The Big Picture –
By Glynn Wilson –
Is it time, or past time, to add the president of the United States to the terrorism watch list?
According to an op-ed posted on the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Hate Watch website:
The atrocity in New Zealand shows us, once again, that we’re dealing with an international terrorist movement linked by a dangerous white supremacist ideology that’s metastasizing in the echo chambers of internet chat rooms and on social media networks.
This hatred is even being amplified by our own president, who speaks of an “invasion of our country.”
The killer’s manifesto bears the unmistakable fingerprints of the so-called alt-right, both in tone and reference. It celebrates the Norwegian terrorist Anders Breivik as well as Charleston terrorist Dylann Roof. It speaks of “invaders” who will “replace” white people. This is the very same kind of language used by Roof and numerous other white supremacists who have committed or attempted acts of terror.
On his weapon, the killer wrote the white supremacist slogan known as the 14 words – “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children” – coined by the infamous neo-Nazi terrorist David Lane.
In this case, a killer attacked Muslims worshiping at two mosques.
In October, a killer massacred Jews at a synagogue in Pittsburgh. Though the victims were different, and the attacks came in different parts of the world, the terrorists shared the same ideology of white supremacist hate.
We – and that includes policymakers and the law enforcement community, in particular – must begin to view what we call “domestic terrorism” through a global lens, just as we do the threat of groups like ISIS, because the growing white supremacist movement represents a clear and present threat to democracies across the world.
That piece carries a link to an earlier report, which says:
The radical right — long relegated to the fringes — now has a toehold in the White House.
President Trump has opened the White House doors to extremism, not only consulting with hate groups on policies that erode our country’s civil rights protections but enabling the infiltration of extremist ideas into the administration’s rhetoric and agenda.
Every month we track incidents that illustrate the hate and extremism permeating the Trump administration. They include tweets, speeches, policy actions, legal developments and other activities involving Trump, White House advisers, Cabinet members and federal agencies.
In a recent chat with the alt-right Breitbart News Network, which Trump published on Twitter but deleted after the news of the attacks in New Zealand broke, Trump said:
“I can tell you I have the support of the police, the support of the military, the support of the Bikers for Trump – I have the tough people, but they don’t play it tough — until they go to a certain point, and then it would be very bad, very bad.”
“So here’s the thing—it’s so terrible what’s happening,” Trump said before discussing his supporters. “You know, the left plays a tougher game, it’s very funny. I actually think that the people on the right are tougher, but they don’t play it tougher. Okay?”
Trump’s critics accused him of fomenting violence by his backers, according to numerous news reports.
“I think it sounds very much to me like he’s encouraging them to engage in something that’s probably illegal such as assaulting people, you know behave in a dangerous way,” said Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, speaking on MSNBC. “That sounds like a threat to me. I think it’s appalling.”
Virginia Senator Tim Kaine addressed this question Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”
“The president uses language often that’s very similar to the language used by these bigots and racists. And if he’s not going to call it out, then other leaders have to do more to call it out and I certainly will,” Kaine told “Face the Nation.” “I think the president is using language that emboldens them.”
Sen. @timkaine: White House is withholding information on military projects being cut because they fear losing votes if Congress saw what would “be ransacked to pay for the president's wall.” pic.twitter.com/IZSblBLCt6
— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) March 17, 2019
Teflon Don
So if Teflon Don’s crimes of colluding with Russia were not enough to do him in, if obstruction of justice is not enough to get him arrested or impeached, if his abhorrent treatment of women is not enough to defeat him for reelection in 2020, what are we to make of President Donald Trump calling for violence against his political opponents by his radical-right, armed-to-the-teeth supporters?
We could add him to the terrorism watch list and restrict his travel and meetings with foreign dictators, at least.
But wait, as I was researching this, I ran across the story from this week that the SPLC’s founder Morris Dees has been fired for some kind of misconduct, probably of a sexual nature considering what I know of his proclivities from my old friend and his, the photographer Spider Martin.
Like we used to say in the daily newsroom, “It’s a war and no one is safe.”
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