Members of the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol have warned America for three years to take former President Donald Trump at his word.

Now, as Trump is poised to win the Republican presidential nomination, his criminal trials face delays that could stall them past Election Day, and his rhetoric grows increasingly authoritarian, some of those lawmakers find themselves following their own advice.

In mid-March, Trump said on social media that the committee members should be jailed. In December he vowed to be a dictator on “day one.” In August, he said he would “have no choice” but to lock up his political opponents.

“If he intends to eliminate our constitutional system and start arresting his political enemies, I guess I would be on that list,” said Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-San Jose). “One thing I did learn on the committee is to pay attention and listen to what Trump says, because he means it.”

Lofgren added that she doesn’t yet have a plan in place to thwart potential retribution by Trump. But Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Burbank), who has long been a burr in Trump’s side, said he’s having “real-time conversations” with his staff about how to make sure he stays safe if Trump follows through on his threats.

“We’re taking this seriously, because we have to,” Schiff said. “We’ve seen this movie before … and how perilous it is to ignore what someone is saying when they say they want to be a dictator.”

  • barrbaric [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    9 months ago

    Look, it’d be great to abolish the death penalty, the army, and the current version of the government in favor of something more equitable and humane. But that’s not the world we live in. Last year cops killed over 1000 people. In the america of today, under the laws that exist today, why should Trump not be killed?

    • delirious_owl@discuss.online
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      9 months ago

      I dont hear an argument for why we can’t lock them all up in a nice facility with access to educational programs and other social services to help them be rehabilitated.

      Trump and most police need a lot of therapy and a proper education about US and world history.

      Empty all of the prisons of folks charged with victimless “crimes” and you have plenty of space for white collar criminals and 99% of the police officers

      • blakeus12 [he/him]@hexbear.net
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        9 months ago

        hey, i can tell you’re a good faith user and that’s really great, we need more of those. thank you for that.

        nobody is saying that what you’re arguing for isn’t a good thing, most people on hexbear would agree. their point is we can’t just have that for rich assholes like trump, we should have that for everyone, and that’s what should be happening. but the Democrats aren’t going to do that. so to deal with him, at least for now, treat him like they do everyone who’s jailed in america

      • duderium [he/him]@hexbear.net
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        9 months ago

        None of what you advocate can happen without revolution, and as a certain philosopher and activist said, “a revolution is not a dinner party.” It will be violent, and many people will die.

        You can either have that, or you can have the Democrats/Republicans pretending to be the party of civility while they commit genocide. No ruling class in history has ever given up power peacefully.

        • delirious_owl@discuss.online
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          9 months ago

          Aren’t most people convicted in the US charged with “victimless crimes”?

          Sorry, but white collar criminals embezzling from pension funds and doing mortgage lending fraud causes immense harm. Possessing a specific species of flowers doesnt do harm.

          • radiofreeval [any]@hexbear.net
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            9 months ago

            No, most people imprisoned in the US are charged with victim-having violent crime (as of 2020). The order goes violent crimes(650k), property crime(150k), drug crimes(130k, and public order crimes(100k). This data is going off state prisoners so it will bias towards long sentences, but not by a factor of six.

            Looking at incidents (not arrests or convictions) reported by police over the past decade, you see violent crime decrease but property crime increase. For the past decade there have been 30m property crime incidents, 6m drug crime incidents and 4m violent crime incidents.