‘This Is Not a Drill’: Ari Melber Warns Republicans Are Preparing the Base for Political Violence

Ari Melber told viewers that some prominent Republicans are laying the groundwork for political violence among the GOP base.

The MSNBC host was reacting to an appearance by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) on Fox News over the weekend, where he addressed the FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago. Agents from the bureau retrieved classified government documents from former President Donald Trump’s estate.

“I’ll say this,” Graham said. “If there’s a prosecution of Donald Trump for mishandling classified information, There will be riots in the street.”

Trump shared the clip on his Truth Social account on Monday.

Melber aired the clip of Graham on Monday, as well as a snippet of Trump attorney Alina Habba, who said on Newsmax, “At the end of the day, I think that would cause so much mayhem. That would be a monstrous mistake.

“Mayhem,” echoed Melber. “Now, why do Trump’s allies sound like this? It comes all the way from the top.”

Melber pointed to a report stating that Trump sent a message to the Department of Justice indicating he wanted to “turn down the heat.” The host stated the implication was that Trump could just as easily turn up the heat at his whim.

“The wider context right now is the serious violence in our country,” Melber continued. “The ongoing surge in threats and attacks against the FBI including those fomented by Trump allies, including calls for a ‘civil war’ and ‘armed rebellion.'”

He then played clips of Republicans condemning the riots in 2020 after the murder of George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis. Melber said Republicans are being “hypocritical.”

“This is not a drill,” Melber stated. “You see the way they’re talking. You see how obviously hypocritical it is, how it goes to larger problems in their ability to function within a rule-of-law society we quality between all people and all races. This may get louder and more serious and more dangerous before we’re through with it.”

The host said the good news is that prosecutors will not be deterred by political pressure and threats of violence.

“It’s what they do for a living,” he said. “When people openly court violence to try to corrupt their investigations, well, this ain’t their first time. It might anger a prosecutor personally, though that’s never supposed to impact their independent legal decisions. But it certainly does not shock or scare them. They are trained to keep doing their job against exactly this kind of crap.”

Watch above via MSNBC.

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