rob reiner
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'Nightmarish': Director Rob Reiner blasts Trump for what he’s 'destroyed in less than a year'
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“God & Country,” a new documentary produced by award-winning filmmaker Rob Reiner, focuses on the threat to democracy posed by the MAGA movement’s aggressive Christian nationalism—and the stakes in this year’s presidential election. The well-timed movie, directed by documentarian Dan Partland, opens in theaters Feb. 16.
“God & Country” was inspired by the book “The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism,” by journalist Katherine Stewart. The compelling documentary packs a lot of information into 90 minutes: some history of the modern Christian right political movement, the role that racism played in its founding, the movement’s focus on building political power, its zealous embrace of Trump, and its embrace of authoritarianism and political violence.
The Congressional Freethought Caucus sponsored a screening of “God & Country” at the U.S. Capitol Visitors Center in January, a site that magnified the emotional impact of footage from the attack on the Capitol three years earlier. Many of the Trump supporters who tried to prevent Congress from affirming his election defeat on Jan. 6, 2021, had been energized by religious-right leaders who told their followers that Trump was anointed by God to save Christian America.
Extensive footage of Christian nationalist leaders—the film’s credits include thanks to Right Wing Watch —allows viewers to hear movement leaders’ disturbing rhetoric and goals in their own voices.
To explain, contextualize, and debunk Christian nationalist voices and the lies they tell about American history, the filmmakers turn to a large cast of both secular and religious experts, some of them conservative and many of them Christian. The number of Christian critics of Christian nationalism featured in “God & Country” seems clearly designed to make it harder for far-right leaders to smear the movie as an attack on Christianity—something they have already, predictably, tried to do. Filmmakers also hope it will help their message reach communities of Christians who are unhappy with what has become the predominant public face of their faith.
Indeed, the Christian religious leaders, authors, and scholars included in the film express dismay at the way so many of their fellow Christians have come to embrace the idea that Trump was anointed by God, and the way that “spiritual warfare” became connected to political violence, with pro-Trump prophecies adding what one speaker calls “an extra degree of fanaticism.”
“The thing that keeps me up at night is that we lose democracy and that this country slides into a theocratic nation,” says University of Pennsylvania Professor Anthea Butler. When she is asked if that is possible, she responds, “We’re closer to now than we ever have been before. And America is on the precipice. And I personally don’t know if we’re going to stop ourselves from going over the other side.”
For skeptical viewers who might be tempted to view Butler’s comments as hyperbole, “God & Country” makes a convincing case. The film includes, for example, a clip shows Michael Flynn, who backed calls for Trump to declare martial law after the 2020 election and whom Trump has talked about bringing back into the White House if he is elected again, telling a Christian nationalist gathering, “If we are going to have one nation under God, which we must, we have to have one religion, one nation under God and one religion under God.”
During a Q&A session after the January screening, Reiner told the audience that he had first become aware of the threat of Christian nationalism when Norman Lear launched People For the American Way in the 1980s to push back against the growing power of the religious right. Reiner called the 2024 elections an “existential” moment at which Americans who do not share the Christian nationalists’ vision must mobilize to “preserve democracy.”
That sentiment is echoed by historian Jemar Tisby, who is featured in the film and wrote about it in his Substack newsletter. “White Christian nationalism is the greatest threat to democracy and the witness of the church in the United States today,” Tisby wrote. “As we head into a presidential election year, our best hope of saving democracy is by revealing the threats to it.”
mta? doku ‘Bad Faith’ a Must-See for Americans Concerned About Christian Nationalism
as the aggressive Christian nationalism that infuses the MAGA movement and Republican Party intensifies, journalists and filmmakers are paying closer attention to the threat this political ideology and its adherents pose to freedom in America. A must-watch new documentary, “Bad Faith: Christian Nationalism’s Unholy War on Democracy,” will be available for streaming on AppleTV, Amazon Prime, and Google Play beginning Friday, April 26.
Directed by Stephen Ujlaki and Christopher Jacob Jones and narrated by Peter Coyote, “Bad Faith” makes masterful use of archival and current footage of Christian nationalist religious and political figures, infographics, and interviews with scholars, religious leaders, political analysts, and even a former Trump administration official.
The film draws a compelling through line from the scheming power-building of Paul Weyrich, the right-wing operative who recruited Jerry Falwell and other evangelical preachers to create the religious-right as a political movement in the late 1970s, to the institution-destroying antidemocratic ambitions of MAGA insiders like Steve Bannon, as well as Donald Trump’s dominionist “prophets” and “apostles” and the Jan. 6 insurrectionists they inspired.
