Civil War tweet called ‘repugnant’

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump spent Sunday vigorously defending himself on Twitter and sharing cable news clips of his most ardent devotees insisting that he did nothing wrong in asking the Ukrainian president to investigate his political rival, former Vice President Joe Biden.

Trump highlighted one quote from a longtime evangelical pastor warning of particularly dire consequences if the Democrats follow through with impeachment.

“If the Democrats are successful in removing the President from office (which they will never be), it will cause a Civil War like fracture in this Nation from which our Country will never heal,” Trump tweeted, adding his own parenthetical to a quote from Robert Jeffress, a Southern Baptist preacher speaking on “Fox & Friends Weekend” on Sunday.

One sitting Republican congressman accused Trump of stoking violence.

“I have visited nations ravaged by civil war. @realDonaldTrump I have never imagined such a quote to be repeated by a President,” tweeted Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill. “This is beyond repugnant.”

Two Senate Democrats, Chris Murphy of Connecticut and Brian Schatz of Hawaii, also condemned the president’s tweet in a back-and-forth in which Murphy described the message as “so frightening.”