Former FBI Director James Comey said Friday on ABC’s “The View” that President Donald Trump and his enablers radicalized his supporters with “constant lying” in the same way Al-Qaeda radicalized terrorists.
Co-host Sunny Hostin asked, “Director Comey, pro-Trump rioters stormed the Capitol to protest Trump losing the election. How much of what we saw should be blamed on Trump’s radicalization message of a rigged and stolen election, and what about the rioters who stormed the Capitol? Do you consider them to be domestic terrorists?”
Comey said, “First, they are terrorists. They are people bent on coercing a civilian government, attacking our democracy because of their warped view of reality. The reason their view is warped is because of the president’s lies, and it’s not just the lie about the election, which is the prime mover for this attack on Capitol Hill. It’s four years of constant lying about the virus, about our institutions, about our courts, about our democracy. The demagogue’s lies have great power, especially when they’re echoed by his enablers in the Senate and the House and the media. This is how Al-Qaeda radicalized, a constant torrent of lies at vulnerable people.”
He added, “We have millions of vulnerable people in this country who have consumed these lies, and some portion of them have been radicalized to the point where they believe they’re on the side of the angels who have to engage in violence directed against us. So it’s a serious threat. It’s a terrorism threat. Donald Trump and his enablers —we want to make sure we keep the receipts because a lot of people are going to deny they had any connection to it come a few months from now, but that group of people is a radicalized group of terrorists.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.