Donald Trump is a ‘Threat to Democracy’ After Bloodbath Remark: Kirschner

Former federal prosecutor Glenn Kirschner condemned Donald Trump’s “bloodbath” remarks and warned that the former president is a “threat to democracy.”

Kirschner, a former assistant U.S. attorney and frequent Trump critic, called for the former president to have his bond revoked over his comments on Saturday.

Trump, the presumed 2024 Republican presidential nominee who was in Ohio on Saturday for a campaign stop at the Buckeye Values PAC rally, is facing mounting criticism for telling rallygoers that there will be a “bloodbath” if he loses to his Democratic rival President Joe Biden in November.

“Now if I don’t get elected, it’s going to be a bloodbath for the whole—that’s gonna be the least of it,” Trump said. “It’s going to be a bloodbath for the country. That will be the least of it.”

Trump’s comments quickly went viral and sparked a flurry of reactions on social media. While supporters of the Make America Great Again (MAGA) leader defended his “bloodbath” remarks and argued they were taken out of context, critics accused Trump of inciting violence.

Steven Cheung, the Trump campaign’s communications director, told Newsweek in an email that the former president meant “economically it will be a bloodbath because Crooked Joe Biden’s policies have decimated working families.”

Newsweek reached out via email on Sunday night to Kirschner for comment.

Kirschner weighed in on the bloodbath remarks during Sunday’s segment of his Justice Matters podcast, where he said, “Trump tried to walk it back later saying he was really talking about what would happen to the auto industry if he wasn’t elected, but his words belie that indeed they contradict that BS walk back.”

The former prosecutor blasted Trump and compared Saturday’s remarks to his January 6, 2021, rhetoric, for which Trump is accused of inciting the U.S. Capitol riot by spreading unfounded claims of widespread voter fraud during the 2020 election. The claims led to a deadly siege as part of an effort to block Joe Biden’s 2020 Electoral College victory.

Trump was indicted on four counts by the Department of Justice (DOJ) for his alleged role in the insurrection, including conspiracy to defraud the United States; conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding; obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding; and conspiracy against rights. Trump, meanwhile, has maintained his innocence, accusing prosecutors of investigating him of attempting to derail his 2024 presidential campaign.

More than 1,265 individuals have been charged by the DOJ for their alleged involvement in the violent riot, with many already convicted and serving sentences.

Kirschner also took aim at Trump for making the bloodbath comments while facing dozens of felony charges in four separate criminal indictments. The former president had pleaded not guilty to all the charges.

“He is a threat to everyone in the United States of America,” Kirschner said. “He is a threat to democracy. He launched an attack on January 6 against our democracy and it turned out to be a deadly attack. And he launched it with far less inflammatory language than he just used at the rally on Saturday: ‘There will be a bloodbath in this country.’ Do you understand me? That’s what he just said. He’s actually ratcheted up the recklessness and the violence of his rhetoric. And he’s on pretrial release in four felony cases.”

The former prosecutor argued that Trump’s comments are dangerous and said that being a former president and presumptive GOP presidential nominee doesn’t give him a free pass.

“He shouldn’t be allowed to endanger our nation and her people and our democracy with this kind of violence-inducing rhetoric, more reckless than his rhetoric on January 6,” Kirschner said. “This is institutional insanity if the institutions of government just receive this with a shrug. Do what the law provides, revoke Donald Trump on release, detain him pending trial. And for gosh sakes, let our country begin to move forward again.”