Trump Doubles Down on 'Enemy Within' Rhetoric
Donald Trump doubled down on his rhetoric claiming Democrats are the "enemy within" on Fox Sunday, specifically mentioning Adam Schiff and Nancy Pelosi as two politicians he considers enemies.
After Fox had attempted to soften Trump's tone during an interview with Kamala Harris wherein she called him out for the violent language, Trump pushed forward with the "enemy" description this weekend, a dangerous sign of what is to come under a potential Trump presidency.
House Speaker Mike Johnson even tried to claim in an interview with Jake Tapper that Trump had been referencing violent gangs in the U.S, but Tapper showed Johnson the footage of Trump mentioning Pelosi and Schiff by name in his identification of "enemies."
"These are bad people. We have a lot of bad people," Trump said. "You look at shifty Schiff and some of the others, yeah to me they are the enemy from within."
Early in the broadcast, Trump had said enemies from outside the United States, like China and Russia, could be easily dealt with by a smart president.
"The outside enemies, so-called enemies, and they might not be enemies; if you have a smart president they can be handled," Trump said. "But when you have people investigating my campaign...you know they spied on my campaign you understand that?"
Trump then turned to a favorite target: Nancy Pelosi, as his next identified enemy. "Nancy Pelosi is an enemy from within. She lied. She was supposed to protect the Capitol. She said that to her daughter...she said this is my responsibility. She admitted it."
Pelosi has never admitted she was at fault for January 6th. As Speaker of the House, she would not have had the authority to turn down National Guard troops if Trump had actually ordered them to protect the Capitol.
Nancy Pelosi's husband was attacked in his home by a crazed Trump supporter wielding a hammer, precisely due to rhetoric like this from Trump about the former Speaker of the House. Elon Musk posted on Twitter hours after the attack that the assailant was probably a gay prostitute that Pelosi was seeing. Nancy Pelosi was hunted by the insurrectionists in the Capitol on January 6th after Trump sent them.
According to Bob Woodward in his new book "War," former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley called Trump "fascist to his core," and that he is "the most dangerous person in the country." Former Trump Defense Secretary Jim Mattis concurred with Milley's thoughts on Trump, according to Woodward.
