Several media and political figures are comparing the indictment of former President Donald Trump to the American civil war of the 1860s.
A Manhattan grand jury voted to indict a former president for the first time in American history on Thursday in relation to the alleged $130,000 in hush money paid to porn star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 presidential election. The indictment lead several prominent media and political figures to compare the scenario to the Civil War due political division across the U.S. and Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ statement Thursday that he would not be involved in the extradition process in his state.
MSNBC anchor Rachel Maddow accused DeSantis of firing the “first proverbial shot in Fort Sumter” by announcing he will not follow the extradition process.
“Florida’s not going to allow that process to go forward because it’s a former president, because it’s Donald Trump. Well that could break us,” Maddow said. “I mean, indicting a president, indicting a politician, is a normal thing in this country. Trying to say the legal process no longer applies in this country if you try to apply it to our political guy, that is something that can break the rule of law in this country, if anything it is the first proverbial shot in Fort Sumter today. That shot was fired not by Donald Trump, but by Ron DeSantis.”
WATCH:
Presidential historian Douglas Brinkley compared a future mugshot of Trump to the that of John Wilkes Booth, the man who assassinated former President Abraham Lincoln. (RELATED: ‘Hand Picked By Bragg’: Trump Lashes Out At Judge Expected To Oversee Arraignment)
“You think of the GOP as Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan descending into Donald Trump, who is being indicted, this is the first indictment with maybe others to come. And yet, the Republican Party seems to be backing him for re-election. One would have thought that January 6 and his involvement with that would’ve been enough to derail Trump, that that would’ve been the end of his role in politics … I can’t even think of an artifact except for a wanted John Wilkes Booth after the Lincoln assassination of a wanted poster, a mug shot that’s going to be circulating around the world.”
WATCH:
Later on in the segment, he warned that Trump’s indictment is the beginning of an American “neo-civil war.”
“This is going to be one of those tinderbox moments where, you know, if we can make it through this. And we all have to be clear – just because President Trump’s been indicted doesn’t mean he’s been convicted. Nevertheless, this is stirring the pot of America’s neo civil war like nothing else I could have imagined,” Brinkley said.
Outside of the liberal media, Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy said the “politically motivated” indictment signifies the path to a “national divorce.”
“This is wrong,” Ramaswamy said about the indictment. “This is dangerous. We’re skating on thin ice as a country right now. I think we may be heading on our way to a national divorce.”
The politically motivated indictment of the 45th President of the United States marks a dark moment in American history. It will undermine public trust in our electoral system & justice system. It is un-American for the ruling party to use police power to arrest its political… pic.twitter.com/BFcSlJ0OWO
— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) March 30, 2023
The former president, along with other Republicans and conservatives, accused Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg of conducting a “witch hunt” to target a political opponent in a presidential campaign year.
Former Democratic Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, like Maddow, compared the indictment of former President Donald Trump to Fort Sumter.
“What they’re doing now to President Trump at the major league level is not only frightening, but I would say, the most threatening thing to our republic since South Carolina fired shots at Fort Sumter that started the civil war. This is a very serious thing,” he said on “Tucker Carlson Tonight.”
WATCH:
Republican Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a major champion of Trump’s, accused Democrats of wanting to start a civil war.
“Democrats want civil war,” Greene said. “They want to push us into reacting so they can use their weaponized government to lock us all up. They know Trump did not break the law. They know more than anyone because they’ve been trying for years to find a way to put him in jail and they can’t. But now they have a complete fool that is deranged enough to try because he is backed by Soros. And Soros wants war to destabilize America and gain full control.”
Democrats want civil war.
They want to push us into reacting so they can use their weaponized government to lock us all up.
They know Trump did not break the law. They know more than anyone because they’ve been trying for years to find a way to put him in jail and they can’t.…— Marjorie Taylor Greene 🇺🇸 (@mtgreenee) March 31, 2023
Eddie Glaude, a professor of African-American studies at Princeton University, told MSNBC host Chris Jansing that Democrats and Republicans are in a “cold civil war” over the indictment.
“We are in a cold civil war,” Glaude said Friday. “There’s no doubt about it, and that cold civil war falls along the lines of Republican and Democrat and that of course has racial and class undertones and overtones, but we’re in a cold civil war. We can’t deny that, and Trump is an avatar.”
American Majority CEO Ned Ryun made the same claim to Daily Caller co-founder Tucker Carlson Thursday night. He accused Democrats of “launching nukes” at conservatives and Republicans.
“We’re in a Cold War, Civil War era in this country in which we have to decide to commit to the policy of Mutually Assured Destruction. Democrats are launching nukes at us. We better start launching nukes back at them until they stop,” he said.
