An interview with NAACP chief Derrick Johnson published in the far-left Salon on Tuesday focuses on the recent NAACP lawsuit against former President Trump for his “attempted coup.”
Johnson alleges the “coup” was “facilitated by right-wing fundraising groups and financiers,” while claiming domestic terrorism “has the face of a white male” and comparing those involved in the early January Capitol riot with al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks.
Without providing any evidence, politics staff writer Chauncey DeVega begins the interview by claiming that “Trump appointees at the highest levels” appear to have “prevented the National Guard from intervening in a timely and effective manner to stop the attack on the Capitol.”
“In a just society, Donald Trump, his fellow coup plotters, and their various foot soldiers and accomplices would be arrested, tried, convicted and then imprisoned,” DeVegas continues.
Last month, the NAACP filed a suit against Trump and several others, including his attorney Rudy Giuliani, for “allegedly conspiring to incite” January’s attack on the Capitol.
DeVega’s conversation with Johnson focuses on how the lawsuit “fits into a broader effort to confront the country’s centuries-long history of white supremacist terrorism against nonwhite people.”
Commenting on the use by the NAACP of the Reconstruction-era Ku Klux Klan Act that was passed in response to KKK violence and prohibits violence or intimidation meant to prevent Congress or other federal officials from carrying out their constitutional duties, to ensure “accountability and consequences” for the Capitol riot “and Trump’s coup,” Johnson stated that their goal is to do everything possible “to hold the insurrectionists accountable.”
According to DeVega, Johnson argues that “Trump’s presidency and white right-wing terrorism in general are a byproduct function of the way white Americans were enraged by Barack Obama’s presidency and his success as a Black person and an American leader.”
Johnson added that Trump is “perhaps the most unqualified person in the history of this country,” while Barack Obama “is perhaps the most qualified person to ever hold that office.”
Asked how he feels now that “Biden is president, but Donald Trump and his right-wing insurgency are still menacing the country,” Johnson claimed that the country is at an “inflection” point.
“We cannot have a democracy and white supremacy,” he stated, adding that social media has “hurt American democracy” during these last four years.
Regarding “accountability and responsibility” for the “Trump regime’s apparent crimes” as well as the events of January 6, Johnson stated that those involved in the Capitol riot committed “crimes of sedition and a failed coup” and should be “held and punished to the extent necessary.”
“There has to be an aggressive approach to deal with domestic terrorism in this country,” he stated, adding that such terrorism has “always carried the banner of white supremacist behavior.”
Domestic terrorism, Johnson says, “has the face of a white male” who “must be held accountable.”
“The fallacy of white supremacy is that their skin privilege somehow endowed them with skills that they simply did not have,” he added.
“We have to cut the head off the serpent of white supremacy,” he continued, claiming that just as the U.S. is willing to sacrifice troops to “defeat international terrorism,” it should do the same domestically “with the insurrectionists.”
“We should hold the insurrectionists accountable as if they were al-Qaida or Osama bin Laden coming to America and causing havoc,” he said.
Asked when blacks will have love reciprocated for “saving American democracy over and over again,” Johnson states that “because of our investment as Black people, it is my drive and hope that we see ourselves as owners of the United States government and not victims of it.”
The interview comes as some Democrats and the liberal media continue to target conservatives and paint Trump supporters as terrorists and Nazis, despite previous calls for “healing” and “unity.”
Last month, several “national security experts” interviewed for an essay in The Root attacked the Republican Party, claiming it behaves “like a terror group,” is rife with “terrorist sympathizers,” and should be viewed as “enemy combatants.”
Last month, The Los Angeles Times published an op-ed addressing the struggle to “resist demands for unity” in the face of acts of “aggressive niceness” on the part of friendly Trump supporters who are compared to terror organizations who “offer protection and hospitality” and “polite” Nazis.
In a recent video created by left-wing novelist Don Winslow, citizens are called upon to become cyber detectives to monitor and report fellow citizen Trump supporters to authorities while comparing the work of this “army of citizens” to that which led to the capture of al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden.
The clip, which received over four million views, claims the greatest threat facing America today emanates from “radical extreme conservatives, also known as domestic terrorists” hidden among us.
A video clip released in January by the left-wing MeidasTouch PAC brands Republican Party members as “traitors” unworthy of being called conservatives ,while describing the GOP as “no different” from the ISIS terror group.
Also in January, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) dubbed members of Congress who seek to protect themselves with firearms the “enemy.”
“We will probably need a supplemental for more security for members when the enemy is within the House of Representatives, in addition to what is happening outside,” she said.
Follow Joshua Klein on Twitter @JoshuaKlein.