it.”
Rep. LaMonica McIver (D., N.J.) added: “God d—it shut down the Senate!…WE ARE AT WAR!”
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., called for Democrats to fight “in the streets.””
Such rhetoric can inspire unhinged citizens who actually believe that this is a war against a coup. It is the type of rhetoric that can prompt anti-Republican Nicholas John Roske to try to assassinate Justice Brett Kavanaugh or Sanders supporter James T. Hodgkinson to try to massacre Republican members playing softball.
This week, the Department of Justice announced the arrest of ten alleged Antifa members who are being charged in an ambush of ICE agents in Alvarado, Texas, on July 4.
Democratic members have long played a dangerous game in dismissing the violence or even the existence of groups like Antifa.
Despite the denial of its existence by figures like Rep. Jerry Nadler (D., N.Y.), I have long written and spoken about the threat of Antifa to free speech on our campuses and in our communities. This includes testimony before Congress on Antifa’s central role in the nationwide anti-free speech movement.
We have continued to follow the attacks and arrests of Antifa followers across the country, including attacks on journalists.
Nevertheless, former Democratic National Committee deputy chair Keith Ellison, now the Minnesota attorney general, once said Antifa would “strike fear in the heart” of Trump.
Ellison’s son, Minneapolis City Council member Jeremiah Ellison, declared his allegiance to Antifa in the heat of the protests this summer.
Liberal sites have sold Antifa items, including baby outfits, to celebrate the violent group.
Now, Democratic leaders are privately expressing alarm that their followers are demanding violence and rejecting moderate language. Yet, many are fueling that rage and few of their colleagues are speaking out against them. The party is attempting to ride this wave of rage to victory. However, history shows that the enablers of the mob today often find themselves the enemies of the mob tomorrow.
Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University and the best-selling author of “The Indispensable Right.” and the forthcoming book, Rage and the Republic: The Unfinished Story of the American Revolution.
Republicans need to learn to fight fire with fire. Stop turning the other cheek.
I find that these egregious prog/left jihadi-types are a far greater threat to us than either china or iran. We should focus our resources on shutting this down far more than worry about Lil’ Kim in n korea or the old imams of iran.
My only quibble with your comment MAMA is that these leftists are China. China funds these groups, helps fund every group that weakens America from climate morons to Antifa to radical professors and all other NGO types that fight to harm us.
Some of these groups and people aren’t aware of China’s backing, but they are just this century’s “useful idiots”.
When you get right down to it, communists are like termites, they invade your home and destroy it from the inside out. Yes, china is probably funding much of this but a Soros type with money and no real affiliation to anything other than his money is far more difficult to stop. I am also afraid of what Musk has in mind – he many be naively thinking he is righteous but the whirl wind that he starts will end up aiding the democrats and he is blinded by his anger at Trump and the leviathan and will not or won’t see the danger he is about to unleash.
“Storm the White House”, “. . . have you tried gasoline”, “We are at war”, “fight in the streets”, all sound like calls for insurrection from the left.
And these same types had their panties in a bunch about Jan 6? Where is the greater threat nation-wide?
Consider the factors that can lead to violence from the people. It’s common throughout history.
A. A dictator that exhibits cruelty to the populace.
B. A system of government that is excessively oppressive.
C. Horrific conditions such as continuous wars, famine, or even plague.
D. Excessive appropriation of resources for government officials’ personal use.
E. Ambitious people that covet the powers of government.
F. Pure hate. This drives people to extraordinary measures of violence.
In the present case with Trump in power, conditions A-D do not apply. However, we do know there are serious and also extremely wealthy people that want the power of government. As well, there is a body of people who have been whipped up to extreme levels of hatred against Trump, and are apparently funded in their pathway to violence.
Instead of hunting down foreign terrorists we had best be hunting down our home grown terrorists and seek and destroy the sources of their funding. We know that many of these insurrectionists can be found in academia and media – we should start there.
Damned if Tail Gunner Joe wasn’t right all along.
Sentient people know most of those conditions do not exist but the rhetoric and propaganda on the far left, now the middle left, has convinced many people that they are living under the first four conditions. We see screaming, spittle flecked people actually believing Trump is lawlessly rounding up nice people and thrusting them into foreign jails to be tortured. Never mind the election, the courts that rule for and against and then usually for Trump as the cases are challenged and work through the justice system. In other words, our Constitution and democratic republic are working just fine. Thy have been indoctrinated and spout provably false slogans. They need the same thing the Palestinians need: to actually learn something in school, like how to think, not just be fed propaganda
Wow JT, I guess you never heard of January 6, 2021?
