“Sick”: Trump’s Violent Outbursts Worsen as Parade Fiasco Sinks In

THE DAILY BLAST with Greg Sargent

The New Republic

News, Politics

4.4 • 800 Ratings

🗓️ 17 June 2025

⏱️ 21 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

After the horrific assassination of a Democratic state legislator in Minnesota, President Trump at first correctly stressed that such violence is absolutely intolerable. But then he uncorked a long, vile, unhinged tirade on Truth Social, threatening to unleash ICE raids more directly on Democratic cities while denouncing them as radical, dangerous and “sick.” Coming after the assassination, this was almost akin to a call for more targeting of Democrats and liberals. It’s no accident this came right after we saw enormous outpourings of peaceful “No Kings” protests across the country. The contrast between these and Trump’s North Korean-style military parade (not to mention the assassination) amounted to a fiasco for Trump. As Kim Scheppele, a scholar of authoritarianism, noted in a good piece for The Contrarian, a big story about this weekend’s events was the spectacle of peaceful dissent meeting menace from Trump-aligned forces. We talked to Scheppele about how political violence is overwhelmingly aligned in this country with the MAGA right, and why we’re now sliding into what she calls the “danger zone.” Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is the Daily Blast from the New Republic, produced and presented by the DSR Network.
0:16.5	I'm your host, Greg Sargent.
0:34.0	After a man named Fance Boatler allegedly assassinated one Democratic state legislator in Minnesota and wounded another one,
0:39.1	President Trump initially said the right thing, stressing that political violence must not be tolerated in any form. But then late Sunday he uncorked a vile, unhinged
0:45.2	tirade on truth social, in which he promised to focus raids by ice on democratic cities, denouncing
0:51.8	them as sick. This was exactly the wrong time for Trump to be talking about selectively unleashing law
0:59.0	enforcement on areas controlled by his political opponents, particularly ones that saw
1:04.4	huge outpourings of peaceful protests at the no-kings rallies over the weekend.
1:10.2	And Trump's lunacy comes as numerous maga media figures
1:13.3	lied about the alleged shooter painting him as a leftist. Kim Sheppley, a scholar of authoritarianism
1:20.0	at Princeton, has a new piece for the contrarian, arguing that the events of the weekend
1:24.8	clearly showcased that the bulk of political violence in this country is on the right, and that we're now fully in the danger zone.
1:32.4	So we're talking to Kim about all this. Great to have you on, Kim.
1:36.1	Nice to be here. Thanks for inviting me.
1:38.4	So let's start with this horrific assassination. Vance Boatler, who appears to be the assassin, allegedly murdered Minnesota
1:45.6	Representative Melissa Hortman and her husband and wounded state Senator John Hoffman and his wife.
1:52.2	Boettler had a list with him of mostly Democrats and abortion providers, and his friends
1:56.8	says he voted for Donald Trump. Kim, what was your immediate takeaway from all that?
2:02.2	Well, my worry about events like this is that we know that the U.S. has a problem with right-wing
2:09.2	violence.
2:10.3	And it's not surprising that this person was described by his roommate as someone who was a very
2:15.6	strong Trump supporter.
	...

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