>> Officers have been deployed at polling locations across Georgia due
to the Georgia Senate runoff elections. And this of course, follows some pretty,
it seems specific threats, against polling locations or polling workers
in these locations. Now, we don't know the exact nature of what these threats are. For
some reason authorities have refused to share those details with us, but here's what we do know.
The Cherokee County Sheriff's Office said Sunday that it learned of a threatening
email that went to several county employees regarding threats to polling locations
on election day. Employees at several other counties received the same email.
Now, both the FBI and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation is looking into this matter.
And of course the runoff races, I say, happen to be important cuz it will determine
which party ends up controlling the Senate. Now prior to election day,
Joseph Cousin, who is a pastor at the Allen Temple African Methodist Episcopal Church,
had to cancel an event called Women for Warnock because the Democratic Party notified him that it
would be dangerous to hold the event because of some of the threats that are coming in.
But while most of these threats have been issued anonymously,
there are some Republican lawmakers who feel brazen enough to issue subtle
threats during cable news interviews. So here we have Representative Chip Roy
speaking to Fox News about the election. >> What happens tomorrow in Georgia,
if we have a Democratically controlled Senate, I mean, we're now basically, at full scale hot
conflict in this country, whereas right now we're at a cold civil war.
We've got a major problem in this country where the American people,
the regular people out there. That are working everyday, hardworking Americans,
that are getting trampled by a system that is rigged against him, as you said. That is
what is at stake. And if the American people and Georgia don't show up, if Georgians don't show up,
and ensure that we hold the Senate in Republican hands, then that's what's happening.
>> So Ryan, I wanna go to you immediately, because we keep hearing from right wingers who
seem to be encouraging a civil war. Or at least they use civil war rhetoric in talking about
these elections and Republicans losing control of
various congressional seats. And of course the presidential election we heard a lot
of that kind of language prior to the general election taking place.
What are your thoughts on these threats? Do you think it's just rhetoric or do you think that
they are in fact trying to encourage people to take violent action?
>> No, I think some of this is certainly real. I'm getting a little bit feedback by the way.
But if you look at Nashville, for instance, no, there was an explosion there.
It seems like the guy had some beef with AT&T over a conspiracy that connected 5G to COVID. If you
look at some of the speeches that are being made in Washington now by the right wing protesters
who have come there, it's really, a soup of all sorts of different conspiracy mongering.
If you have a conspiracy that is wild and accuses
some obscure power of whatever, you can kind of slot it into whatever
this kind of twisted populace strain is that's coursing through the Republican Party. And
you're eventually gonna find some number of people who are gonna commit violent acts.
Now, people talking about civil war are gonna confuse people. Because civil war, in
the 19th century, pitted geographic regions against each other, North
versus the South. Whereas, today it's really, cities and suburbs against rural areas. So
I don't quite see it unfolding that way. >> Yeah, no, I absolutely agree with you.
It is interesting though, I do see some people on the left kind of
minimize what's happening with the right. What's happening with the spread of disinformation and
conspiracy theories. In fact, unfortunately, I think there are some pretty extreme elements
even on the left who have picked up some conspiracy theories themselves.
And so this stuff, where it just really spreads across the Internet rapidly. We're
living in a country that doesn't seem to make much sense in terms of how it's being governed.
When you think about how desperate Americans are right now for economic relief.
All we get from Congress is what feels like a middle finger, really, with the $600
direct checks to Americans, nothing seems to make sense.
And, I feel like people are trying to make sense of what's going on. And what they do is they
turn to some of the more, vociferous conspiracy theories online. But as we've seen in a variety
of cases, and I love that you mentioned the Nashville case. Some of these people put
action behind their conspiratorial beliefs, and people legitimately get hurt as a result of that.
What are your thoughts on Inauguration Day? There's a lot of word regarding
Trump supporters showing up to DC to protest the outcome of the election.
The Women's March happened after Trump won the election in 2016,
but that was obviously a very different type of demonstration. There weren't threats of violence.
