House Democrat Apologizes for MSNBC Hit in Which He Said Trump ‘Has to Be Eliminated’
Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) took to X (formerly Twitter) to clarify what he meant when he told MSNBC’s Jen Psaki that former President Donald Trump had to be “eliminated.”
Psaki had just played a clip of Trump telling ABC’s Jonathan Karl that he wanted to go back to the Capitol on Jan. 6 to “stop the problem,” ostensibly meaning his rioting supporters.
“I was thinking about going back during the problem to stop the problem, doing it myself. Secret Service didn’t like that idea too much. I could’ve done that, and you know what, I would’ve been very well received,” Trump said on the video.
Psaki then asked Goldman, “Do you think, as a prosecutor, former prosecutor, this is something that could be useful in the case against Trump?”
“I mean, look, he says, ‘I would be well received because he knows that the people who were there are his supporters who he riled up and incited to invade and riot at the Capitol and try to disrupt the proper counting of the electoral college votes,” Goldman said on Sunday’s show. He continued:
Every time he talks, he’s putting himself into a bigger criminal hole. But that’s not his objective. His objective is purely political, at this point. Politics don’t work in the courtroom, as I think he’s finding out in the New York attorney general’s case in New York, the civil case. I think that’s going to continue in his criminal trials. But his rhetoric is really getting dangerous, more and more dangerous. We saw what happened on January 6th, when he uses inflammatory rhetoric. Now, in his recent Truth Social post is incredibly, incredibly scary for anyone that might be trying to work in government. It is just unquestionable at this point that this man cannot see public office again. He is not only unfit, he is destructive to our democracy and he has to be eliminated.
Psaki did not follow-up on what Goldman meant by “eliminated” and moved on to the issue of gag orders against Trump in his spate of pending legal cases.
Conservative pundits like Turning Point’s Charlie Kirk immediately pounced on Goldman’s choice of words, posting that the congressman alluded “to the assassination of Donald Trump and does so with zero consequences and zero fear of any consequences.”
Fox News’ Mark Levin posted that Goldman “threatened Trump,” and Jonathan Turley claimed that Goldman used “dangerous rhetoric” against the former president.
On Monday, Goldman posted to his X account,”Yesterday on TV, I mistakenly used the wrong word to express the importance for America that Donald Trump doesn’t become President again. While he must be defeated, I certainly wish no harm to him and do not condone political violence. I apologize for the poor choice of words.”
Although some conservative pundits have called for Goldman’s “censure” or an investigation by the Secret Service, Congress has remained mum on the subject.
Watch the clip above via MSNBC.
