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After James Comey posted a picture of seashells, the world of MAGA went crazy after convincing themselves it called for Trump's assassination. Steve Schmidt breaks down the "8647" controversy and highlights the hypocrisy in MAGA's reaction.
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0:00
It is Friday, May 16th. This is the warning. The crisis in the United States is escalating
0:08
There is a great deal on the line. One of the things that a lot of us have said to be on the
0:14
lookout for is the pretext that Donald Trump will come up with to excuse the assertion of
0:23
illegitimate power to deal with a threat and to use the slightest pretext of anything
0:31
no matter how stupid, how nonsensical, to assert powers to go after his enemies and to use a vast
0:39
propaganda system to deceive people, to whip up a mob, to set them loose, and to attack some
0:49
fundamental ideas about justice, about liberty. There are some lessons in America's past that are
0:57
very important to appreciate for this moment. And they go back all the way to the beginning of the
1:04
Republic and before, like the Salem witch trials. And to appreciate the menace and the venom that's
1:13
directed at FBI director James Comey, you have to appreciate the story of the Salem witch trials
1:21
Now, until Tulsi Gabbard was outrageously made the National Intelligence Director, this was a job for serious human beings. And you would never see one of them on a show like with
1:36
Jesse Waters spouting nonsense and calling for the jailing of somebody the president hates
1:43
without a trial, without any due process. He should just be sent where, Tulsi? To a concentration camp
1:51
in El Salvador, perhaps? Or maybe he could compete for his life in the new Hunger Games show
1:58
that Kristi Noem is advocating be a contest for people, migrants, to compete for American
2:05
citizenship. At any rate, let's watch the clip. Do you believe Comey should be in jail
2:12
I do. Any other person with the position of influence that he has, people who take very
2:20
seriously what a guy of his stature, his experience, and what the propaganda media
2:25
has built him up to be, I'm very concerned for the president's life. We've already seen
2:30
assassination attempts. I'm very concerned for his life. And James Comey, in my view
2:36
should be held accountable and put behind bars for this. Now I don know why James Comey arranged the seashells on the beach and took a picture of it I have no idea why he did it I do think that James Comey is a narcissist
2:52
I think James Comey's need for attention, his need to be seen as virtuous
2:57
is the reason that Donald Trump won the election in 2016. I think that James Comey outrageously interfered in the outcome of that election
3:07
I also think that James Comey is one of the foremost public narcissists of our age
3:13
There's an investigative profile of James Comey at a hedge fund where he was the director of security running sting operations in the lunchroom where every employee was filmed
3:25
James Comey, I can't explain to you. I can't explain why he put the seashells on the beach
3:31
But here's the point. Neither can any of the people from Donald Trump on down who want to jail him for arranging numbers in seashells
3:41
And they wish to bring the full weight of the federal government while at the same time, in the exact same moment, disemboweling the public corruption unit in the FBI
3:51
While we're witnessing some of the greatest corruption in the history of the country playing out across Donald Trump's sick tour of the Middle East
4:02
Here at home, banners are being put up in Washington, D.C. that are authoritarian in nature and have no place in a republic
4:11
And yet they are being hung. Donald Trump is threatening Supreme Court justices in his vast propaganda network without trial, without jury, without a judge, without any due process whatsoever is demanding the imprisonment or worse of his political enemies on the basis of a thought, a picture
4:34
demanding that something that is completely nebulous be concretized as a dire threat
4:42
so grave that the entire American system must be overthrown to deal with it
4:50
That this threat requires without trial, without judge, without jury, the imprisonment
4:57
perhaps the execution of the president's opponents, who, according to the president and his propagandists
5:04
has been threatened with death when no such thing has occurred. He knew exactly what that meant
5:10
A child knows what that meant. If you're the FBI director and you don't know what that meant, that meant assassination
5:19
Now, a central feature of the Trump presidency is the ability and the increasing audacity
5:26
with which they declare up is down and down is up Total absolute disregard for reality for the truth Aggressive preening dishonesty and all of it weaponized for the purposes of taking power consolidating power
5:45
by stripping away rights, including the right to protest, the right to speak out
5:52
This is what Bruce Springsteen talked about in Manchester, England. Tonight, we ask all who believe in democracy and the best of our American experience to rise with us, raise your voices against authoritarianism and let freedom ring
6:10
Now, in this moment of very grave danger for the republic, there is a record of Donald Trump and his supporters stoking violence
6:21
Let's watch the Proud Boys attacking people like Hitler's SA did in Munich in the 1930s
6:29
only this is 2020's Washington. Let's watch the violence and the mayhem from January 6th
6:44
Multiple capital injuries, multiple capital injuries. For 10 long years, Donald Trump has threatened to take away the rights of ordinary Americans to speak out
7:03
He's demanded they be imprisoned or killed here. And I don't blame him for sticking with his daughter, but his daughter is a very dumb individual, very dumb
7:14
She's a radical war hawk. Let's put her with a rifle standing there with nine barrels shooting at her
7:20
Okay, let's see how she feels about it. And here. And we'll stand up to crazy Nancy Pelosi who ruined San Francisco
7:33
How's her husband doing, by the way? Anybody know? And she's against building a wall at our border, even though she has a wall around her house
7:45
which obviously didn't do a very good job. Or like here. One rough hour, and I mean real rough, the word will get out and it will end immediately
7:58
End immediately. What we are witnessing is the beginning of a rolling Reichstag fire
8:05
And Donald Trump will use any pretext, the slightest anything, to declare an emergency
8:12
to impose as much authority with as much force as he can turn out There no constraints There is no mechanism to stop him Congress is a pilot bureau It has fighters but on the Democratic side it led by an appeaser
8:32
named Chuck Schumer. And so in this moment, appreciate this. Though James Comey is not an
8:39
admirable man, that isn't the point. James Comey is a prominent man. And that prominent man is being
8:46
smeared and lied about, having thoughts put into his head and then interpreted by propagandists on
8:53
TV who tell you that James Comey must be in jail because he communicated somehow with an arrangement
9:00
of seashells that made a statement about, in common colloquial anguish, we should get rid of Trump
9:07
We should put a check on Trump. In 26, in 28, by all means, the American people should 86 MAGA
9:14
throw it into the garbage, put it on the ash heap of history, repudiate it at the ballot box
9:21
I call for peaceful protest. I call for a peaceful uprising. And I have every right to do so under
9:27
the First Amendment. And I will continue to do so. And so if I have a thought in my head that says
9:33
86 Trump, that is not criminal. And if I wish to arrange 86 47 onto a beach, neither is that
9:41
even in seashells. And so what we're seeing in the reaction to this is an insanity and it's
9:48
deeply sinister and it can't be tolerated. And so did James Comey threaten the life of the
9:54
president of the United States with assassination in a covert seashell message? Of course not
10:01
But let's appreciate the journey on the river that started with Sean Spicer saying that the
10:07
crowd size was bigger when in fact it was smaller. And over the long years of the journey
10:15
we've arrived at a moment that some of us saw coming for a very long time when Donald Trump
10:20
is demanding the imprisonment and so are his chief lieutenants spread out over propaganda channels
10:26
of people who've had thoughts in their head. My friends, that is the warning because if that is so
10:33
then no one in America is safe. And that's what Donald Trump and his fascist lieutenants
10:40
want all of you to believe, to keep you quiet, compliant, and in line. And that's not the American
10:47
way. And I'm Steve Schmidt. This is The Warning. I invite you to join this community where I promise
10:55
to be honest, blunt, and direct about what is happening in this country. America is in crisis
11:01
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