(CNN) –– Former President Donald Trump suggested using the military to confront what he called “the enemy within” the…
(CNN) –– Former President Donald Trump suggested using the military to confront what he called “the enemy within” on Election Day, and said he is not worried about chaos from his supporters or foreign actors, but from the “radical left lunatics.”
“I think the biggest problem is the people inside. We have very bad people. We have sick people. Radical left lunatics,” Trump said in an interview with Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo on “Sunday Morning Futures.”
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“I think this should be handled very easily, if necessary, by the National Guard, or if it was really necessary, by the military, because that cannot be allowed to happen,” he added.
The former president, whose supporters stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021 in an attempt to thwart Congress’ certification of his 2020 election loss, downplayed any threats from his constituents.
“No, I don’t think that comes from the side of the Trump voter,” the former president said when Bartiromo asked him if he expected there to be chaos on Election Day. When he alluded to the Justice Department arresting and charging an Afghan national for allegedly planning a terrorist attack in the United States on Election Day and citing the threat of “outside agitators” and undocumented immigrants, Trump went on to talk about opponents. left-wing politicians.
“I think the biggest problem is the internal enemy, not even the people who have come and are destroying our country, by the way, totally destroying our country, the cities, the towns, are being flooded,” he said, referring to immigrants. whom Trump has repeatedly attacked with dehumanizing rhetoric.
Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign seized on Trump’s comments to argue that they should “alarm all Americans.”
“Trump is suggesting that his fellow Americans are worse ‘enemies’ than his foreign adversaries, and he is saying that he would use the military against them,” Ian Sams, a senior campaign spokesman and adviser, said in a statement Sunday. “His promise to be a dictator from ‘day one,’ his calls to ‘end’ the Constitution, and his plans to surround himself with sycophants who will give him unlimited and unprecedented power if he returns to office should alarm all Americans. who care about their freedom and safety.”
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In the years since the Jan. 6 insurrection, the former president has denied wrongdoing and attempted to blame others, such as Democrats, for the unrest by spreading a series of false claims, even as he faces federal and state charges. for interfering in the 2020 elections in Washington and Georgia, respectively. Trump pleaded not guilty in those cases.
Trump has also been laying the groundwork for questioning the integrity of the 2024 election. For example, he threatened, if he wins the White House again, to prosecute and hand out “long-term prison sentences” to election officials and political operatives who, as he suggested, they might cheat. And he has consistently suggested that, if victorious in the election, he would use the justice system as a tool to persecute his political opponents.
CNN’s Jack Forrest, Sam Fossum, Marshall Cohen, Daniel Dale and Kate Sullivan contributed to this report.