Yea, that day trump called his goons to intimidate Congress and the VP to reject the election results and keep him President?
That day windows in the Capitol building were broken, Capitol Police beaten with flag poles?
Ever year of that day?
What a pack of lies. After everything that we’ve learned since, you can’t honestly still believe all of this crap. Get over it, the country obviously has.
What is a lie? Everything in the above post is true. Explain what did not happen as outlined.
Your pathetic attempt to tie Trump to the events of that day is the fundamental lie. His “goons”? Grow up.
The biggest problem of that day is that they failed to keep braindead Biden away from the autopen. Can we compare one demonstration on one day to the utter disaster of the four years of the failed Biden administration? One example, how many people died during Biden’s Afghanistan bugout? Do you even care?
And no doubt your “source” is the Jan committee?
Spin is not truth
On J6 people were protesting a very dubious election
Since then we only have more reasons to be suspicious
We just learned that FBI buried evidence of foreign election fraud benefiting Biden
Getting the truth from left dominated institutions takes years
What should people do about an election that does not deserve our trust ?
What should people do when institutions like the courts and FBI lie to us about an election?
What is the remedy for election fraud that our institutions covered up ?
The left behaved more egregiously to try to stop kavanaughs confirmation
we have all heard of it. It came right after January 5Th
Nothing really new here if one keeps history in mind. The Democratic Party and their stooges:
-institutionalized bigotry via slavery
-started the Civil War so as to preserve their bigotry and slavery
-claimed during the Civil War they were ‘saving democracy’
-made every attempt after the Civil War to continue slavery
-formed their paramilitary wing, the Klu Klux Klan, after the Civil War to keep their bigotry alive
-created Jim Crow laws, poll taxes and the like to keep their grip on bigotry and oppose democracy
-re-segregated the military and the government to promote their bigoted, undemocratic views
-promoted their bigotry via the functional discrimination of “Eugenics”. That even impressed ol’ Adolph!
-started the ‘redlining’ thus continuing their glory days of discrimination in the early post-Civil War Era
-blocked anti-lynching laws for fear of antagonizing their bigoted base
-repeatedly weakened civil rights legislation
-used censorship and law-fare against any perceived threat from opponents
And now this: “Axios reported on conversations with Democratic members who admit that followers are turning to violence and rejecting messages of political reform.” This is just BS. Violence and the threat of violence is just how the Democratic Party has always operated.
And now we actually have the black Minority Leader in the US house of Representatives posing with a potential weapon as he claims dissatisfaction with his Party’s opposition. Embarrassed for you, Hakeem! But the good news is that you have proven that the bigotry demonstrated by the Klan is NOT race specific.
@Ex Dem
So true, and in the internet age, they have glommed onto the similar minded globally. The likes of Hitler would have wet his pants in delight at the prospect.
You can add to that the genocide of native Americans (President Andrew Jackson, a Democrat) and re-segregation of the U.S. military (President Woodrow Wilson, another Democrat).
How long is it going to be before people figure out that Democrats are fighting their 2nd Civil War…and the Public Unions are their political army!
Time to END Public Unions….JFK can create them….Trump can END THEM!
Defund Democrats…end Federal Aid to cities, states, non-profits and colleges! Ban Public Unions!
Yes, government unions are a conflict of interest to start and the SCOTUS needs a case brought before then that will end, once and for all, this notion of government employees bargaining with themselves on the taxpayer’s dime.
Let’s look at two types of riots.
January 6th. Yup, a mass protest with outbreaks of rioting and some actual federal instigators thrown in for good measure. Damage: yes, Cops killed: zero. Rioters killed: one unarmed woman.
BLM/Antifa 2020 Summer of Love. Something like 36 people killed, some were police, 900 injured, USD2B in damage. Some leftist news headlines claim there is no proof that the deaths were caused by BLM. Perhaps not directly…
I think that if the arresting officers had simply sat George Floyd somewhere comfortable, called the EMTs, and told the crowd to give him some space he would probably have died anyway. Instead their training to dominate made them pawns in a situation made to order for Leftist intimidation of the population in general and politicians in particular.
One riot shows a fair degree of restraint, the other shows out of control rhetoric and behavior. This latest call for blood is just more of same from the Left, hoping to motivate their proxymorons to create chaos while the largely peaceful Right hopes for the best but is ready for the worst.
