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Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., has said her plan is to join the New York Young Republican Club for a “peaceful protest” on behalf of indicted former President Donald Trump on Tuesday, coinciding with his arraignment in Manhattan.
Of course, Tuesday won’t be a truly peaceful protest unless you think violent threats don’t constitute violence. If, on the other hand, violent threats concern you, then you’ll want to know a bit more about the relationship between Greene and the New York group.
Trump arraignment: Follow our live blog beginning at 10 a.m. ET on Tuesday for the latest updates and analysis on Trump’s arrest in New York.
As the Southern Poverty Law Center notes, Greene appeared at a gala the New York Young Republican Club hosted in December for adherents to the far right. This gala is where Greene declared that if she and fellow right-winger Steve Bannon had planned the Jan. 6 insurrection, it “would’ve been armed” and they “would have won.”
Remember: Former Trump White House staffer Cassidy Hutchinson testified to the House Jan. 6 committee that ahead of the Capitol riot, Greene told then-President Trump that she expected QAnon supporters to be be there. And at least one of those supporters, indeed, got violent.
But that’s almost beside the point here. Greene’s remarks at the gala indicated her continued flirtation with, and tacit endorsement of, pro-Trump violence. The NYYRC’s president, Gavin Wax, went even further that evening, claiming “we want total war” and saying conservatives need to be prepared “to do battle” everywhere — including “in the streets.”
That brings us to Tuesday’s protest. After news of Trump’s indictment broke last week, the NYYRC released a deranged statement, which borrows some of the same wartime language Wax used previously and adds some truly sycophantic remarks:
President Trump embodies the American people—our psyche from id to super-ego—as does no other figure; his soul is totally bonded with our core values and emotions, and he is our total and indisputable champion.
What a self-own. I won’t speak for you, but I’m certainly not embodied by a bigoted, septuagenarian man-child who has publicly pondered a romantic relationship with his own daughter.
If this man is totally bonded with your core values and emotions, you’re desperately in need of new values and emotions.
But perhaps the most important takeaway comes at the end of the statement, when the group alleges there’s a “Deep State” plot to deny them their right to assemble — and foreshadows conflict to come.
“This is Total War,” they claim in bold.
Not a partial war. Not a proxy war. A total war.
Many have been quick to dismiss or downplay the potential for Trump supporters to stoke violence reminiscent of Jan. 6 in response to his indictment. I’m not sure that doing so is justified, given the words that have come from these supporters’ own mouths.