When someone tells you they’re fascist, believe them.
By Mark Jacob
Right-wing rhetoric seems to get more radical and outrageous all the time.
Americans can be forgiven if they sometimes wonder: “Did they really say that? Maybe it’s made up. No one would really say that, would they?” Well, here are quotes that they really, really said.
The takeaway: When fascists tell you they’re fascists, believe them.
Donald Trump: “Massive Fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution.”
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis: “We’re going to start slitting throats on Day 1.”
Rep. Matt Gaetz: “We know that only through force can we make any change.”
Arizona state Sen. Wendy Rogers: “We need to build more gallows.”
Rep. Andy Biggs: “We have now reached a war phase. An eye for an eye.”
Rudy Giuliani: “Let’s have trial by combat.”
Steve Bannon: “Lenin wanted to destroy the state, and that’s my goal too. I want to bring everything crashing down, and destroy all of today’s establishment.”
Also Steve Bannon: “Second term kicks off with firing [FBI chief Christopher] Wray, firing [health adviser Anthony] Fauci. Now, I actually want to go a step farther. … I’d actually like to go back to the old times of Tudor England, I’d put the heads on pikes, right, I’d put them at the two corners of the White House as a warning to federal bureaucrats.”
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene: “If Steve Bannon and I had organized that [Jan. 6], we would have won. Not to mention, it would have been armed.”
Joseph diGenova, Trump ally: “We are in a civil war.”
Michigan state Rep. Matt Maddock: “If the government continues to weaponize these departments against conservatives … someone’s going to get so pissed off, they’re going to shoot someone. Or we’re going have a civil war or some sort of revolution.”
Ex-Rep. Steve King: “America is heading in the direction of another Harpers Ferry. After that comes Ft. Sumter.”
Ex-Rep. Madison Cawthorn: “If our election systems continue to be rigged and continue to be stolen, then it’s gonna lead to one place, and that’s bloodshed.”
Kari Lake, defeated Arizona governor candidate: “If you want to get to President Trump, you’re going to have to go through me, and you’re going to have to go through 75 million Americans just like me. And I’m going to tell you, most of us are card-carrying members of the NRA. That’s not a threat, that’s a public service announcement.”
Ex-Rep. Louie Gohmert, after losing an election-challenge lawsuit: “In effect, the ruling would be that you got to go to the streets and be as violent as Antifa and [Black Lives Matter].”
Charlie Kirk, right-wing radio host: “Joe Biden … should honestly be put in prison and/or given the death penalty for his crimes against America.”
Michael Flynn, Trump’s former national security adviser: “Did you know that a governor can declare war? And we’re … probably going to see that.”
Also Michael Flynn: “If we are going to have one nation under God, which we must, we have to have one religion. One nation under God, and one religion under God.”
Rep. Lauren Boebert: “I’m tired of this ‘separation of church and state’ junk.”
Laura Loomer, Trump ally: “Muslims should not even be allowed to seek positions of political office in this country.”
Nick Fuentes, a neo-Nazi who dined with Trump: “You know what democracy has given us? Obesity. Low rates of literacy. It’s given us divorce, abortion, gay marriage, liberalism, pornography. … That’s what democracy has given us. Ghettos and crime and political correctness. Diversity. Yeah, the track record of democracy? Not so good.”