With speculation whirling that former president Donald Trump may soon be arrested, Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) on Sunday urged restraint. “I don’t think people should protest this, no,” McCarthy reportedly said. “And I think President Trump, if you talk to him, he doesn’t believe that, either.”
McCarthy’s comments came following Trump’s defiant all-caps post to Truth Social, in which he urged supporters to “PROTEST, TAKE OUR NATION BACK!”
Some of the seeming contradiction likely stems from the recent evolution of one word: protest. While for many years the term evoked images of hand-painted signs and peaceful, flowery marches, the summer of 2020 brought months of violent left-wing rioting across the nation that caused billions of dollars in property damage and the murder of dozens.
A January 6, 2021, election protest-turned-riot went on for hours, drawing enormous media focus and even congressional attention ever since. While the latter never was labeled a mere protest by mainstream media outlets – it has been compared to Pearl Harbor and 9-11 – it is likely this event that McCarthy and likeminded Republican leaders have on their minds. “Nobody should harm one another,” McCarthy reportedly continued. “We want calmness out there.”
In addition to their wish to prevent violence, the last thing McCarthy and Republican leaders likely want is more January 6-style footage and hype to be available for partisan use against Republicans.
Democrats had no difficulty making the cognitive leap from “protest” to “violent riot.” Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), herself no stranger to the incitement of mob violence against her political opponents, had strong words regarding Trump’s post. “It’s almost like he’s attempting to organize his domestic terrorists to show up and to resist him being arrested,” she said, leaving few dots to be connected.
McCarthy also spoke out against what many strongly believe is a politically motivated indictment, calling it “the weakest case out there … somebody putting their thumb on the scale [of justice] simply because they don’t agree with somebody else’s political view … that is what’s wrong and that’s what infuriates people.”
Speculation among conservative thinkers abounds as to just what strategic aims lay behind such a politically motivated move, but there is little doubt that a violent response by Trump supporters would be a huge gift to Democrats and badly damaging to Republicans.
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