It's become a repetitive round of Crazy Talk on MSNBC this week that Donald Trump sent federal troops to Portland as a practice run for Trump declaring martial law if he loses the election.
This has as much basis in fact as the notion that Joe Biden rarely leaves his basement because he's practicing to govern from the White House bowling alley if elected.
P.J. Gladnick reported John Heilemann trotted out this scaremongering routine on Tuesday's Morning Joe, but this morning he escalated the hyperbole to a metaphorical DEFCON-2, one step short of nuclear war. He insisted that no sentient human being can possibly state that this conspiracy theory is alarmist and unrealistic.
A panicky Heilmann declared:
"Anybody who's not looking at this with a state of alarm and concern, and worried about is this president going to employ formally martial law at some point, as Ron Wyden suggested yesterday? Is that on the president's mind?
Is there anybody, having watched Donald Trump for the last three-and-a-half years, who doesn't think that Donald Trump would try to employ martial law if he thought it was the only way he could stay in power? I ask you, Joe: is there anybody who sensibly comes on this show who doesn't think that that's possible?"
What we've actually witnessed for the last 42 months is a constant leftist conspiracy theory that Fascism Is Around the Corner, and it still hasn't arrived. They're doubling down on nothingness.
There was some unintentional humor in Heilemann's last line, asking if there's anybody who "sensibly" comes on Morning Joe who doesn't think that Trump might declare martial law. Translation: all good leftists agree with me! Joe Scarborough proved himself to be one of those sensible folks, agreeing with Heilemann:
"Yeah . . . even Donald Trump's allies understand he will do whatever it takes to stay in power."
Heilemann's mention of Ron Wyden was a reference to the Democrat senator's statement at a Senate intelligence committee hearing yesterday that:
"If the line is not drawn in the sand right now, America may be staring down the barrel of martial law in the middle of a presidential election."
As for Mika's concerns that Heilemann approvingly cited, earlier in the show she accused President Trump of intentionally stoking violence, and concluded: "I'll say it very basely: this man won't leave."
This, from the show that insisted Trump would lose worse than Barry Goldwater last time...
Here's the transcript.
MSNBC
Morning Joe
7/23/20
8:10 am EDTJOHN HEILEMANN: He's setting precedents now, and I think Mika was exactly right this morning when she raised the proper concerns. And the Ron Wyden quote to me crystallizes it.
This is what would happen if you are an authoritarian president who was preparing to resist a loss in the election. You would be saying the things that Donald Trump is saying, and you would be gradually rolling out federal police power into the states against the wishes of the mayors and governors in question.
This is how it would happen! This is how the movie would play out. And anybody who's not looking at this with a state of alarm and concern, and worried about is this president going to employ formally martial law at some point, as Ron Wyden suggested yesterday? Is that on the president's mind?
Is there anybody, having watched Donald Trump for the last three-and-a-half years, who doesn't think that Donald Trump would try to employ martial law if he thought it was the only way he could stay in power? I ask you, Joe: is there anybody who sensibly comes on this show who doesn't think that that's possible?"
JOE SCARBOROUGH: Yeah, I think, Willie, even Donald Trump's allies understand he will do whatever it takes to stay in power.
Heilemann's martial-law scaremongering was brought to you by, among others, Chevrolet. Follow the link to our Conservatives Fight Back page to contact Chevrolet to let them know what their advertising dollars supported.
