Thread by @igorvolsky

1/ Trump's claims of election fraud risk sparking political violence.

Case-in-point: Trump supporter was arrested on Tuesday after calling for crowds of New Yorkers to be gunned down in the streets while celebrating the election results gothamist.com/news/feds-heav…

2/ Brian Maiorana was arrested in Annadale, Staten Island on Tuesday morning. Federal agents who searched his home recovered:

- a semiautomatic pistol
- the upper portion of an AR 15 assault rifle
- several rounds of ammunition

3/ In a November 5th message, Maiorana allegedly posted: “The carnage needs to come in the form of extermination of anyone that claims to be democrat…as well as their family members.”

Three days later, he allegedly suggested "we blow up the FBI building for real"

4/ "The results of a search warrant this morning revealed that this was not simply idle chatter...The defendant appears to have taken steps to acquire weapons that would make it possible for him to carry out what he stated in these violent messages."

5/ Trump's habit of stoking unfounded conspiracy theories and dehumanizing your political opponents is INCREDIBLY DANGEROUS b/c it has the effect of inspiring some individuals to commit violence.

It's particularly dangerous in a country where guns are INCREDIBLY EASY TO GET

6/ It's not like Trump and his supporters in the GOP don't know their rhetoric could lead to real-world violence. They know...

Exhibit 1: the would-be kidnappers in the Whitmer case

Exhibit 2: at least 87 ppl have been killed by armed extremists inspired by Trump:

7/ So how can one assume that sparking political violence and causing chaos is NOT part of the goal?

8/ From @ryanjreilly's article:

“the disinformation coming from the president and his surrogates about ballot fraud is fueling far-right groups in ways that present threats to public safety,” Mary McCord, DOJ's former top national security official huffpost.com/entry/trump-vo…

@ryanjreilly 9/ “You have the president of the United States taking these people to the edge, and the second that something happens he’s going to turn around and go, ‘Well, I didn’t tell them to do that.’” -- Bill Fulton, expert on right-wing domestic terrorism

@ryanjreilly 10/ “A lot of these guys think that they’re like defending the United States. They think they’re patriots. That is powerful. Patriots go to war for their country all the time... When you start mixing that, you end up with really, really bad shit happening” huffpost.com/entry/trump-vo…