NBC News’ Frank Figliuzzi Warns Supreme Court Decision Could Strengthen Trump and Potential for Violence
NBC News National Security Contributor Frank Figliuzzi told SiriusXM host Dean Obeidallah that the failure of President Donald Trump’s attempt to overturn the election could heighten the potential for violence, not quash it.
On Friday’s edition of The Dean Obeidallah Show, the host talked with Figliuzzi, a former FBI assistant director, about the Supreme Court’s rejection of the Trump-supported Texas lawsuit that sought to overturn election results in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan, and Wisconsin — essentially in unanimous fashion.
“We had that Supreme Court decision, you’re saying that doesn’t end the drumbeat of misinformation, and also the people that have been ratcheting up to the point where the Arizona GOP official Twitter account a few days ago asked would people be willing, and I’m slightly paraphrasing, but this is the essence, sacrifice their lives to overturn this election,” Obeidallah said, and asked “So it doesn’t end with this. Like, that might be the beginning of a new chapter in this? Is that what you’re saying?”
“I’ll take it to start further, Dean, and since it’s my job to anticipate the worst, it’s quite possible that not only does Trump departure and the Supreme Court declination, not only would that mitigate or suppress all of this potential violence and make Trump go away, I would argue, there’s a case to me that this will actually strengthen Trump and his base, and here’s why.”
Figliuzzi explained:
At least for now, in the last 4 years, the president has had some constraints on him as president. He can’t do things that are totally off the charts, there are still people in lawyers around who could tell him ‘You can’t do that sir, you can’t fire this guy, you shouldn’t do that.’
When he leaves, and if he’s right about creating his own media empire and digital platform, and declaring simultaneously that he’s a candidate in 2024, what you now have is a totally unchecked actor all over media, with 70 million votes of people who will follow him, and you know, a hundred million or whatever he’s got on Twitter following him.
He becomes unchecked and his people, in the eyes of his base he becomes the hero, the wronged hero, who must be avenged. This outrage must be avenged. He’s our guy.
And so I’m concerned that it’s actually strengthened, and then add to it the QAnon folks who have been elected to Congress, right, and you could see a recipe where this doesn’t go away, this lunacy becomes embedded in our society and our culture.
Watch the clip above, via SiriusXM.
