Trump amplifies calls to jail top elected officials, invokes military tribunals
Former President Donald Trump over the weekend escalated his vows to prosecute his political opponents, circulating posts on his social media website invoking “televised military tribunals” and calling for the jailing of President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, Sens. Mitch McConnell and Chuck Schumer, and former Vice President Mike Pence, among other high-profile politicians.
Trump, using his account on Truth Social on Sunday, promoted two posts from other users of the site that called for the jailing of his perceived political enemies.
One post that he circulated Sunday singled out Liz Cheney, the former Wyoming Congress member who is a Republican critic of Trump’s, and called for her to be prosecuted by a type of military court reserved for enemy combatants and war criminals.
“Elizabeth Lynne Cheney is guilty of treason,” the post said. “Retruth if you want televised military tribunals.”
A separate post included photos of 15 former and current elected officials that said, in all-capital letters, “they should be going to jail on Monday not Steve Bannon!” Those officials included Biden, Harris, Pence, Schumer and McConnell — the top leaders in the Senate — and Rep. Nancy Pelosi, the former House speaker.
The list in the second post also had members of the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, including Cheney and former Illinois congress member Adam Kinzinger, another Republican, and Democratic Reps. Adam Schiff, Jamie Raskin, Pete Aguilar, Zoe Lofgren and Bennie Thompson, who chaired the committee.
In a statement, the Trump campaign did not address Trump’s posts, instead repeating allegations of misconduct by members of the committee, saying “Liz Cheney and the sham January 6th committee banned key witnesses, shielded important evidence, and destroyed documents” related to their investigation.
The posts were still listed on his profile Monday afternoon.
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