Richard Grenell thinks calling out fascism is 'fomenting violence'
In Trumpworld, calling a spade a spade isn't good journalism, but overt incitement.
For the better part of the eight-plus years since Donald Trump came down the escalator of Trump Tower, it’s been clear to anyone paying attention that he is an embryonic fascist. Lately, however, his statements and speeches have become so disturbing that it’s probably time to take away the “embryonic” part.
Any doubt that this was the case should have been put to rest on during a MAGA rally on Saturday in Durham, New Hampshire. Trump railed that immigrants were “poisoning the blood of our country.” For good measure, Trump claimed that immigrants were poisoning “mental institutions and prisons all over the world.” Watch for yourself.
Not surprisingly, the criticism came in fast and hard. Joe Biden’s campaign noted that Trump was “parroting Adolf Hitler.” Lest you call this hyperbole, MSNBC’s Zeeshan Aleem wrote that this sentiment was a carbon copy of what Hitler himself spewed in “Mein Kampf." Hitler wrote that cultures died out because “the originally creative race died out from blood poisoning,” and accused Jews of injecting “some all-pervading poisonous fluid” into the German race.
This came a month after Trump called his opponents “vermin” who needed to be rooted out in short order—another term that historians pointed out was used by dictators. In this case, as Ruth Ben-Ghiat of New York University noted to The Washington Post, “vermin” was used by both Hitler and Benito Mussolini to “dehumanize people and encourage their followers to engage in violence.”
But if it were up to Trump’s ambassador to Germany, Richard Grenell, we wouldn’t be allowed to point that out. In Grenell’s world, such talk amounts to incitement of violence.
No, this isn’t snark. On Monday night, MSNBC’s Ali Velshi and his guests on “Deadline: White House” joined in the growing outcry over Trump’s comments. Watch here.
Velshi said that while Trump has taken dog whistling to an art over the years, in Saturday’s speech, he “dispensed with the dog whistles” and was “just going for it.” He noted that a number of civil rights and extremism experts were quick to note the parallels between Trump’s screed and passages in “Mein Kampf.”
Protect Democracy executive director Ian Bassin joined in on the discussion, saying that there were numerous elements of the far right that were openly calling for the end of American democracy. Princeton University professor Eddie Glaude agreed, saying that Trump was no longer just a “rookie,” but “a seasoned actor” hard at work mobilizing “an anti-democratic project.”
Former Senator Claire McCaskill reminded the audience that Trump openly vowed to “terminate the Constitution.” She found it hard to believe that he didn’t know what he was saying when he railed about immigrants being poison—a phrase that she said harkens back to “horrific shadows from history.” She found it particularly staggering given that Trump himself is the grandson of immigrants, and is married to an immigrant. Former Congressman David Jolly bluntly called Trump’s remarks “racist,” and called for “a cultural conversation” about the prospect of putting someone in the White House who talks in this way.
When Grenell saw this, he hit the ceiling.
So let’s see if I’m reading this right. Warning the American people about the dangers of a former president who is out to regain the White House spewing openly fascist, racist rhetoric shouldn’t be tolerated because it amounts to “fomenting violence” against said former president? And for good measure, doing so is “reprehensible,” “dishonest,” and “unAmerican”?
Come off it, Ambassador. Do you seriously expect us to believe you weren’t paying attention? You worked for a guy who showed time and again during his tenure in the White House who spent virtually all of his eight-plus years in politics giving succor to violence. This culminated when he ranted and raved about having a second term stolen from him when all available evidence suggests he damned well knew he had lost. What is more, he continued doing so when he damned well knew such talk was putting innocent third parties in harm’s way.
You worked for a guy who knowingly called a Latina, two Black women, a Palestinian woman, and two Jewish men “savages” and “human scum.” You worked for a guy who believed there were two sides to a dispute when one of those sides was made up of white supremacists. So you can pardon us if we question how you have any authority at all to lecture us about what amounts to “fomenting violence.”
You worked for a guy who, in the waning days of his presidency, used the power of his office to incite a violent insurrection rather than turn over his office to the man who defeated him. You worked for a guy who willfully absconded with some of the most sensitive documents created by our government. And you have the nerve to come here lecturing us about what is “reprehensible,” “dishonest,” and “unAmerican”? I’d really like to know where you shop, Ambassador, because I don’t know of any online or brick-and-mortar store where you can buy cojones that big.
To those of us who don’t have MAGA hats glued to our heads, Velshi and friends were doing a public service. They were sounding the alarm about the very real prospect that an overtly fascist candidate could be on the ballot for president. Last time I checked, nothing could be more American and more democratic.
Serving under Trump required you to have, at the very least, a slightly warped moral compass. And if you’re still all-in for Trump at this point, it’s only fair to ask if you have any moral compass at all. But even by the standards of Trumpworld, this screed from Grenell is disgraceful. He was announcing in capital letters that when he took the oath of office as ambassador to Germany, he didn’t do so honestly. After all, he swore to defend the Constitution “against all enemies, foreign and domestic.” Anyone who seriously believes calling out Trump’s rhetoric amounts to inciting violence is announcing that he doesn’t believe the press should speak out against such rhetoric. Now THAT, Ambassador, is “reprehensible,” “dishonest,” and “unAmerican.”
In a more civilized political climate, Trump would have been drummed out of the race by the time Monday dawned. The fact that he is still in the race is yet more proof that the Republican Party, in its present state, is unfit to govern. And the fact that Grenell is outraged at the outrage is yet more evidence that he was unfit to represent this country in any capacity.
Excellent, as always, Darrell.