Trump Names Pelosi and Schiff as ‘the Enemy From Within’
Donald Trump is not backing down from his fascistic remarks about “the enemy from within,” comments he has made repeatedly in recent weeks. Instead he’s naming Democratic Reps. Nancy Pelosi and Adam Schiff as part of said “enemy from within.”
In earlier comments made on Oct. 13, the former president said that “radical left lunatics… the enemy from within… should be very easily handled, if necessary, by the National Guard, or if really necessary, by the military.” He also spoke of “the enemy from within” on Sept. 3 and Oct. 16.
During an interview that aired Sunday on Fox News with Howard Kurtz, Trump took the remarks further, attacking Pelosi and Schiff.
“Of course he’s an enemy,” Trump said of Schiff. “He wanted to put my son in jail, and my son didn’t even know what he was talking about. He wanted to put my son in jail on as scam he made up called Russia, Russia, Russia. He, Hillary Clinton and a group of people made up a scam, and they came out of a room, and they said Donald Trump Jr. will be going to jail over this… It had nothing to do with him.”
Schiff investigated Trump’s son’s June 2016 meeting with someone he believed was a “Russian government attorney” in Trump Tower. During the meeting, according to an email to Trump Jr. from publicist Rob Goldstone, who represented the son of an Azerbaijani-Russian businessman with ties to the Russian government, the Russians “offered to provide the Trump campaign with some official documents and information that would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia.”
“This is obviously very high level and sensitive information but is part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump,” Goldstone said in the email to Trump Jr.
“If it’s what you say I love it,” Trump Jr. replied.
In the Fox News interview, the former president attacked Schiff once again for his Russia investigation. “That’s an enemy from within. That’s really — that is a threat to democracy,” he said. “These are bad people. We have a lot of bad people. But when you look at shifty Schiff and some of the others, they are to me the enemy from within.”
Schiff reacted to Trump’s comments in a post on X: “Trump continues to threaten military action against his domestic ‘enemies,'” the congressman wrote. “He seeks to justify it with the usual falsehoods about his impeachment and Jan 6. But there is no justification for such dictatorial behavior. Except dictatorial ambition.”
Trump next named Pelosi as another “enemy.” “I think Nancy Pelosi is an enemy from within,” he said. “She lied, and she was supposed to protect the Capitol… she said, ‘This is my responsibility,’ I admit it.”
In response to Trump, Pelosi spokesperson Ian Krager said in a statement to Rolling Stone, “The former President is showing himself to be increasingly unhinged and unstable. In talking about turning our military on his political opponents and the American people, Donald Trump is showing once again why his election would be a disaster for our country and our democracy.”
Continuing on the topic of Jan. 6, Trump reiterated his lies about the Capitol attack, remarking on the size of the crowd at the Save America rally that immediately preceded the riot, where Trump told his supporters to “fight like hell” to stop the certification of the election. Six times in his interview with Kurtz, Trump said that the Jan. 6 audience was the biggest he ever addressed.
Kurtz asked Trump, “Jan. 6, the other day you called it a ‘day of love.’ That sparked a lot of reaction given that many police officers were attacked, and there were mobs shouting, ‘Hang Mike Pence.’ Do you understand why many Americans would view it as a dark and tragic day in our history?”
“The crowd I spoke before, which you rarely see — I have pictures of it, massive, but nobody wants to put them in — was the biggest crowd I’ve ever spoken to,” Trump replied. “And I’ve spoken to the biggest crowds. I’ve never seen that many people. A small group of them — and you know peacefully and patriotically, which nobody uses. My words were ‘peacefully and patriotically.’ A small group went down to the Capitol, but they came because they thought it was a rigged election. This was a protest against a rigged election. I can’t say exactly the number, but I’ve had massive crowds, and this was by far the biggest crowd. I’ve spoken to the crowd at the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial on the fourth of July. This crowd was bigger. And I tell you, there was a beauty to it, and there was a love to it that I’ve never seen before. A small group of people went down to the Capitol, and then a lot of strange things happened, including police ushering them into the Capitol. I mean you know that. And a lot of strange things. I’m not referring to that. When I saw that tremendous crowd, the largest group I’ve ever spoken to, in front of these beautiful monuments, I thought actually it was a beautiful thing.”
Trump then complained that Jan. 6 rioters were not treated the same as other protesters (of course, no other “protesters” have breached Capitol security, forced an evacuation, and took over the Senate and House floors). “It was a protest. If other groups protest… whatever they may be protesting, nobody says anything. You know, they have a right to protest,” Trump whined.
“There was a lot of violence,” Kurtz replied. “Twelve hundred people pled guilty or were convicted; 600 were charged with assaulting police officers or rioting. You’re somebody who you say you’re on the side of law enforcement. You seem not to have much sympathy for the police on that day.”
Trump argued that there is “nobody closer to the police than I am — nobody.” He then tried to lie and say that there was “nobody killed” and “nobody had guns” on Jan. 6.
“There were people with guns who were arrested,” Kurtz corrected.
“Really? Then I’d like to know. You mean at the rally?” Trump said incredulously. He then asked if Kurtz meant they had “some guns at their home.”
“No,” the host responded. “At the rally.”
“Well, I have not heard that at all,” Trump claimed. “I don’t think so. They had no guns. It was a peaceful… When I made that speech, I’ve never seen anything like it… They protested an election. I think you have the right to protest in this country.”
A PolitiFact review of Jan. 6 defendants’ case files found that several defendants possessed firearms, according to police. Some were carrying the firearms with them to the Capitol while others stored them nearby.
Trump himself knew members of the crowd were carrying guns, according to testimony from Cassidy Hutchinson, a former aide to then-Chief of Staff Mark Meadows. Hutchinson told the Jan. 6 Committee that Trump wanted Secret Service to stop using magnometers to screen attendees for weapons and instead allow gun-toting supporters into the area where he would be speaking.
Hutchinson testified that she overheard Trump say something along the lines of, “I don’t fucking care that they have weapons. They’re not here to hurt me. Take the fucking [magnometers] away. Let my people in. They can march to the Capitol from here.”
But facts do not matter to the former president, who has become increasingly fascist in his rhetoric while he and his party lay the groundwork for challenging the results of the 2024 election.
This story has been updated to include a statement from a spokesperson for Pelosi and a statement from Schiff.
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