As Owen Gleiberman noted in a review for Variety, “what sounded like crackpot raving” from Weyrich’s tear-it-all-down manifesto 15 years ago is “now the cutting edge of the mainstream Republican Party.”
“Bad Faith” explains how that transformation happened, documenting the role played by the Council for National Policy, a partnership between anti-regulation, economically libertarian oil barons and the religious-right leaders who intended to remake the Republican Party, take over the Supreme Court, and use their political power to enforce “traditional” views of family, sexuality, and gender on the rest of the nation.
The Koch brothers poured tens of millions of dollars into “a state-of-the-art political data platform” that Council for National Policy groups use to collect personal information—including personal mental health, behavioral health, and treatment data—and use that information to micro-target individuals. (In “God & Country,” another documentary released earlier this year, Ralph Reed is shown bragging that his organization tracked “147 different data points” on the conservative Christians they targeted for turnout operations.)
“Bad Faith” also connects the modern Christian nationalist movement to a longer history. As the Rev. William Barber points out in the film, the use of religion to justify “all kinds of evils” is not a new phenomenon. At its peak in 1924, the KKK claimed 8 million members, mostly white evangelicals. Linda Gordon, author of “The Second Coming of the KKK,” describes that movement’s belief that new immigrants were subverting the destiny of America to be a white Protestant country. Sound familiar?
Sociologist Samuel Perry notes in the film that Christian Nationalism emerges at times of cultural conflict when those in power—mostly White Christian men—think their power is threatened. Randall Balmer, author of a 2021 book that shares the “Bad Faith” title, describes how court rulings challenging the tax-exempt status of racially segregationist schools, not abortion, motivated evangelical leaders to seek political power in the 1970s. They settled on abortion as a more politically palatable motivator than the defense of racial segregation. As “Freedom Road” author Lisa Sharon Harper notes, religious-right activists targeting the Supreme Court waved the banner of abortion in order to advance white supremacy.
As “Bad Faith” makes clear, religious-right leaders viewed Trump as a powerful blunt weapon in a long-term political and spiritual war against the federal government and institutions dominated by progressive forces. “The Council’s gambit had paid off,” the film notes about Trump’s time in office. “Christian nationalists were firmly embedded at the highest levels of government. The Supreme Court had an absolute majority of justices poised to overturn landmark civil and women’s rights decisions. Paul Weyrich’s vision of a Christian nation was becoming a reality.”
That explains why Christian nationalist leaders were willing to dismantle democracy to keep Trump in power. Members of the Council for National Policy and its political action arm went into “full combat mode” to promote Trump’s big lie, and, as Right Wing Watch documented, they supportedhis efforts to keep power after the 2020 election, portraying it as a holy war between the forces of good and evil. As Samuel Perry notes in the film, viewing politics as spiritual warfare between the forces of God and Satan makes it easy for those who see themselves on God’s side to “justify just about anything.”
While Rev. William Barber offers “Bad Faith” viewers hope that a nationwide justice-seeking movement can reach some of the people who have embraced the Christian nationalist movement, the documentary also argues that our democracy is more fragile that most Americans understand. The Republican Party, says strategist Steve Schmidt, is “more extreme, more dangerous, more committed to the autocratic project of gaining power than it was on Jan. 6, 2021. And this has to be confronted. And there is no issue that supersedes it.”
The Christian nationalist movement is going all-out to put Trump back in power, and its Project 2025 is preparing to “take the reins of government” if he wins. But the political infrastructure built by the Christian right and its allies is far bigger than Trump himself. “Regardless of what happens to Donald Trump, it’s the machinery of the Council for National Policy that has the staying power,” says Anne Nelson, author of “Shadow Network.” “And it’s that machinery that presents the lasting threat to our democracy.”
*“Bad Faith: Christian Nationalism’s Unholy War on Democracy”is a Panarea Production. Directed, Produced and Written by Stephen Ujlaki. Co-Director/Co-Producer: Chris Jones. Executive Producers: Peter D. Graves, John Ptak, Todd Stiefel, Mike Steed. Co-Producer: Doug Blush.