If George Floyd had been handled the way you mention and as a result we had never heard of him, the Left would have found some other spark to set off all the Antifa/BLM rioting that summer. A Presidential & Congressional election was approaching and they badly wanted some excuse to get the entire Democrat electorate fired up and Floyd provided them with it. It would have been something or someone else if not him.
If there was no saint flloyd, they’d invent another.
PS: They will invent another, my only hope is that this time the martyr is 150 antifa morons
Democrats have had a problem saying “no” to their fringe element, just as have Repubs. The “war” narrative is 100% coming from these fringes, and the media’s unquenchable thirst for conflict theatrics. Turley is playing the pat of these agitating journalists, by giving daily ink to the most rage-prone leftist acts and sound bites he can scrounge up.
Most of us with real lives understand this is NOT REALITY, but a media sideshow to garner our attention.
If Pres. Trump can remain steady and balanced, and not fall for the fake “war” narrative, we’ll be just fine. Just ignore the misanthropes, and their media amplifiers.
Your attempt at both-sides-ism falls flat. There is no other side to this, just violent leftists.
OK, Professor Turley wants to hype his new book. I get that. On balance, though, he is more reliably honest and sincere, though, like now, a bit hyperbolic at times. Before we jump for the emergency exit, let’s relax and consider what’s really going on. We are witnessing a supernova called the Democrat Party fizzle out in front of our eyes. And yes, like the real supernovas, it gives off a stream of electrons and noise as it dies. This is to be expected.
But the force behind our politics and the politics of much of the world is money, not rhetoric. As former representative Ozzie Myers said to an undercover FBI sleuth many years ago becoming an ABSCAM defendant (back when the FBI was arresting corrupt politicians, not being them), “Around here, money talks and bs walks.” It still does. Once we get the money out of these counter-culturalists and anarchists, things will return to normal. In the meantime, as Churchill said, while the eagle sleeps, the sparrows will fly and make noise.
JJC,
Bill Maher has been saying for years now that if the Democrat party continues on their current path, they are doomed. Other Democrats have said the far leftist of their party is toxic. They need to get off this path and get back to sane and normal. But with all this violent rhetoric by Democrats trying to look big and bad, will only get them actual violence against LEOs and I fear far leftists will start attacks on unarmed civilians.
I am not convinced that there ever was a time when the FBI was arresting corrupt politicians to the absolute exclusion of being (or abetting) them. And now we have the sudden pivot on the Epstein evidence that completely, totally fails any reasonable credibility check. Hooray for restored trust in the FBI!
Trump & Bondi Punt On Epstein Questions
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/12-key-questions-all-americans-should-ask-about-shameful-attempt-cover-truth-about
“After waiting for years for the truth about Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking operation to come out, and after months of being promised that stunning new information would be released soon, now we are being told to forget the entire thing. The people that were brought in to run the Justice Department and the FBI were supposed to restore faith in the system, but instead they are destroying it. Nobody that can think rationally is buying the lies that we are being fed.”
The real question there is who is being protected? Trump himself? Someone else who (for whatever reason) Trump cannot afford to have exposed as a pedophile? Something underhanded is going on there, and I really hope that those who really want the truth, rather than some panacea handed out to true believers, keep after this until it is produced.
Please dig into this
I have little doubt that further inquiry into Epstein will damage many
But it is a fools bet to hope it will embarrass trump
Trump is the most investigated person on the planet
If there was a pee tape it would be public
If trump had any real relationship with Epstein it would be public
There are enough unhinged people in the country without politicians and the media making it worse. 1/6/2021 was a warning about what people could do because of rhetoric and anger. I think the Republicans learned something from that. The Democrats have not yet seemed to catch onto the story except to milk it for every drop of advantage. They still have the media behind them and what I see often in the media mimics or exceeds the rhetoric of the politicians.
I read the story in Axios also and the Democrats have reason to be concerned. Once you let the violence out of the bottle it’s damned hard to stuff it back in. We know this from history and recent events.
I suppose they are afraid they might get sucked into that maelstrom. Rage is not a time when there is a great deal of reasoned thought.
I fear that the Democrats own unhinged rhetoric of the last few years only gets magnified by the media and so when they consult their voters they end up seeing their own rage tossed back at them. The Democrats have the media working with them and the Republicans don’t so if you want to dial back the rage the Democrats will have to do it. I hope they do. Unhinged people do not make for stable or rational governments or even an effective loyal opposition.
I’d go back a bit before 1/6/2021, a shameful riot, but a one off. Let’s go back to the summer of 2020 where cities like Portland and Seattle had daily riots for 90 days in a row, and cities such as Minneapolis burned.
