Another Trump supporter arrested for threatening to kill Democrats

Police arrested a New York man on Tuesday after he allegedly made threats on social media to kill Democrats and demanded a violent coup. The arrest comes as Donald Trump eggs on his supporters to fight his election loss.

According to NBC News, the accused said “carnage needs to come in the form of extermination of anyone that claims to be a democrat,” endorsed a violent coup to stop Joe Biden from taking office as president, and talked of killing Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.

The New York Times reported that the man’s focus on Schumer was specific: He referred to “the Jew Senator from Jew York” and referred to “The Turner Diaries,” a notoriously antisemitic and racist anti-government novel beloved of white nationalists and neo-Nazis.

Donald Trump has not only denied that he was defeated in the 2020 election, but also urged his supporters to take measures to assist that denial. Last week, his campaign told them to “DEFEND YOUR PRESIDENT,” falsely claiming that “DEMOCRATS PLAN TO STEAL THE ELECTION!”

Just two days earlier, he tweeted that counting all the votes in Pennsylvania would “allow rampant and unchecked cheating and will undermine our entire systems of laws” and “induce violence in the streets.”

Last week, Trump supporters on right-wing social media were predicting “actual civil war” would begin soon.

On Sunday, local media reported that Trump supporters dressed in the regalia of right-wing extremist groups threatened counterprotesters at a rally outside the Nevada State Capitol building in Carson City, promising to punch their teeth out, stab them, and kill them. In Oregon, the county Democratic Party headquarters in Portland was vandalized.

Since Election Day, law enforcement have arrested a man for threatening a mass shooting should Biden prevail, and a pair of armed men who allegedly approached a vote-counting station in Philadelphia.

Last month, a Maryland man was arrested for making violent threats against Biden and Kamala Harris.

Throughout his time in the White House, Trump has inspired and encouraged right-wing extremists toward political violence.

In 2017, he praised white nationalists after their deadly attacks at a Charlottesville, Virginia, rally, claiming there were “some very fine people on both sides.”

In 2018, a supporter mailed pipe bombs to Democratic officials and Trump critics. Trump first praised the man’s arrest, but then groused that press coverage of “‘Bomb’ stuff” hurt Republicans in the midterm elections.

In 2019, a man with a “manifesto” laden with Trump’s favorite anti-immigrant and anti-media terms shot and killed 23 and injured 22 more at a Texas Walmart.

This August, a pro-Trump teen was charged with multiple murders of Black Lives Matter protesters in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Trump defended the accused shooter, suggesting that he had acted in self defense and blaming the “thugs” protesting systemic racism.

More recently, he encouraged a violent white nationalist group to “stand back and stand by” rather than denouncing their violent tactics and demanded that Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer give in to the armed mobs storming the state Capitol building to protest pandemic safety rules. After Trump urged his backers to “liberate” Michigan, several people were arrested in a conspiracy to kidnap Whitmer.

On Tuesday evening, Trump tweeted, “People will not accept this Rigged Election!” He has produced no evidence of any fraud in the voting or vote counting.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.