Trump’s fake news is creating violence
Newly released footage of violence during the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol is raw and even more disturbing than previous video. Broadcast during the televised hearings by the House committee investigating the insurrection, the evidence must be triggering Donald Trump’s authoritarian cultists (Business Insider):
Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger warned of “violence in the future” after he said he received a mailed threat against him and his family.
Kinzinger made the comments Sunday on “This Week” on ABC News while discussing his work on the January 6 committee. His position as one of only two Republicans on the committee has subjected him to threats, he said.
“This threat that came in, it was mailed to my house. We got it a couple of days ago, and it threatens to execute me, as well as my wife and 5-month-old child. We’ve never seen or had anything like that. It was sent from the local area,” said Kinzinger, who represents Illinois’ 16th congressional district.
He added that he’s not worried about his personal safety, but he is concerned about his family.
Members of the MAGA mob erected a mock gallows on the Capitol gounds that day, chanted “Hang Mike Pence,” and at least one threatened to behead the vice president.
And why? Because they believe Trump’s repeated lies that the 2020 election he lost by seven million votes was stolen from him, and from them. “They believe him because they believe In him,” Ruth Ben-Ghiat writes of Trump in “Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present.” They believe the man who told them 30,000 lies. They believe enough to stand behind Trump’s lies, to run for office on them, to kill for him, to burn down the country if necessary, and to threaten to murder Kinzinger, his wife, and their 5-month-old child.
In the fall of 2018, a Trump supporter mailed 16 pipe bombs to CNN, to current and former Democratic officials, and to prominent Trump critics. And another man “echoing Trump’s rhetoric on immigration” shot and killed 11 people at a Pittsburgh synagogue.
Karen Travers of ABC News asked Trump if his rhetoric was encouraging violence. Trump answered in his schoolyard “I know what you are but what am I?” way:
“No, no. You know what? You’re creating violence by your questions,” Trump said, pointing at her.
“Me?” she replied.
“You are creating — you,” he said. “And also a lot of the reporters are creating violence by not writing the truth.”
“The fake news is creating violence,” Trump continued.
It turns out fake news is creating violence. His.
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