Shameful only because they failed to prevent the installation of the vegetable and his autopen. The amount of damage done to America and the world pales in comparison to a single demonstration. (No, I will not even call it a riot. Stop using your enemy’s terminology.)
*. How did the US breed these people? They’re people who raised themselves from childhood. Fatherless homes while mom was hooking or shooting up or stocking shelves fed a steady diet of violence on tv and games.
You’ll get 1 million more of them as abortion is illegal for now. The afdc programs with snap and other programs replaced their fathers and families.
You wanted an argument for abortion GEB. He’s right there with the baseball bat.
Truth US hard huh?
The number of abortions continues to rise!
GEB is correct. There is a difference between rage and civil discourse. Demonstrating your commitment to a position requires the use of reason and discourse. The violence of the democrats is exactly what Trump wants, or do the democrats not see that. If all you have is rage, if you are tired of constantly getting up off the ground and looking at the scoreboard and seeing that your team is behind, if you are tired of getting knocked down time after time, then get better because the thugs are never going to back off. People respond to ideas and if you don’t have any then seek out those who do. But GEB is correct in that “unhinged people do not make for a stable or even an effective loyal opposition”. Trump says he wants to make America great again. Just like every other time he makes a promise he betrays the promisee. Do not lower yourself to his standard or those who defend him. Once I told a friend that I was thinking of selling a valuable possession of mine because I needed the money. His response was “But then all you have is money”. Take away Donald Trumps money and what do you have left? Certainly not reason. Now, what are you going to do?
Just like every other time he makes a promise he betrays the promisee.
🙃 Reason and discourse? And you were doing so well.
That’s some authentic gibberish there. There is probably a grammar teacher somewhere in your past who is spinning in her grave right about now.
Mweiser
Morons and people you can not trust do not succeed in the real world as trump and many others have outside of politics
I have my disagreements and disappointments with trump
But you had no expectation in my lifetime of any president doing even a fraction of what I want as trump has
Do not let perfection get in the way of changing away from the wrong direction
You can not take away trumps money
People do not succeed in the many ways trump has by accident
Especially not in free markets
“It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest”.
People succeed by giving others what they want
The violence of the left has been ineffective
The reason that j6 terrifies democrats is that the last time middle america last protested led to the revolutionary war
I am not concerned about left wing violence
It is self defeating
I am not concerned about the msm
They have burned their country credibility
*. GEB, I came back to apologize for my comment from early this morning. It was a partial meltdown. The comment references Hakeem and abortion. I know you’re sensitive.
Pardon
Frankly, I do not think those who are the so called leaders of the current Democratic party are capable of making an about face. They now believe the path to regaining power is violence. Sadly, at least within the Democratic Party, they are probably right.
They can’t make an about-face because the illegal aliens are their most essential constituents. Mass deportation strikes a dagger right into the heart of the Democratic Party.
In your comment I would substitute the word tool for “constituent”.
You are 100% correct. What they don’t realize or understand are the consequences to themselves.
The problem is simple. People that think men pretending to be women are women, are too stupid to recognize normal.
Congress Members (the post’s aforementioned) of both Parties (D.C. in general) are Players in the Psychological Operations of perpetuating the ‘ground-war’ of politics in the Streets of America. The Media is the Mental reinforcement that keeps the battles alive.
While the Fight is the on-going distraction, the Overlords reap in wealth, creating & maintaining the Have and the Have Not society.
Playing with Pawns.
Obvious:
Hakeem Jeffries (D., N.Y.)
Alex Padilla (D., Cal.)
Elizabeth Warren (D, Mass.)
Jamie Raskin (D, Md.)
Ron Wyden (D., Ore.)
Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.)
Rep. Maxine Waters (D., Cal.)
Cory Booker (D., NJ)
Jasmine Crockett (D., TX)
LaMonica McIver (D., N.J.)
Jerry Nadler (D., N.Y.)
Keith Ellison (Frm. DNC Deputy)
Jeremiah Ellison (Minneapolis City Council)
They all call for ‘Somebody else’ to do the Dirty Work across the Streets of America.
All the while the D.C. Cabal get rich off the system.
This reminds me growing up in Chicago in the late 60’s early 70’s. I just turned eligible to vote and I would be greeted at the polling station by men with baseball bats saying that”you are voting Democratic”. Our Ward on the Southwest Side of Chicago was heavily Polish like me.
We always voted against Daley and his ilk! Badge of Honor.
