CUMMING, Ga. — Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday doubled down on his comments from the weekend in which he referred to Democrats as the “enemy from within.”
During a recorded town hall of all-female voters in Cumming, Georgia, with Fox News’ Harris Faulkner, the host asked Trump about his “enemy from within” comment he made last weekend on the network’s “Sunday Morning Futures.”
During that interview, Trump told host Maria Bartiromo that California Rep. Adam Schiff and other Democrats were “crazies” and a greater threat to the U.S. than foreign adversaries like Russia or China.
“I always say, we have two enemies,” Trump said, adding, “We have the enemy from without, and then we have the enemy from within, and the enemy from within, in my opinion, is more dangerous than China, Russia and Russia. all these countries.”
He also suggested that the military could be called in to deal with any unrest on election day by “radical left-wing lunatics.”
Trump doubled down on those comments during his town hall on Tuesday night, also calling Democrats “evil” and “dangerous.”
“They are Marxists and communists and fascists, and they are sick,” Trump added. “We have China, we have Russia, we have all these countries. If you have a smart president, they can all be dealt with. The harder ones are, you know, the Pelosis, these people, they’re so sick and they’re so bad,” Trump said.
The town hall will air Wednesday at 11 a.m.
Vice President Kamala Harris has used Trump’s comments against him this week, calling a second Trump term “dangerous” at a rally in Pennsylvania and releasing an ad titled “Enemy Within.”
Harris called Trump “increasingly unstable and unhinged,” and said he plans to use the military against American citizens and is “hungry for unchecked power.”
“A second Trump term is a huge risk for America,” she told supporters in Erie, Pennsylvania.
Faulkner gave Trump a chance on Tuesday to clarify his comments during the town hall taping, asking him how he responded to Harris’ claims that he was “unhinged” and “out for unchecked power.”
Trump defended his comments, calling them “a nice presentation.”
“I wasn’t unhinged,” Trump said.
He also doubled down on his claims about Schiff, who led the prosecution in his first Senate impeachment trial.
“I use a guy like Adam Schiff because they made up the Russia-Russia hoax,” Trump said. “It took two years to solve the problem. Absolutely nothing wrong has been done, etc, etc. They are dangerous to our country.”
Asked to comment on Trump’s comments on Tuesday, a spokesperson for Schiff pointed to a pair of posts on X that the congressman made in response to Trump’s interview on Sunday.
“Donald Trump openly threatens to call in the military to suppress his political opponents,” reads one of the messages. “We must defeat him in November and never let him achieve his dictatorial ambitions.”
Representatives for Harris and Pelosi’s campaigns did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
