Former White House press secretary Jen Psaki and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., expressed fear about former President Trump’s rhetoric following the two assassination attempts he’s survived in just over two months.
Warren appeared on MSNBC’s “Inside With Jen Psaki” on Monday to discuss Trump telling his supporters to “fight” after nearly being assassinated twice, the second incident happening just a day prior to their conversation.
“And you hear this ‘fight, fight, fight’ chant, which you heard Trump do right after the shooting in Butler. We saw that once again on TRUTH Social,” the host said to Warren, adding, “That does scare me a little bit.”
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Psaki was referring to Trump’s immediate reaction to the first attempt against his life at a rally in Pennsylvania in July, where he immediately jumped to his feet after being shot in the ear and told his supporters to “fight, fight, fight.”
The day after the second attempt on his life, Trump posted a campaign ad to his TRUTH Social account captioned with his Pennsylvania rallying cry, “FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT!!!!!”
Warren agreed with Psaki that Trump’s rhetoric was scary. Before sharing her feelings about his behavior, she did acknowledge that she has used the term “fight” as political rhetoric, but insisted that hers was not an allusion to violence, whereas Trump’s could be.
“So, I have to say – look, I’m a fighter. I have written books that talk about fighting,” she began, referencing her two books, “You Don’t Get What You Don’t Fight For,” and “This Fight is Our Fight.”
She continued, “But I mean [fight] with words. That’s all that this means. In a democracy, we need to be able to go back and forth with our words. We need to be able to disagree and to put those issues in front of the American people. That’s how we inform people about our positions. That’s how we get back in and make a decision that the majority of Americans want. And it’s only by talking about those.”
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She then argued that Trump doesn’t get the same benefit of the doubt, stating, “But that is very, very different from a man who incited an insurrection, a man who refers to his political rivals as vermin, a man who has said just in recent days that he wants to lock up the people who don’t agree with him.”
“That is a very, very different kind of approach not just to politics, but to democracy, and one that ultimately does put our democracy at risk, puts us all at risk,” the progressive lawmaker added.
Warren went on to say she wants both Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris to be “fully protected,” but insisted that people should not forget about Trump’s policies amid the attempts on his life.
“We need to keep this open so people talk and people are able to make a decision. Do you want a candidate who’s embracing a nationwide abortion ban? He wants to lie about it, wants to pretend, because he knows it’s unpopular, but won’t say that, no, he would — he would veto an abortion ban? No, he’s not going to say that,” she said.
Warren added, “He’s still going to wink and nod at his extremist groups. Or do you want someone who just flatly puts it out there and says, give me a chance, as Kamala Harris does, and I will sign protection for access to abortion and IVF into law?”
