GOP rep defends Trump’s calls to deploy the military against his political opponents

15 Oct 2024, 16:06 by https://www.facebook.com/17108852506 · AlterNet

Rep. Mike Waltz (R-Florida) talking to ABC News in March of 2021 (Image: Screengrab via ABC News / YouTube)
Carl Gibson
October 15, 2024Bank

One Republican member of Congress is now openly defending former President Donald Trump's call to use the military as a means of crushing American dissent.

Earlier this week, Trump told Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo that he wasn't ruling out deploying the U.S. military against "the enemy from within," which apparently includes "radical left lunatics." Trump even mentioned Rep. Adam Schiff (D-California), who is the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, when discussing "lunatics that we have inside." And on Tuesday morning, CNN host John Berman got Rep. Mike Waltz (R-Florida) on the record in favor of the former president's proposal.

"Do you think deploying the military against political opponents is something that's responsible to discuss from political candidates?" Berman asked.

"I think that's completely appropriate," Waltz said. "I think it's responsible to discuss deploying the National Guard, which is clearly part of the military, John, to keep our streets safe, to keep rioters out of the street. Everyone is welcome to protest peacefully. but when it exceeds that into violence as it did many times in 2020, then the National Guard was deployed and should be deployed and that has happened in a bipartisan way across many administrations separately."

Notably, Waltz also didn't differ from Trump when asked specifically about Trump describing Schiff as an "enemy from within." The Florida Republican referenced Schiff's censure by the GOP-controlled House of Representatives over his claims about Trump's 2016 campaign getting assistance from Russia, as well as former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's unfounded claim that Schiff leaked classified information.

"When you have senior members of the intelligence committee lying and leaking from from compartmented hearings when you have them lying to the public in an open hearing that is detrimental to our republic, to our democracy and public trust in our institutions and that's what he was talking about," Waltz said. "And that is not good for the country."

Waltz also insisted that Trump was put in unnecessary danger by commentators criticizing him over his repeated threats to democracy and the rule of law, suggesting that the two attempts on Trump's life were a byproduct of that rhetoric. Berman pushed back, saying Waltz has "tossed around" words like "socialism" and "Marxism" to describe his Democratic colleagues. Berman also mentioned to Waltz that former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Mark Milley — whom Trump appointed to be the top U.S. military official in 2019 — called the ex-president "fascist to the core."

"Socialism is a longstanding political ideology. That's very different than saying someone is going to be — the world's most God, I mean, Godawful dictator in Hitler, and that clearly is radicalizing people to take action where they believe the ends justify the means to kill him," Waltz said. He additionally defended calling Vice President Kamala Harris a Marxist, saying: "there is Marxism that is underpinning many of her policies, including price controls."

"All I'm saying Congressman, is when Mark Milley says 'no one has ever been as dangerous to the country as Donald Trump, now I realize he's a total fascist,' he's saying that Donald Trump espouses fascist policies," Berman countered. "It's a political ideology. Fascism is a political ideology."

Waltz — who is a retired colonel in the U.S. Army — didn't acknowledge Milley's remarks about Trump. He instead suggested that America was on the brink of "World War Three" and referenced Russia's war on Ukraine and Israel's ongoing military campaigns in Gaza and in Lebanon as evidence of things being "pretty darn dangerous" under President Joe Biden's administration.

Watch the segment below, or by clicking this link.