We reviewed Trump’s speeches, interviews, and social media posts since 2022 and found that he has made more than 100 threats to investigate, prosecute, jail or otherwise punish his opponents, whom he sometimes calls “the enemy from within.”
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First and foremost, Trump targets his political opponents.
If he wins the presidential election, he has promised to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate President Biden and Biden’s family on his first day in office.
Now that Vice President Harris is his opponent, Trump said she should also be “impeached and prosecuted.”
On Truth Social, Trump has reposted calls for Barack Obama and Liz Cheney to face military tribunals.
Trump suggested that former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley could face the death penalty. (Milley has since called Trump a “fascist,” per journalist Bob Woodward.)
Then there are the participants in Trump’s trials. Trump has targeted the prosecutors, judges, and even a court staffer.
On Truth Social, he floated the idea that a member of the Georgia grand jury that indicted him should be prosecuted.
Last year, Glenn Beck asked Trump if he would lock people up if he wins the election.
Trump said yes, and indicated it would be justified because of the four criminal cases brought against him since leaving office.
Trump has repeatedly promised to pardon rioters charged and convicted for their role in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
“The cops should be charged and the protesters should be freed,” reads a post Trump reposted on Truth Social.
At a rally, Trump said people who protest and criticize the Supreme Court “should be put in jail.”
And he has said that journalists should be imprisoned if they refuse to give up the sources of government leaks. He appeared to suggest that journalists could also face sexual assault in jail.
Another target of Trump’s threats: election workers.
These threats come in the context of Trump and Sen. JD Vance’s comments pushing back on restrictions on presidential power.
Vance told an interviewer prior to the campaign that Trump should ignore the courts if they stop him from replacing civil servants with loyalists.
These are just some examples out of more than 100.
You can read our full story - with comments from @ianbassin @rgoodlaw @OMGrisham @AdamKinzinger and response from the RNC - here: npr.org/2024/10/21/nx-…
@ianbassin @rgoodlaw @OMGrisham @AdamKinzinger Some Trump allies and supporters have downplayed Trump’s comments as campaign rhetoric and bluster.
But some, like this person who responded to our story, have a different take.
@ianbassin @rgoodlaw @OMGrisham @AdamKinzinger This is another defense that Trump's allies have made: That he did not go after his rivals and opponents in his first term.
We identified dozens of Jan. 6 rioters who had serious criminal records and received clemency from Trump.
Rape, manslaughter, sexual abuse of children, domestic violence and drug trafficking are among the crimes they were convicted of or charged with.
Thread:
Rioter Matthew Huttle “spanked his 3-year-old son so hard that he left bruises all over the child's backside and the child's neck, and the child had such extreme pain on his backside that he could not sit properly for a week," prosecutors said.
Just days after he received a pardon from Trump for his actions on Jan. 6, Huttle was shot and killed by law enforcement in Indiana during a traffic stop.
Here are some of the Jan. 6 defendants who received a full and unconditional pardon from Trump tonight:
David Dempsey was convicted of repeatedly assaulting police officers with pepper spray, a metal crutch and wooden and metal poles and sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Daniel Rodriguez was convicted of using a stun gun and “plunging it” multiple times into police officer Michael Fanone's neck, in the words of prosecutors. Rodriguez was sentenced to more than 12 years in prison.
As Donald Trump prepares to pardon people convicted for their role in the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, it's worth looking at what leading Republicans said in the immediate aftermath of that day's violence.
A thread:
“A shrine to democracy for our country, and the world, was overrun by violent extremists seeking to overturn an election," said @SenJohnThune in Jan. 2021. "We must hold those responsible to account."
@DineshDSouza has issued an apology over his election conspiracy film “2,000 Mules” on his website.
D’Souza admits that the heart of the film - surveillance footage of vote drop boxes supposedly showing illegal “ballot trafficking” - is false and misleading.
D’Souza’s apology is directed at a Georgia voter named Mark Andrews, who was depicted in the film as a ballot “mule,” when he was legally dropping off ballots for his family members.
Andrews has sued D’Souza and True the Vote over his appearance in the film, book and promos.
Earlier, the film’s distributor Salem Media apologized to Andrews and said it would halt distribution of “2,000 Mules.”
Salem’s apology was connected to a settlement, but D’Souza says his apology is *not* part of any legal settlement, but “because it is the right thing to do”.
Donald Trump’s Bedminster golf club hosted a convicted Jan. 6 rioter and alleged Nazi sympathizer twice this summer, where he was celebrated and gave speeches.
At one event, Trump sent a video praising the attendees as “amazing patriots.”
At the other, he won an award.
The rioter, Timothy Hale-Cusanelli, has a lengthy and well-documented history of extreme racist and antisemitic comments.
He allegedly told coworkers, “Hitler should have finished the job.”
In 2020, he posted a lengthy video rant against Jewish communities in New Jersey.
He served nearly three years in prison for nonviolent offenses on Jan. 6, and is currently appealing his conviction on the felony obstruction charge that the Supreme Court recently narrowed.
Since leaving prison, he’s gone on a tour of far-right media.