With Trump supporters, it's a little different. >> Right, and 2017 was interesting cuz on actual
Inauguration Day, you did have what several dozen, maybe a couple hundred at most, Antifa
folks who kind of ran around DC. Smashed up a limousine or maybe knocked around a bus stop,
and then got cordoned by DC police and hauled off.
And then you had these kind of high profile in DC trials over the next several months.
So there was an aggressive, militarized approach
aimed at a very small number of violent protesters. And violent in the sense that
they smashed windows and cars, not violent in the sense that they were attacking other people.
It will be very interesting to see how
the police respond to whatever it is that the Trump protesters are going to do. The police in
general are kind of a radicalized right wing force in this country. But, when it comes to
being in Washington, DC and kind of standing up for, their job is to protect the inauguration.
So, we'll see if they kind of bring the same energy
to the Proud Boys and the rest of the folks who are in DC trying to cause chaos.
In 2017, there were tons of people around. A, it was pre-pandemic. B, people weren't
really worried about Antifa. They didn't think that it was gonna lead to physical violence.
Whereas this time downtown is gonna be pretty much empty. The mayor is telling people to stay away,
businesses are closing. So it's gonna be just police and protesters which is
gonna be an unusual and interesting dynamic. >> Yeah, I agree with you. And it's one thing
to have members of the Proud Boys call for some sort of violent armed protest.
It's something completely different to have Republican lawmakers encourage violence. And
so I just want to go to this video of Representative Louis Gohmert
who, in a recent interview, said something that he did get a lot
of backlash for. So let's take a listen to what he had to say and then we'll discuss.
>> Bottom line is the court is saying, we're not gonna touch this, you have no remedy,
basically. And in fact, the ruling would be that you got to go to the streets and
be as violent as Antifa and BLM. >> You gotta go out there and be
as violent as Antifa and BLM.
He walked the statements back later after there was enough backlash.
But it is kind of incredible to see how many Republican lawmakers are willing to
put their name on attempting to dismantle our democratic process. And, also put their
name on encouraging violence if they don't get their way in overturning the election results.
I think you're muted. >> Sorry, it was getting a
little bit loud around here. >> No worries.
>> So yeah, if all they do is what Antifa did in January 2017, then DC will need a new bus stop,
more or less. But Gohmert seems to be pushing people in a much more aggressive direction and
doing it kind of it very much in league with the Republican Party.
Because that's also a huge difference. If you're a Republican, you like to think that Antifa and the
Democratic Party are kinda one in the same. And Antifa probably leads the Democratic Party. That's
kind of their version of the world. But as you and I know, that's not remotely close to reality.
If you're in Antifa you probably despise the Democratic Party. You certainly are not taking
orders from them. The Democratic Party has no interest in any relationship with them either. But
that's the difference between the Democrats and the Republicans here. Republicans
are very much sowing this win. They're very much feeding into this.
It's Trump who, really by refusing to concede and insisting that he lost,
has pumped all of the energy into this. Gohmert, he's a kook,
but he's a member of Congress. You would never have a Democratic member of Congress
urging people to go out in the streets and get violent and loot and riot.
Democrats get criticized sometimes for not putting out a statement fast
enough every time there's a riot in a city. This is a Republican, who was urging people
to commit the very thing. That he would be quick to say Democrats aren't fast enough to
condemn. And so that's an asymmetry that is going to work itself out one way or another
in this system, but it's not something that's sustainable long term.
>> Yeah, absolutely, and it's kind of terrifying. And I'm glad that,
well, of course you recognize the asymmetrical situation that's been developing during the
Trump administration. What's frustrating is to hear people on cable television
talk about Antifa as if it's just as much of a threat as right wing terrorism in this country.
And I'm specifically talking about these right wing gangs, whether it's the Proud Boys or some
other insane group of people who go out of their way to attend what's supposed to be peaceful
marches. And then they agitate and they create all sorts of issues. Or if they don't get their way,
as the Proud Boys realized recently in a protest with masks.
They don't wanna wear masks, they don't wanna have to deal with any of the
COVID related social distancing stuff. And so they stage a protest and then they get super
violent with police, who tried to disperse the crowd, because of an unlawful assembly