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wiki 2 24
ucla grad
Robert Reiner (born March 6, 1947) is an American actor and filmmaker. As an actor, Reiner first came to national prominence with the role of [Michael "Meathead" Stivic](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_%22Meathead%22_Stivic "Michael "Meathead" Stivic") on the CBS sitcom All in the Family (1971–1979), a performance that earned him two Primetime Emmy Awards.[1]
Reiner made his directorial film debut with heavy metal mockumentary This Is Spinal Tap (1984). He then earned acclaim directing the romantic comedy The Sure Thing (1985), coming of age drama Stand by Me (1986), fantasy adventure The Princess Bride (1987), romantic comedy When Harry Met Sally... (1989), psychological horror-thriller Misery (1990), his military courtroom drama A Few Good Men (1992) which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture, and romantic comedy-drama The American President (1995). He has earned nominations for four Golden Globe Awards for Best Director,[2] and for three Directors Guild of America Awards.[3]
Reiner's acting credits include Throw Momma from the Train (1987), Sleepless in Seattle (1993), Bullets Over Broadway (1994), The First Wives Club (1996), Primary Colors (1998), EDtv (1999), and The Wolf of Wall Street (2013).
Early life
Reiner was born into a Jewish family in the Bronx, New York, on March 6, 1947. His parents were Estelle Reiner (née Lebost; 1914–2008), an actress, and Carl Reiner (1922–2020), a renowned comedian, actor, writer, producer and director.[4] As a child, Reiner lived at 48 Bonnie Meadow Road in New Rochelle, New York; the home of the fictional Petrie family in The Dick Van Dyke Show, created by Rob's father, was 148 Bonnie Meadow Road. He studied at the UCLA Film School.[5]
Career
Reiner (with Sally Struthers, Carroll O'Connor and Jean Stapleton), as Michael Stivic on All in the Family, 1976
In the early 1960s Reiner served as a trainee/apprentice at the Bucks County Playhouse in New Hope, Pennsylvania. In the late 1960s, Reiner acted in bit roles in several television shows including Batman,[6] That Girl, The Andy Griffith Show, Room 222, Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. and The Beverly Hillbillies. During this time he also appeared in several films, including some by his father such as Where's Poppa? (1970). He began his career writing for the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour in 1968 and 1969, with Steve Martin as his writing partner as the two youngest writers on the show.
Two years later, Reiner became famous playing Michael Stivic, Archie Bunker's liberal son-in-law, on Norman Lear's 1970s situation comedy All in the Family, which was the most-watched television program in the United States for five seasons (1971–1976). The character's nickname "Meathead" (given to him by his cantankerous father-in-law Archie) became closely associated with him, even after he had left the role and went on to build a career as a director. Reiner has stated, "I could win the Nobel Prize and they'd write 'Meathead wins the Nobel Prize'."[7] For his performance, Reiner won two Emmy Awards, in addition to three other nominations, and five Golden Globe nominations. After an extended absence, Reiner returned to television acting with a recurring role on New Girl (2012–2018).
In October 1971, he had a guest role in an episode of The Partridge Family.[8] In 1972, Reiner, Phil Mishkin, and Gerry Isenberg created the situation comedy The Super for ABC. Starring Richard S. Castellano, the show depicted the life of the harried Italian American superintendent of a New York City apartment building and ran for 10 episodes in the summer of 1972. Reiner and Mishkin co-wrote the premiere episode.
Beginning in the 1980s, Reiner became known as a director of several successful Hollywood films that spanned many different genres. Some of his earlier films include cult classics such as the rock-band mockumentary This Is Spinal Tap (1984) and the comedic fantasy film The Princess Bride (1987), as well as his period piece coming of age tale Stand by Me (1986). He often collaborates with film editor Robert Leighton, whom he also shares with fellow director-actor Christopher Guest as their go-to editor.
Reiner has gone on to direct other critically and commercially successful films with his own company, Castle Rock Entertainment. These include the romantic comedy When Harry Met Sally... (1989), which has been critically ranked among the all-time best of its genre,[9] the tense thriller Misery (1990), for which Kathy Bates won the Academy Award for Best Actress, and his most commercially successful work, the military courtroom drama A Few Good Men (1992), which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture.[10] Subsequent films directed by Reiner include the political romance The American President (1995), the courtroom drama Ghosts of Mississippi (1996), and the uplifting comedy The Bucket List (2007).
Reiner has continued to act in supporting roles in a number of films and television shows, including Throw Momma from the Train (1987), Sleepless in Seattle (1993), Bullets over Broadway (1994), The First Wives Club (1996), Primary Colors (1998), EDtv (1999), New Girl (2012–2018), and The Wolf of Wall Street (2013). He has also parodied himself with cameos in works such as Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star (2003), and 30 Rock (2010).
