‘“Do you think if the former president is found guilty, do you worry about what the response of that might be?” Cooper asked.

“No, I think it’s … I continue to worry about threats against individual poll workers and council people, I’m not worried about an uprising of violence on donald trump’s behalf. I don’t think you’ve seen the crowds anywhere he’s gone,” Comey said. “I think a message was sent after Jan. 6 that your life will be ruined if you engage in that kind of behavior, and his crowd are not jihadis looking to die for the orange god. They are people who are attached to him as a cult leader in a way and entertainment figure, but they’re not going to lay themselves down for him.”…’ (The Wrap)

‘Former President donald trump was up all night ranting on Truth Social — including a new version of his wild assassination fantasy that featured President Joe Biden’s FBI gunning for trump’s Secret Service detail.

Right-wing hysteria has reached a fever pitch over a false claim that the FBI raid on trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort was actually an assassination attempt.

The basis for the claim is standard language in the raid’s operation order that said agents “may use deadly force only when necessary, that is, when the officer has a reasonable belief that the subject of such force poses an imminent danger of death or serious physical injury to the officer or to another person.”

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) claims she was the one who told trump about the non-existent danger trump faced when the FBI raided Mar-a-Lago while he wasn’t there, and which trump is now fundraising on. But the scenario has captured imaginations across the MAGAsphere — including trump’s….’ (MediaIte)

‘The ex-president’s stories of his own victimization make violence by his supporters far more likely….’ (The Atlantic)

‘Four-times-indicted former president donald trump’s terrifying plans to assume dictatorial powers (and try for a third term), deploy the military against civil protesters, create a massive police state to carry out mass deportations and use federal power to exact revenge on his opponents should be enough to convince voters that his election would be a disaster for the United States domestically. However, returning him to the position of commander in chief and “leader of the free world” is just as scary on a global front. Don’t take it from me; just listen to two former senior Republican national security experts.

Former national security adviser John Bolton recently told Jordan Klepper of “The Daily Show” that his former boss “doesn’t understand alliances.” Bolton opined that Ronald Reagan would be “appalled” by the MAGA Republican Party, and added that trump has a “fascination with authoritarian leaders.” Bolton also concurred with former secretary of state Rex Tillerson’s description of trump as a “f—ing moron,” though Bolton refrained from using the expletive. (Klepper taunted Bolton for, after all that, saying he would vote for neither President Biden or trump. “Great. So, in the race between a current president and a former president, it looks like the winner will be the Russian president.”)

Bolton has previously said of trump: “He’s fundamentally ignorant, and he really doesn’t care about the facts. He thinks international relations are about personal relations, which is a line and approach that I can tell you, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping are eagerly looking forward to.” trump’s ignorance and overweening narcissism make him easy pickings for manipulative dictators. (trump came to regard North Korea’s Kim Jong Un as a friend because he sent “love letters.” He turned over foreign signals intelligence to Russians in the Oval Office.) He is, in other words, a patsy for strongmen whose object is to weaken the United States.

trump declared that he would invite Putin to invade NATO countries that didn’t contribute sufficiently to the alliance’s collective defense. (He continues to misunderstand how NATO forces are funded.) His well-known hostility toward European allies and threats to ditch NATO should indicate to any voter concerned about national security that trump’s return to office would spell disaster for international peace and stability….’ (The Washington Post