Having spent the past week inflaming the base over the FBI search of Mar-a-Lago, Republican leaders are getting exactly what they invited: threats against law enforcement and at least one actual attack that resulted in the attacker’s death. The lesson of Jan. 6, 2021 — that some of former President Donald Trump’s most radical followers will convert dangerous words into dangerous action — seems to have been lost these elected officials. They must decide which side they’re on: Law and order, or chaos and death. There is no middle ground.
The man who tried to get into a Cincinnati FBI field office last week with a nail gun and AR-15-style rifle, and who was later killed by police, was apparently driven by fury over the Aug. 8 federal search of Trump’s Florida home for classified documents. The FBI has since seen an unprecedented spike in death threats against federal agents and others, including the judge who issued the warrant.
These threats of violence from Trump’s perpetually aggrieved MAGA base were utterly predictable. Yet from the moment Trump himself publicized the search with his usual hyperbole and cries of victimhood, prominent GOP officeholders, including some top Missouri Republicans, have fanned the anger with inflammatory and often false narratives.