In December 2023 Reiner opened the primetime CBS special Dick Van Dyke: 98 Years of Magic with a tribute to, and conversation with, Dick Van Dyke.[11]
Political views
Rob Reiner speaking at a Howard Dean rally on October 29, 2003
Reiner has devoted considerable time and energy to liberal activism.[12]
Reiner is a co-founder of the American Foundation for Equal Rights, which initiated the court challenge against California Proposition 8 that banned same-sex marriage in the state.[13]
In 1998, Reiner chaired the campaign to pass Prop 10, the California Children and Families Initiative, which created First 5 California, a program of early childhood development services, funded by a tax on tobacco products. He served as the first chairman of First 5 California, from 1999 to 2006. His lobbying, particularly as an anti-smoking advocate, prompted his likeness to be used in a satirical role in a South Park episode titled "Butt Out".[14][15] Reiner came under criticism for campaigning for a ballot measure (Prop 82) to fund state-run preschools while still chair of the First Five Commission, causing him to resign from his position on March 29, 2006. An audit was conducted, and it concluded that the state commission did not violate state law and that it had clear legal authority to conduct its public advertising campaigns related to preschool. Prop 82 failed to win approval, garnering only 39.1% support.
Reiner is a member of the Social Responsibility Task Force, an organization advocating moderation where social issues (such as violence and tobacco use) and the entertainment industry meet. He is also active in environmental issues, and he successfully led the effort to establish California's Ahmanson Ranch as a state park and wildlife refuge rather than as a commercial real estate development. He introduced Spinal Tap at the London Live Earth concert in July 2007.
\
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Rob_Reiner_LBJ_Library_2016_-_DIG13955_105.jpg)Reiner at the LBJ Presidential Library in 2016
Reiner was mentioned as a possible candidate to run against California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2006 but decided not to run for personal reasons. He campaigned extensively for Democratic presidential nominee Al Gore in the 2000 presidential election, and he campaigned in Iowa for Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean just before the 2004 Iowa caucuses. He endorsed Hillary Clinton for president for the 2008 election. In 2015, he donated $10,000 to Correct the Record, a political action committee that supported Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign.[16] Since the 2016 election, he has continued to campaign against Donald Trump, calling him racist, sexist, anti-gay, and anti-Semitic. Reiner said that Harvey Weinstein is a "bad guy" but Trump is "also an abuser".[17]
:{:{Reiner serves on the advisory board of the Committee to Investigate Russia.[18][19] He and David Frum launched the site in September 2017 with Morgan Freeman warning people that "We are at war" and that Russia has attacked the United States.[19]}:
Others on the committee's advisory board at the time of launch included James Clapper, Max Boot, Charles Sykes, and Norman Ornstein.[19][20] Additionally, in early November 2020, the advisory board included Evelyn Farkas, Michael Hayden, Michael Morrell, Leon Panetta, and Clint Watts.[21]}:
Reiner endorsed Joe Biden for president for the 2020 election.[22]
In June 2021, Reiner said that he was working on a 10- to 13-episode TV project covering the relationship between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump. The project, he said, would cover the leaders' childhoods up until the point where their lives cross. Reiner said he is working with writer Ward Parry on the project, which he is calling The Spy and the Asset.[23][24]
Personal life
Rob Reiner married actress/director Penny Marshall in 1971. He adopted Marshall's daughter, actress Tracy Reiner (A League of Their Own), from a previous marriage to Michael Henry. Reiner and Marshall divorced in 1981.[25]
Reiner was introduced to his future wife, photographer Michele Singer, while directing When Harry Met Sally. The meeting not only resulted in his decision to change the ending of that film,[26] but he also married Singer in 1989. They have three children, Jake (born 1991), Nick (born 1993), and Romy (born 1997). In 1997, Reiner and Singer founded the "I Am Your Child Foundation", and in 2004, they founded the "Parents' Action for Children", a non-profit organization with a dual purpose: a) to raise awareness of the importance of a child's early years by producing and distributing celebrity-hosted educational videos for parents, and b) to advance public policy through parental education and advocacy.[27]
Reiner has stated that his childhood home was not observantly Jewish, although he did have a bar mitzvah ceremony;[28] Reiner's father Carl acknowledged that he himself had become an atheist as the Holocaust progressed.[29] Rob identified himself as having no religious affiliation on the January 13, 2012, episode of Real Time with Bill Maher and as an atheist.[30][31] Reiner later told Huffington Post contributor Debra Oliver that while he rejected organized religion, he was sympathetic to the ideas of Buddhism.[30]
In addition to his four children, Reiner has five grandchildren, through his adopted daughter Tracy.[32]
Filmography
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“rob reiner’s war” ?
also did not ask Fredericks -- who describes himself as “the Trump campaign’s Virginia chairman” and serves on Trump’s 2020 presidential advisory board -- about his
with Scheuer, in which the latter characterized several prominent public officials as “maggots” and undocumented immigrants as “vermin.”
