Karl Rove: Trump Wasn’t Setting ‘A Particularly Good Tone’ When He Said ‘The Election Was Stolen’ and ‘I’m Going to Declare a Civil War’

Fox News contributor Karl Rove expressed concern over the possibility that former President Donald Trump will use his speech at the Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC) to reignite his incendiary rhetoric.

On Thursday, Rove joined Trace Gallagher and Dana Perino to talk about a Wall Street Journal op-ed he wrote on what could happen with Trump at CPAC. The way Rove sees it, Trump will either take the opportunity to politically reinvent himself, or he could rail at his foes within the Republican Party, falsely claim (again) that the 2020 election was stolen, and “devote the speech to his anger and grievances.”

When asked which path he thinks Trump will take, Rove paraphrased a number of Trump’s public statements while noting how they’ve revolved around the ex-president’s anger.

His last two speeches on the 5th of January and on the 6th of January would indicate that, at that point, he was — ‘I’m angry. I got defeated. The election was stolen from me. I got 74 million votes, but it was stolen from me. People in my party who are very weak. I am going to punish them and go after fellow Republicans. I’m going to declare civil war. If you are not with me, you are against me and I’ll defeat you.’

“That wasn’t a particularly good tone,” said Rove. He added that if Trump goes down that road again, “it’s gonna be a very difficult recovery.”

Trump’s CPAC address will be his first public appearance since Jan. 6, when his supporters — fueled by his unsubstantiated voter fraud claims — invaded the U.S. Capitol in a violent attempt to overturn his election loss. Rove was critical of Trump’s conduct before the insurrection, and after it happened, he deemed the Republican Party “broken” and in “civil war” amid the political fallout.

Watch above, via Fox News.

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