Uncivil talk of a new civil war

What’s with all the handwringing and gnashing of teeth over President Donald Trump’s embrace of his “very fine people” bearing swastikas and spewing racist and anti- Semitic hate at that deadly white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia? What’s new? The Trump on display at Tuesday’s defiant news conference where he stoutly defended the indefensible has been there all along, for all to see.

How could anyone who has spent any time listening to Trump in recent years not come away knowing that what we have today in the Oval Office is a nasty, ranting and ignorant narcissist who toys with bigotry for votes, peddles lies, and thoroughly lacks human empathy and decency?

Last Tuesday’s performance in the Trump Tower lobby was a distillation of who Trump really is.

But Trump, as apologist for the morally unjustifiable, is not today’s concern. The true cause for alarm is Trump, as president, who is fueling a pernicious and combustible narrative that threatens our rule of law.

Trump is cynically casting himself as a president besieged by evil Washington forces out to stifle his powers and remove him from office.

“You are witnessing the single greatest WITCH HUNT in American political history-led by some very bad and conflicted people,” Trump has tweeted.

Let’s be clear: That is not a woe-is-me lament from Trump. His they’re-out-to-get-me message is aimed at his supporters, including the Charlottesville shock troops. It is a call to arms.

Because Trump is spooked. The scope of what he is facing has driven him to distraction. Special counsel Robert Mueller III’s investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election is threatening enough. But it has led to an inquiry into whether Trump sought to obstruct the government investigation- and, hence, justice. Mueller’s investigators have also apparently crossed Trump’s “red line” to investigate the president and his family’s pre-campaign financial dealings with Russian interests. Following the money and examining tax returns are attentiongetting devices. Trump’s sense of peril is palpable.

America, be on guard: Trump’s summons are being heard.

Rush Limbaugh spelled out the danger to Trump in a recent commentary. He told his vast radio audience that the Washington establishment is involved in a “silent coup” against Trump. “These people are trying to take this president out,” Limbaugh declared.

Nationally syndicated talk-radio host Michael Savage took up the call as well, with an ominous warning to his millions of listeners this month. Noting that “the left” is out to take down Trump, Savage threatened, “If it’s done through Mueller or any other source . . . there will be a civil war in this country.”

Remove Trump from office, Savage said, and “that is what’s going to happen in this country.” He added, “You have not yet seen mob violence in this country . . . . You haven’t seen the thing I’m telling you is coming in this country.”

“I’m warning you. All of you leftists who think you’re going to steal our vote, you’re wrong,” Savage said.

“We’ve had it up to here . . . . If you do the next step and steal our president, I warn you. You’ve seen nothing yet.”

MediaMatters for America compiled a string of right-wing figures beating the “attacks on Trump will lead to a civil war” drum:

• Trump adviser Roger Stone, on the June 15 edition of “The Alex Jones Show,” predicted that Mueller “is going to indict our president despite the facts, and he’s going to spark a civil war in this country.”

• Pat Buchanan, in a June 13 CNSNews commentary, said this country “is approaching something of a civil war where the capital city seeks the overthrow of the sovereign and its own restoration.” It’s time, he said, for Trump to “purge the deep state and flog its media collaborators.”

Buchanan declared that “the appointment of a special prosecutor” was a feature of the “deep state-media coup” to destroy Trump.

The right-wing media, stoked by Trump, is telling the audience – and the mob lurking within – that Mueller’s investigation is cover for bringing the president to his knees.

Thus the campaign against Mueller. Thus Trump’s effort to bring the special counsel into contempt and sow disrespect for the investigation. Thus Trump’s attempt to allow himself, and himself alone, to determine whether he is accountable under the law, and when, if ever, the interest of justice should be served.

Sickened by Trump’s accommodation of hatred in Charlottesville? Consider his attempted undermining of the Justice Department-approved specialcounsel probe -nothing less than the rule of law is at stake. Mac Tully, CEO and Publisher; Justin Mock, Senior VP of Finance and CFO; Bill Reynolds, Senior VP, Circulation and Production; Judi Patterson, Vice President, Human Resources; Bob Kinney , Vice President, Information Technology