Ben Rhodes, a former deputy national security adviser during the Obama administration, said Wednesday on MSNBC’s “Deadline” that blood would be on President Donald Trump’s hands if someone got hurt because of his claims of election fraud.
Rhodes said, “We have to take seriously the power Donald Trump has on an enormous share of the American population. I remember when Birtherism happened, and the Republican Party didn’t really condemn that or distance themselves from that. People thought, well, this is so ridiculous people are not going to believe that. Then poll after poll showed healthy majorities of Republicans thought Barack Obama wasn’t born in America. And that informed the degree of opposition and the degree of hostility that he faced in government. This, in many ways, is far worse. He’s seeking to convince a significant part of the American public that this election was illegitimate and that it was stolen. Let’s be very clear; what he’s saying is insane and absurd. It’s akin to pointing to the sky and saying it’s not blue. It’s green. Yet we’ve seen because of the spread conspiracy theory because of the size of the megaphone Donald Trump has and nature of social media, people are more than willing to live inside that reality, and the Republicans are going along with it.”
He added, “From a national security perspective, how many warning signs do you need? We had a plot to kidnap and potentially kill the Governor of Michigan. We’ve had people showing up armed in front of places. We’ve had Republican officials sounding alarm, as you said. The warning signs are there. If someone gets hurt, if someone gets killed, the blood is on all of their hands, the people who are saying nothing, the people who are going along with this. This isn’t a game. This isn’t a charade. This is a deliberate effort to make a big chunk of this country live inside of a conspiracy theory that could radicalize them to commit acts of violence. And this needs to be taken seriously and shut down by responsible adults before this becomes just a part of the political backdrop of this country for the next several years.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN