In the aftermath of the pro-Trump siege of the U.S. Capitol Building on Wednesday, ABC News Political Director Rick Klein is calling for a “cleansing” of the Trump “movement,” across America. Getting rid of Trump “is the easy part,” Klien tweeted; getting rid of the movement Trump “commands” is another.
“Trump will be an ex-president in 13 days. The fact is that getting rid of Trump is the easy part. Cleansing the movement he commands is going to be something else.”
“Cleansing the movement”? Just me, or does that sound a tad too close to “cleansing” Adolf Hitler and the Nazis from post-WWII Germany?
The following tweet became “unavailable” shortly before the publication of my piece.
Trump will be an ex-president in 13 days. The fact is that getting rid of Trump is the easy part. Cleansing the movement he commands is going to be something else.
https://t.co/KnEloRm123 via @ABC— Rick Klein (@rickklein) January 7, 2021
In an op-ed titled Threats that will outlast Donald Trump exposed in siege of Capitol, Klein seemed to suggest he wasn’t all that worried about Trump’s “mob of extremists” until Wednesday and the “attempted insurrection.”
It was bad, unspeakably and unfathomably so — utter lawlessness and disorder, carnage in the seat of American government, happening with the seeming encouragement of the outgoing president.
It could have been worse. It might still get there, even with President Donald Trump’s statement Thursday morning pledging “there will be an orderly transition on January 20th.”
Until Wednesday’s siege, when a mob of extremists engaged in an attempted insurrection and violent occupation of the Capitol, there seemed to be little cost to some Republicans in indulging Trump’s conspiracy theories, lies and fantasies.
Will there be justice now?
