Democrat strategist James Carville said Monday that he and MSNBC "The Beat" host Ari Melber will be arrested if Republican nominee former President Donald Trump is elected in November.
Carville said,
Trump goes out, and he says I’m going to use the military to arrest my political enemies, and then Mike Johnson’s and Lindsey Graham, and the Wall Street Journal editorial pages say oh no, that’s not what he meant and then he comes back and says yeah, that’s exactly what I meant. You know what’ll happen? You pointed it out; if he wins, he will say, I told people I was going to do this. I have the legitimacy of an election behind me, and he will have a point.
He is referring to comments by Trump that the U.S. has an "enemy within" that might become violent on Election Day, and that any problems could be easily solved with law enforcement or military involvement.
These comments may have been misconstrued to mean something different than he intended, however.
When asked if he would use those systems against his political opponents, he did not say he would, but said that's what his political opponents are doing to him.
He then affirmed that he thought Reps. Nancy Pelosi and Adam Schiff (both D-CA) were part of the enemy within, but did not specifically say he could take any action against them.
But of course, Carville and Melber will conveniently ignore those nuances and pretend he's saying he plans to arrest his political opponents and jail them for opposing him.
Carville went on,
People say what’s at stake in this election, okay, the Constitution is at stake, the whole idea of I don’t know if you call a constitutional republic, whatever highbrow people call it, I get it, we live under a set of laws is literally at risk, and he is telling you that. People want to know about weakness among males of color. They are going to arrest all of you. You don’t think you have a stake in this election. Guess what? You are not going to do very well. I’m not going to do well. You are not going to do well.
"That will happen. It’s not far-fetched," he concluded.
This rhetoric by Carville is "threat to democracy" on steroids. Now Trump is not only a threat to democracy, but a threat to the personal liberty of his opponents, according to Democrats.
Never mind that he had four years to go after his former opponent Hillary Clinton, but didn't do so.
He even talked about it, formulated the "lock her up" slogan, but when it came down to it, he didn't.
What is Trump actually suggesting? That if people get violent on Election Day, they should be arrested and subdued by police and the military (if needed). Who doesn't agree with that?
But if Carville and his ilk can convince enough voters Trump is going to arrest them for being Democrats, they might get a few votes out of it. And that's really all the motivation they need.
