Trump arrests Democratic member of Congress while rewarding MAGA terrorist Ashli Babbitt
Trump's weaponization on parade
We’ve never seen a presidential administration weaponize government to the extent of Donald Trump--both by rewarding his supporters and punishing his “enemies.” And what we saw Monday sums it up perfectly. Trump had his DOJ arrest a Democratic member of Congress on BS charges of assaulting an ICE officer while he rewarded the family of MAGA terrorist Ashli Babbitt--who was killed while storming the Capitol on Jan. 6--with $5 million of your tax dollars.
This should make your blood boil—because it makes mine!
The arrest of New Jersey Democratic Rep. LaMonica McIver is as House Democratic leaders led by Hakeem Jeffries wrote in a statement, “extreme, morally bankrupt and lacks any basis in law or fact.” The charge arises from the May 9th visit by herself and two other New Jersey members of Congress to an ICE facility in Newark.
A scuffle broke out when the ICE agents suddenly arrested Newark Mayor Ras Baraka for allegedly trespassing. Videos show McIver being pushed by ICE agents and saying on video about one agent, “He just assaulted me.” There is also video of incidental contact between McIver and an armed ICE agent in tactical gear.
After the incident, Trump officials went on TV claiming that McIver “body slammed” an ICE agent and the video would back that up. It did not—that was a lie. Yet Trump’s US Attorney for New Jersey Alina Habba gleefully claimed on Monday McIver had “assaulted, impeded, and interfered with law enforcement” and charged her with a federal crime.
This is not the first fabricated charge by the Trump regime versus a Democrat. On Monday, Habba dropped the trespassing charge against Mayor Baraka, claiming it was “for the sake of moving forward.” In reality, as the evidence showed, Baraka was arrested on public property outside the ICE facility. You can’t trespass on public property—especially when you’re the Mayor of the city!
The arrest of McIver follows an alarming pattern from convicted felon Trump over his first four months of utilizing the power of the federal government to target his critics and perceived enemies. We’ve seen Trump’s rogue regime arrest a judge in Wisconsin and the Mayor of Newark, begin a criminal investigation into NY Attorney General Tish James plus threaten to prosecute the Mayor of Chicago and the governor of New Jersey.
Trump and his minions have also opened formal investigations into media outlets critical of him, the Democratic fundraising platform Act Blue, law firms, universities, people who used to work in the Trump regime but refused to lie that the 2020 election was stolen and more.
As Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-NJ)--who was with Rep. McIver at the ICE facility --told me last week, she expected Trump to charge her or McIver. Not because either did anything wrong but because as she noted the Trump regime is “out of control” with their “weaponization of law enforcement.” She rightly warned, “no one is safe form this administration.” (see clip below)
Trump is copying the authoritarian playbook to the page as Harvard Professor Steven Levitsky laid out in my interview last week. As he noted, “When citizens must think twice about criticizing or opposing the government because they could credibly face government retribution, they no longer live in a full democracy.” And that is the exact climate Trump is creating by design so that people self-censor.
But Trump is also doing something else—and that is rewarding those who have committed crimes on his behalf. The most glaring example being Trump’s praise and then pardon of approximately 1,500 people who attacked our Capitol on Jan. 6--including more than 600 who had been charged with assaulting, resisting or impeding law enforcement officers.
On Monday, Trump went even further in rewarding the terrorists who attacked our Capitol on Jan. 6. His regime is now paying the family of terrorist Ashli Babbitt $5 million in your tax dollars to settle a lawsuit her family brought against the government.
As a lawyer, let be crystal clear: The lawsuit was a loser. Babbitt had travelled to the Capitol on Jan. 6 to support Trump in literally killing his enemies. Babbitt was an avid follower of QAnon who had posted the day before the Jan. 6 attack on Twitter, “Nothing will stop us. They can try and try and try but the storm is here and it is descending upon DC in less than 24 hours....dark to light!”
“The storm” she was referring to per QAnon lore is where Trump “would capture and execute his opponents.” Babbitt’s was there-as The Wahington Post reported—in support of that QAnon mythology to ensure her beloved Trump would save America by vanquishing the “cabal of child abusers and Satan-worshiping Democrats.”
To accomplish that goal, Babbitt joined her fellow MAGA faithful in storming the Capitol. In the midst of that violent attack, she was confronted by Lt. Michael Byrd who was guarding a door that led to where members of Congress and staff were sheltering. As Byrd explained, he'd yelled repeatedly for the rioters to get back.
But Babbitt was on a mission. She intentionally defied his directions in an effort to help Trump stay in power and eliminate Democrats. The Justice Department noted in its review of the shooting, “As members of the mob continued to strike the glass doors, Ms. Babbitt attempted to climb through one of the doors where glass was broken out.” The DOJ report continued that officer Byrd “fired one round from his service pistol, striking Ms. Babbitt in the left shoulder, causing her to fall back from the doorway and onto the floor.” She was transported to the hospital, where she died.
In August of 2021, the Capitol Police concluded its review of the officer’s conduct and found the shooting of Babbitt was “consistent with the officer’s training and policies." And a second DOJ report concluded that Byrd shooting was justified given it was "in self-defense or in defense of the Members of Congress and others evacuating the House Chamber."
Yet Trump has made Babbitt a MAGA martyr, touting her as a “great patriot” and smearing the officer as a “murderer” and “lunatic” who killed her “for no reason.”
But this $5 million payday for Babbitt’s family is unlikely the last time our tax dollars support MAGA terrorists. In March, Trump raised the possibility of compensating more of the Jan 6 terrorists given they were in his view “patriots” who were so unfairly treated.
Again, we’ve never lived through a regime like Trump’s that has been so openly corrupt and openly weaponized our government in this fashion. Our job is to fill the void left by corporate media not covering these stories to alert our fellow Americans about the threat Trump poses to everything we believe in as Americans.
If someone breaks into your house and you shoot the intruder, you're considered a 2nd Amendment hero. But when a mob breaks into the Capitol and someone gets shot, the hero is the intruder. It's always and only okay if a right-winger does it.
The hoods are fully off. We must resist!