Elizabeth Warren Has More Strong Words For Donald Trump
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Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) issued another statement about Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on Monday, imploring voters from all parties to reject the GOP front-runner. In a Facebook post — shared more than 56,000 times in the last 24 hours — Warren emphasized the need to speak out against Trump in light of the growing "threat" he poses in the 2016 election.
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"There's a history of demagogues calling those they disagree with 'terrorists' and using that as justification for intimidation and violence — and that history is ugly and dangerous," Warren wrote. "There's also a history of people staying quiet for too long, hoping for the best but watching silently as the threat metastasizes."
She called Trump a "bigger, uglier threat every day that goes by" and encouraged "decent people everywhere" to take a stand. "There's no virtue in silence," Warren wrote.
The first part of her Facebook post appeared to reference an incident that took place at a Donald Trump rally in Dayton, Ohio, over the weekend, where a protestor attempted to rush the stage. The incident prompted U.S. Secret Service agents to form a human barricade around the presidential candidate, and Trump subsequently claimed that the protestor was affiliated with the so-called Islamic State. (That point has been debunked by multiple sources; the man, 22-year-old Thomas DiMassimo, is a political activist with no known ties to the terrorist group.)
In the days before and after the Ohio rally, there have numerous account of violent clashes between protestors and Trump supporters at the candidate's campaign events, including one in Chicago where Trump canceled a rally due to security concerns. While Trump indicated that Chicago law enforcement advised him to postpone the rally, the Chicago Police Department denied that it had made the recommendation.
Ever since the Chicago protest, there has been an apparent ramping up of criticism as far as Trump's candidacy is concerned, with more people speaking out against the candidate as he's closed in on the Republican nomination. ATTN: reported on a viral post from the creator of Humans of New York, who condemned Trump on Facebook on Monday — but he's by no means the only one.
Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders doubled down on their opposition to Trump at a CNN town hall on Sunday, condemning the recent violence at his rallies. On Monday, House Speaker Paul Ryan called on Trump to take responsibility for the "environment" at his events and said "[t]here is never an excuse for condoning violence, or even a culture that presupposes it." And on Monday, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio also criticized the businessman for using racism "as a strategic tool" to incite violence.
