Former FBI counterterrorism specialist compares Trump and his enemies record to Saddam Hussein | EUROtoday

An ex-FBI counterterrorism skilled in contrast President Donald Trump to Saddam Hussein simply earlier than his threat-filled speech on the Department of Justice on Friday.

Christopher O’Leary, a former senior government on the FBI’s counterterrorism division, described the parallels between the Republican and the previous Iraqi chief in an interview with MSNBC.

“If Donald Trump wants to prosecute a perceived enemy, does he have the people … who will do the hard work of investigating at the FBI?” MSNBC’s Katy Tur requested.

“I don’t think so. But, I like to point people back to Saddam Hussein in 1979,” O’Leary responded. “There’s a famous clip where he actually brings a bunch of people into a theater and talks about a conspiracy against him, and starts reading out 58 names of people who were conspiring against him, and secret police come and escort the people out one by one.”

When you “get to double digits, people start bowing and pledging fealty to him,” he continued. “When you start using intimidation and coercion to go after any group of people, sooner or later, you’re going to get down to a group that’s going to be compliant.”

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Moments after O’Leary’s remarks, Trump gave a speech on restoring “law and order” on the Justice Department to spout conspiracies and specify targets on his enemies record, together with former particular counsel Jack Smith, whom he known as “deranged,” and named media organizations whose information reporting is “illegal,” he claimed.

He claimed that his 2024 election victory had “given us a mandate” for “a far-reaching investigation … into the corruption of our system” by Democrats, voting to “expel the rogue actors and corrupt forces from our government” and “expose their egregious crimes and severe misconduct.”

It’s unclear that’s what his voters have been voting for. As for a “mandate,” Trump received the assist of about 33 % of eligible voters in America.

The president additionally argued the division had allowed a “corrupt group of hacks within the ranks of the American government [to] obliterate the trust and goodwill built up over generations.”

As Trump spoke about weaponizing the DOJ to go after his perceived enemies, he railed that the Justice Department “weaponized the vast powers of our intelligence and law enforcement agencies to try and thwart the will of the American people” throughout felony investigations in opposition to him.

Trump’s feedback adopted the company’s firing of dozens of prosecutors who helped examine the rioters concerned within the January 6, 2021 Capitol assaults. Trump additionally shut down the January 6 probe on his first day in workplace, and pardoned some 1,500 individuals convicted for crimes associated to the riots, together with some seen on stay TV by tens of millions of Americans assaulting law enforcement officials. Trump known as the rioters “hostages” in his speech.

The president known as on prosecutors to analyze a number of media organizations he claims are biased in opposition to him, similar to CNN and MSNBC.

“They’re not legitimate people. They’re horrible people, they’re scum. And you have to know that … And I believe that CNN and [MSNBC] who literally write 97.6% bad about me, are political arms of the Democrat Party. And in my opinion, they’re really corrupt and they’re illegal. What they do is illegal,” he stated.

His remarks echo prior statements from FBI Director Kash Patel, who as soon as vowed to prosecute journalists he believes have “lied about American citizens who helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections.”

Biden’s critics have but to provide you with any proof that 2020 election Trump misplaced was rigged.