On Saturday night, Donald Trump delivered a speech at the annual conference for the right wing young Republican nonprofit Turning Point USA, and it was… a lot. And on Sunday morning, MSNBC’s Ali Velshi warned that in the speech Trump “was basically openly plotting how he’s going to weaponize the government.”
“We are dangerously close to Donald Trump rising to power again, and finishing what he started when he tried to overturn the results of the last presidential election,” Velshi said also.
We’re not going to show the speech here, but we’ll note just that while speaking, Trump: Lied about the law concerning classified documents; lied about what Washington, D.C. was like when he was president; vowed to expand his travel bans related to ethnicity and religion to include left wing political affiliation; claimed he threatened Vladimir Putin with war; bragged about his criminal indictments; and repeatedly vowed to essentially use the power of the federal government to exact revenge for losing in 2020 and for being indicted.
That last part is what had Velshi worried.
“We do not typically air Donald Trump’s speeches live, and on this show we are judicious about even clips from his rallies and always either with, or for, the proper conduct or discussion,” Velshi said.
“That’s because Donald Trump lies so frequently. We all learned on January 6 that those lies can fuel very real violence. We’ve also learned that the sting from the poison of Trump’s lies gets duller the more frequently you’re exposed to it. But as journalists, we also have a duty to bear witness when our nation is in peril, to shine a light on the dark path that Donald Trump and his allies and enablers take us down,” he said.
“And that is the moment at which we find ourselves this morning,” Velshi continued, turning to the topic of Trump’s speech the night before. “I’ll admit to being a little surprised, late last night, that anything Donald Trump can say can surprise me anymore, but this is some nasty stuff. Last night speech was dangerous for the truths that Donald Trump told as it was for the lies. And there were lies, to be sure.”
“But the truth is that we are dangerously close to Donald Trump rising to power again, and finishing what he started when he tried to overturn the results of the last presidential election and take over the government in contravention of the will of the American people. And if you listen closely to his 99 minute speech from last night, he was basically openly plotting how he’s going to weaponize the government, by cleaning house and firing anyone that his administration considers an enemy or insufficiently loyal to Trump self serving agenda.
