Huckabee: 2024 will be last election ‘decided by ballots rather than bullets’ if Trump loses over legal cases
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R) on Wednesday said 2024 will be the last election “decided by ballots rather than bullets” if former President Trump doesn’t win the presidential race because of his various legal battles.
In the latest episode of his show on TBN, Huckabee argued the legal woes now facing Trump are part of a politically motivated scheme from the Biden administration, an argument touted by many in the former president’s orbit.
“If these tactics end up working to keep Trump from winning or even running in 2024, it is going to be the last American election that will be decided by ballots rather than bullets,” Huckabee warned in his opening monologue.
Huckabee accused President Biden and his team of trying “to make sure that Donald Trump is not his opponent in 2024″ and “to destroy Trump in the courthouse rather than at the ballot box.” He also alleged the Justice Department, the IRS and the FBI are “conspiring to hide the Biden family crimes, while all the time being obsessed with charging Donald Trump with crimes.”
These aren't even veiled threats anymore. These are actual, out-in-the-open threats and they continue to happen because Democrats aren't doing anything about them.
Within hours of Huckabee making these threats, the FBI or Secret Service should be parading him in the streets with handcuffs on as they bring him in for questioning. Make an example of him, Palin and all the other right wing lunatics that are threatening our democracy.
But as usual, we give right wing lunatics a free-pass and then wonder why they continue to escalate this issue.
And meanwhile, Trump is openly stating that his second term would be a revenge tour where he'll arrest anyone who opposes him. He doesn't care if there are any actual crimes committed because he thinks opposing him is a crime in itself.
Thus fascism. And a good 1/4 to 1/3 of the country agrees with him, and the remaining 3/4 to 2/3 of the country either have no idea what is happening or are too busy bickering amongst themselves.
We will look back on the Dems the same way we look at the socdems in Germany who put up almost no resistance to the Nazis coming to power. I'd love to be wrong.
I unfortunately have to agree to some extent.
There are so few Dems out there who are willing to duke it out with the Right. I don't blame Biden for not stooping down to the level of tweeting insults to the Right. He's president and thus should appear presidential not like his clown of a predecessor. But for fucks sakes there should be someone in the Democratic party that instigates the Right and is willing to play dirty and call them out on their shit. AOC was a firecracker and even when I disagreed with her, I loved that she would duke it out with any Republican. But there are so few others.
Lawmaker Jasmine Crockett from Texas of all places also comes to mind! Her direct, no bullshit approach calling out MTG with the receipts along with her personality has me rooting for her every time
There aren't many. There is an Asian Democrat from CA (Lieu or something like that) who throws out some jabs once in a while. Dems used to have more aggressive members, but in their infinite wisdom, they are quick to turn on their own for the flimsiest of reasons - Al Franken comes to mind. He wasn't so much as agressive, as simply being great at connecting with voters. But he's now gone. Slim pickings now.
What you're seeing is the neoliberal (i.e., moderately conservative) wing of the party systematically suppressing the actual leftist wing of the party. You say "in their infinite wisdom" as if it's a mistake, but they don't see it as one.
Spare me the nonsense. The left couldn't win elections in the bluest cities in the bluest counties in the bluest states and yet somehow the Dems are supposed to fall over themselves to support far-left causes??? Why? Where is the incentive? The Left time and time and time again proves they can't bring in the voters. And to be clear, I would like it if Dems had more liberal members, but I know what the reality is. Something that far too many people on the Left simply refuse to admit - the Left doesn't have the numbers. So you can claim some conspiracy-level nonsense about "systematically suppressing" blah-blah-blah, but votes win elections, and if you don't win elections, you as a political party have no power to enact laws.
I am happy to vote and support more centrist politicians who I might agree with on 80+% of the issues out there and can actually WIN elections, than hold out for some unicorn candidate who I agree with on all issues, but has no chance in bloody hell of winning anything. Because ultimately the alternative is some far-right douchebag who I agree with probably less than 10% of the time on various issues.
Terroristic threats, in my mind. I don't understand why we let them get away with shit like this.
Because Democrats are cowards and will do anything to stop confrontation. Democrats are the nerds in school who were endlessly picked on my the Republican bullies.
When you step back and look at American politics in that perspective, a whole lot of things start to make sense.
They get a free pass because large chunks of the FBI and Secret Service agree with them.
I'm not sure that's wise. Using authoritarian tactics on them is just going to amplify their persecution complex, and create an opportunity for martyrdom.
The best we can do here is point out the dangerous language, and get these people under surveillance. If and when their followers do make a move, that's when you build the case and bring them in.
I can understand the problems of so many spouting these sorts of lies and calls to action, though. It is a serious threat to national security. The solution here is a quick, but well documented trial of Donald Trump and his cronies. Throw anyone in our government (R, D, etc.) that's violated the law out, and if need be, imprison them.
We desperately need to make examples of those who are creating instability with their crimes and lies. But they have to break the law in a very clear way, and we need evidence.
The FBI is pretty openly run by Republicans. They don't go after their own.
Gimme a break. That's such a pedestrian view of law enforcement. They had no problem raiding Mar A Lago.
Two years late, after having given Trump myriad undeserved opportunities to get out of it despite him thumbing his nose at them every time instead, and only because the offenses were so egregious that they had no other choice?
I'm sorry, but I have to disagree here. We cannot allow ourselves to be dragged down to the level of accusing anyone who says something inflammatory with making terroristic threats. What he said was remarkably stupid, but not threatening.
Huckabee said two things. He parrotted the right-wing talking points alleging a huge Biden conspiracy, and he said that if Trump doesn't win, there will be violence.
Parrotting Trump's talking points isn't illegal. Profoundly stupid, but not illegal. If that were allowed, 95% of the GOP would be locked up behind bars.
And take a look at January 6th. Take a look at all the political violence over the past couple of years. Atlanta went into pseudo-lockdown a couple of weeks ago when Trump was arrested because the threat of violence was (and continues to be) very real. MAGA nuts have been attacking everything from FBI offices to libraries. The "bullets instead of ballots" bit wasn't a terroristic threat -- it's the reality of the situation: If Trump loses, for any reason, or is kept off the ballot through the 14th amendment, there is the very real likelihood that rioting will follow. Acknowledging reality isn't necessarily acknowledging support for that reality, or advocating it. It's simply acknowledging the reality of the situation.
There was no implied threat by Huckabee. He doesn't have the following Trump has. People are not going to be willing to follow him right into a jail cell. He wasn't saying that he'd be leading the charge or anything. He just said that if Trump loses, there will be violence in the streets. And strictly on that point alone, I agree with him. I do believe that Trump either being disqualified from the election or losing it will cause violence. Saying that doesn't make either of us terrorists, even if the rest of what he said was abhorrent.
I'm a registered Republican and at this point, that sounds like an improvement. Fuck all the spineless Republicans that have refused to call Trump out, and I have worse thoughts about Trump and his congressional supporters.
This is about as threatening as people advocating "eat the rich" or destroying American imperialism. Threatening a system is not and should not be illegal, only a person.
Not really. Eat the rich comes from the saying "when there's nothing left to eat, the poor eat the rich". Huckabee is advocating for actual violence in the name of a conspiracy theory. That's a false equivalency.