On Thursday, National Security Analyst Juliette Kayyem joined a CNN panel discussion on the first anniversary of the January 6 attack on the US Capitol, where she explained that former President Donald Trump’s role in it was an act of terrorism.
CNN host John Avlon asked Kayyem to comment on an article she wrote after the January 6 attacks almost a year ago calling Trump the leader of a terror movement who uses violence or threatened as an extension of politics.
“I think that was too kind,” Kayyem replied.
“So if you think you were too kind to call Trump an extremist leader, then what would you call now?” Avlon asked.
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“Well, he continues to be the leader of an organization that uses violence or the threat of violence to disrupt democratic processes. That is terrorism,” Kayyem.
“And I think, you know, we tend to focus on different pieces of the post-January 6 world so we have the election systems and the states and the fights over states and voting rights. We then have the investigation the January six, and then all the cases that are going on against people who were in the Capitol, but I think we sometimes forget that what sort of connects everything is violence and the threat of violence that now animates so much of our political discourse coming from Republican leadership from right-wing media,” she said.
Kayyem also warned that “acceptance of violence and the threat of violence as part of a political agenda that I think I underestimated on January 6.”
