By Veronica Stracqualursi, CNN
Photo: Brandon Bell / Getty Images via AFP
Former President Donald Trump suggested using the military to handle what he called "the enemy from within" on Election Day, saying that he isn't worried about chaos from his supporters or foreign actors, but instead from "radical left lunatics."
"I think the bigger problem are the people from within. We have some very bad people. We have some sick people. Radical left lunatics," Trump said told Fox News' Maria Bartiromo in an interview on Sunday Morning Futures.
"I think it should be very easily handled by, if necessary, by National Guard, or if really necessary, by the military, because they can't let that happen," he added.
The former president, whose supporters stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, in an attempt to thwart Congress' certification of his 2020 election loss, downplayed any threat from his voters.
"No, I don't think - not from the side that votes for Trump," the former president said when Bartiromo asked whether he was expecting chaos on Election Day. When she alluded to the Justice Department arresting and charging an Afghan national for allegedly plotting a terrorist attack in the US on Election Day and cited the threat of "outside agitators" and undocumented immigrants, Trump pivoted to talking about political opponents on the left.
"I think the bigger problem is the enemy from within, not even the people that have come in and destroying our country, by the way, totally destroying our country, the towns, the villages, they're being inundated," he said, referring to immigrants whom Trump has repeatedly attacked with dehumanising rhetoric.
Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign seized on Trump's comments, arguing that they should "alarm every American".
"Trump is suggesting that his fellow Americans are worse 'enemies' than foreign adversaries, and he is saying he would use the military against them," Ian Sams, a senior spokesperson and adviser for the campaign, said in a statement Sunday. "Taken with his vow to be a dictator on 'day one,' calls for the 'termination' of the Constitution, and plans to surround himself with sycophants who will give him unchecked, unprecedented power if he returns to office, this should alarm every American who cares about their freedom and security."
The former president has in the years since the January 6 insurrection denied any wrongdoing and looked to cast blame for the riot on others, including Democrats, in a barrage of false claims even as he faces federal and state charges for interfering in the 2020 election in Washington, DC, and Georgia, respectively. He has pleaded not guilty in those cases.
Trump has also been laying groundwork to question the integrity of the 2024 election. He's threatened, if he wins the White House again, prosecution and "long-term prison sentences" for election officials and political operatives, who he suggested could cheat. And he has routinely suggested he would weaponize the justice system to go after his political opponents if voters return him to the White House.
CNN's Jack Forrest, Sam Fossum, Marshall Cohen, Daniel Dale and Kate Sullivan contributed to this report.
- CNN