During a panel discussion on MSNBC’s “The Sunday Show” Republican strategist Lucy Caldwell expressed concern about the prospect of political violence spilling to the streets following Donald Trump’s call on his supporters to protest and “take out country back” if he is arrested next week.
Citing reports of online chatter about violence, Caldwell told host Jonathan Capehart that there’s evidence of Trump supporters organizing to ‘stock up on weaponry’ after his potential arrest.
Caldwell was asked to comment on Trump’s Truth Social post about his imminent arrest as well as his announcement that he will be holding a rally in Waco, Texas, the site of the Branch Davidian siege in 1993.
“I can’t help but think about the fact that a man who is under investigation in multiple jurisdictions, who claims that there is a deep state conspiracy against him is holding a rally in Waco, Texas, almost 30 years to the month of the Branch Davidian compound situation where the government went in and there was a tragedy there,” Capehart said before asking: ‘Am I reading too much into Donald Trump’s rally in Waco given that history?”
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“I don’t think you’re reading too much into that at all,” Caldwell replied. “He knows exactly where he is going, he has savvy strategists around him, this is not coincidental.”
“And I think that what was just said was right,” she continued. “He has been setting up this narrative this whole time; what he said at CPAC a couple of weeks ago, where he said ‘I’m your retribution.’ When he talks about ‘we’ he uses the first person pronouns to describe ‘we’ the collective being under attack, what ‘we’ must do what they’re doing to us.”
“He is using typical classic cult leader language to bring these people into the fold and they’re responding,” he elaborated. “In between when he announced that is that he expects to be arrested next week, and when he announced that cult rally in Waco, investigators have seen that actually his supporters did go online and start organizing to buy protective gear, to stock up on weaponry. To do all the things that people do when they’re reacting to a cult leader.”
“It’s a very grave and dangerous situation, but I think Jonathan, you are not over-reading the tea leaves at all here,” she added.
Watch below from MSNBC.
