Our most recent book is titled Divided We Stand: The 2020 Elections and American Politics. Among other things, it discusses the state of the parties. The state of the GOP is not good. Trump and his minions falsely claimed that he won the election, and have kept repeating the Big Lie. And we now know how close he came to subverting the Constitution.
He is planning an authoritarian agenda and would take care to eliminate any internal dissent.
Former president Donald Trump — convicted in criminal court, held liable in civil courts and facing other indictments — has told supporters, “I am your retribution,” and now it appears he has a “future secretary of retribution.”
That’s how Ivan Raiklin, a retired Army Reserve lieutenant colonel and former U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency employee, bills himself, according to a report by Rawstory.com.
If Trump is re-elected, Raiklin wants to enlist so-called “constitutional” sheriffs in rural, conservative counties across the country to lock up Trump’s political enemies. He lusts for “live-streamed swatting raids” against Trump’s political enemies on his “Deep State target list.”
The report has sent shivers through those who oppose Trump’s pledge for revenge.
“This is a deadly serious report,” Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Maryland) told Raw Story. “A retired U.S. military officer has drawn up a ‘Deep State target list’ of public officials he considers traitors, along with our family members and staff. His hit list is a vigilante death warrant for hundreds of Americans and a clear and present danger to the survival of American democracy and freedom.”
Rawstory says Raiklins list, which has been circulating since January, “is extensive” and “includes numerous Democratic and Republican elected officials; FBI and intelligence officials; members of the House Select January 6 Committee; U.S. Capitol Police officers and civilian employees; witnesses in Trump’s two impeachment trials and the Jan. 6 committee hearings; and journalists from publications ranging from CNN and the Washington Post to Reuters and Raw Story — all considered political enemies of Trump.
Rawstory says it won’t publish the list of specific names for fear of sparking violence against them.
