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Trump issued a siren call on Saturday for his supporters to “protest” and “take our nation back.”
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He called after claiming without evidence that he will be arrested on Tuesday.
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His lawyers and advisers say they know nothing about an impending arrest.
Former President Donald Trump called on his backers to “protest” and “take our nation back” in a capitalized Truth Social post Saturday predicting his own arrest despite a lack of evidence that he has previously been charged in an ongoing case. grand jury in New York.
Citing “illegal leaks,” Trump wrote that he “will be arrested next Tuesday.”
“PROTEST, TAKE OUR NATION BACK!” he added, in an ominous echo of the words leading up to the deadly January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol.
He continued in a second post in all caps, writing, “IT’S TIME!!!”
“WE JUST CANNOT ALLOW THIS ANYMORE,” Trump wrote. “THEY ARE KILLING OUR NATION WHILE WE SIT BACK AND WATCH. WE MUST SAVE AMERICA! PROTEST, PROTEST, PROTEST!!!”
Trump’s extreme rhetoric was reminiscent of his infamous December 2020 tweet asking followers to assemble at the Capitol on January 6 to prevent Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s election victory. “Be there, will be wild!” Trump tweeted at the time.
Trump’s lawyers and advisers said they have no indication the former president will be arrested Tuesday.
“President Trump is basing this on press reports,” his attorney, Susan Necheles, told Insider.
“This is a political prosecution and the prosecutor is leaking things to the press instead of communicating with the lawyers properly,” Necheles said.
That’s what a Trump spokesman said in a separate statement that the Manhattan district attorney’s office has given “no notice” of an impending arrest. The statement added that Trump “will be in Texas next weekend for a giant rally.”
Still, the former president’s most ardent supporters supported him.
Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a far-right firefighter and one of Trump’s staunchest loyalists, said in a tweet following Trump’s statement that the GOP is “fed up with the base of Republicans not standing up for the people and against the Democrats’ war against Trump, his administration, his supporters, and traditional values.”
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy threatened the Manhattan district attorney’s office with investigations.
“Here we go again – an outrageous abuse of power by a radical prosecutor who lets violent criminals go free while pursuing political revenge against President Trump,” McCarthy tweeted. “I am directing relevant committees to immediately investigate whether federal funds are being used to undermine our democracy by interfering in elections with politically motivated prosecutions.”
In a message Accompanied by an ominous image, Trump’s oldest son, Donald Trump Jr., falsely claimed that if his father were indicted, it would mean the government would then focus on individual freedoms.
“If they can take him out, they’re one step closer to taking out you and your freedoms…and apparently that’s been the plan all along,” Trump Jr. wrote.
Representative Matt Gaetz said the “upcoming indictment is based on an untested, tortured legal theory” and must be “seen for the partisan pathetic trick that it is.”
Right wing commentator Dan Bongino said: “The police state is here,” adding that it’s a story he expects to come from North Korea.
Trump spokeswoman Liz Harrington called the allegations – which appear not to have been made – “false”.
“Only failed third world countries try to arrest the political opposition on false charges. Bad people try to destroy America, but they won’t win!” Harrington said in a Telegram post.
Read the original article on Business Insider