When you are riding a tiger you can’t dismount.
The Washington Elite, Globalist, Left Wing Woke DEMS, MSM, etc. cannot accept that they lost and they are losing power and money, such as USAID. They are encouraging violence from ANTIFA, Illegals, Left Activist groups etc. Violence is increasing and if they remain out of power after the mid terms, they will go nuts.
Yes, they might repeat the January 6 maturity level of Republicans!
Nice try.
Yawn.
Grandma walking between velvet ropes on a guided tour of the capitol, real scary stuff.
So we learn that the FBI suppressed evidence of foreign interference in the 2020 election and director Wray likely perjured himself to hide foreign efforts to side Biden
And you think January 6 was immature?
Why are we to believe you about anything ?
Please tell me ?
You have corrupted yourselves and everything you have touched
If you said the sun will rise tomorrow people should wonder what you are hiding
Nothing
Absolutely nothing you say can be trusted
You did this yo yourself
@Anonymous
And yet, if they regain any power at the midterms, heaven help us. They simply cannot accept that they, their policy, and their corruption are the problem.
This is who they are now, and this is who we’ll get, and they will not let go ever again, through whatever means are necessary – this has already been demonstrated with crystal clarity. Simply mustn’t happen.
It is unlikely that democrats will take the senate
They may even lose a seat or two
The historic norm would have them retake the house
While it would be better if they did not and it is even possible they don’t things are so they unusual
That would not be the end of the world
No one gives a schiff about what house democrats do
The big deal about the BBB is that it empowers trump to continue for the next 4 yrs
A democrat controlled congress can not change that without a veto proof majority
Isn’t it amazing that as soon as they shut down USAID and started restricting government grants to “non-profits” suddenly the DNC is broke? What a coincidence!!
@Anonymous
Yes, curious doesn’t begin to describe it. Though it was certainly true before to an extent, I’m pretty convinced at this point that post Obama virtually our entire system was nothing but the dems’ personal slush fund, and enough time has passed they have become acculturated to honestly believe they are simply entitled to it, as are the majority of their modern constituents.
It’s obvious the Democrats have become completely unhinged. They are utterly delusional, with their talk of ‘concentration camps’ and people being ‘disappeared’ off the streets.
Fixed delusions are a sign of psychosis, and ‘TDS’ has become just that – a collective form of political psychosis. And as Voltaire said those many years ago, if you believe in absurdities, you will commit atrocities.
The thing is – low-grade violence will not achieve their objectives. Street violence will not stop the deportations. And elites generally don’t want to take the personal risks to lead violence themselves. They get someone else to do it. I don’t see Hakeem “The Dream” Jeffries taking bullets or throwing Molotovs, but he will talk tough, though. And billionaire donors do organize plots and pay people to do stuff. That is why I think the real threat is a new lab-created pandemic, this time centered in the USA. All they got to do is find some blue-haired grad student in a top virology department who is willing to do it for cash, and a US-centered pandemic will stop the deportations because all nations will stop all travel from the USA.
The voters most angry with the Democratic Party today are Democrats!
Any politician, of any party, wins elections by focusing on the local problems in local voting districts.
For example: the top leadership of the DNC attacked their own Democrats, like Joe Manchin of West Virginia, for not following the top leaders living in the Washington DC area – tone deaf to the issues facing West Virginians.
Joe Manchin realized the “democratic” process works from the bottom-up in local voting districts. If the DNC wants to take away coal-mining jobs, they also have to provide better good-paying jobs for the coal-miner’s children.
In 2016, the DNC essentially told West Virginia coal-miners to “just go to college” – with no jobs to go to after going to college. It was also insulting and degrading, implying they were just dumb which is why they chose one of the most dangerous jobs on Earth. Trump ran the table on the DNC, winning the election.
Guess what, if Democrats lose elections they don’t govern! Maybe try some common sense before resorting to violence?
The fierce urgency of now requires action. By any means necessary. Even violence. This is literally how they think.
You live by the mob, you die by the mob.
Are you talking about trump again?
Nope. Nice try, but this isn’t even close. A demonstration/protest which had fed instigators turn violent is not even in the same ballpark as antifa. It’s not even the same damned game.
How is that the people behind the 2nd impeachment of President Trump asserted that his use of the word fight was considered a call to arms and impeachable but do not acknowledge the violent vitriol of the left as being dangerous? Protest is free speech. Setting fires, looting, and assault is not.
Their violence is speech, your speech is violence.
Have you looked arround the country ?