Members of the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol have warned America for three years to take former President Donald Trump at his word.

Now, as Trump is poised to win the Republican presidential nomination, his criminal trials face delays that could stall them past Election Day, and his rhetoric grows increasingly authoritarian, some of those lawmakers find themselves following their own advice.

In mid-March, Trump said on social media that the committee members should be jailed. In December he vowed to be a dictator on “day one.” In August, he said he would “have no choice” but to lock up his political opponents.

“If he intends to eliminate our constitutional system and start arresting his political enemies, I guess I would be on that list,” said Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-San Jose). “One thing I did learn on the committee is to pay attention and listen to what Trump says, because he means it.”

Lofgren added that she doesn’t yet have a plan in place to thwart potential retribution by Trump. But Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Burbank), who has long been a burr in Trump’s side, said he’s having “real-time conversations” with his staff about how to make sure he stays safe if Trump follows through on his threats.

“We’re taking this seriously, because we have to,” Schiff said. “We’ve seen this movie before … and how perilous it is to ignore what someone is saying when they say they want to be a dictator.”

    • CableMonster@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      They are obviously different but they are an illustrations of two different ideologies and how one was much more severely prosecuted. But I agree, lets do apples to apples, how many people were arrested and convicted on the May 29th attack on the capital by the leftists?

      • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        Moving the goalposts much?

        That event was way different that Jan 6. On Jan 6, we had armed people in the Capitol building threatening to hang the VP. On May 29, we had some people cross a barricade. They’re not comparable at all.

        • CableMonster@lemmy.ml
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          1 year ago

          So you are going with the “BUT INSURRECTION!!!” argument. It was not a insurrection, and you have yet to compare the quantities of people arrested and convicted with the different events.