Such dehumanizing language is, according to David Neiwert, author of “Alt-America: The Rise of the Radical Right in the Age of Trump” and the Pacific Northwest correspondent for the Southern Poverty Law Center, a forerunner to justifications for murder, as seen in the rhetoric of 19th-century minister and self-proclaimed Indian-hater Col. John Chivington, which preceded a massacre; Bill O’Reilly’s demonization of Dr. George Tiller on Fox News, before the abortion provider’s assassination; and the “hate radio” talk that inspired genocide in Rwanda.
“Violent eliminationist rhetoric like this has a long and deep history in America,” Neiwert told Salon, “from Col. Chivington declaring ‘Nits make lice’ at Sand Creek to Bill O’Reilly labeling Dr. George Tiller ‘the Baby Killer.’ It creates permission for less stable, more violent actors to murder their targets in cold blood. We saw rhetoric like this inspire the massacre of thousands of people in Rwanda, and its purpose here is to do the same for our country and its citizens. It’s not just vile, it’s profoundly dangerous and profoundly un-American.”
Many CNN journalists, including Costello, Tapper and Acosta, have reported on President Trump’s claims that the media are “the enemy of the people.” They and others have sought to hold White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders (who has appeared on Fredericks’ show, and who has recently elevated and validated him at a White House press briefing) accountable for her silence, which some observers might view as complicity.
Recently, CNN’s Don Lemon held Fredericks accountable on-air for defending Trump’s characterization of nations in the developing world as “shithole countries” by cutting his mic. That CNN has continued to give Fredericks a platform is surprising. CNN could have and should have known about Fredericks’ and Scheuer’s promotion of eliminationist rhetoric –– and disclosed to viewers this fact and its significance –– lest anyone come to misinterpret CNN’s silence as complicity.
When Salon asked CNN spokesman Richard Hudock why the network continues to provide Fredericks a platform, despite his promotion of the views of an ex-CIA agent who has said it is almost time for armed Trump voters to murder journalists and other prominent Americans, including CNN's own Tapper and Acosta, he had no comment.
“Kill them. Kill them all!”
Scheuer is a frequent guest and occasional host of John Fredericks Radio, which routinely directs its listeners to his blog, where he wrote on July 14 that it was “quite near time” for “well-armed citizens who voted for Trump” to “kill those seeking to impose tyranny,” of whom there was a “long and very precise list” of journalists, activists, pundits, abortion providers, Republican and Democratic elected officials, federal judges, law professors, FBI agents, intelligence officials and Justice Department officials, along with “all who support them.”
“If Trump does not act soon to erase the above noted tyranny and tyrants,” he concluded, “the armed citizenry must step in and eliminate them.”
As recently as July 17, Scheuer, writing on his blog,cast as “traitors” a number of public officials – as well as journalists Tapper, Acosta, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow and reporters for the Washington Post and New York Times. He said that these members of the media, along with members of Congress, federal bureaucrats, and “prominent Jewish-Americans” who participate in, oversee or report on the “Russia-hacking” investigation are “more than worthy of merciless annihilation.”
The same day, Scheuer appeared on John Fredericks Radio, on which he commended the example of Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom he said killed indiscriminately in Syria – as if suggesting that were a good thing. Fredericks said this reminded him of Confederate Gen. Stonewall Jackson, who once said, “Kill them. Kill them all!”
“Kill them all,” Scheuer repeated. “And whoever supports them. Kill them, too.”
Fredericks echoed, “Kill them, too.”
John Fredericks’ signal-boosting of Scheuer’s eliminationist rhetoric escalated on the same day that Salon published its report, “Trump-endorsed radio show has promoted ex-CIA agent’s call for right-wing rebellion.”
Scheuer Fredericks’ listeners that, while GoDaddy had taken down his website (archived here) after his inflammatory July 17 blog post, he planned to launch a new blog at the domain non-intervention2.com, which he said is “now registered” with JustHost, one of dozens of hosting companies owned by Endurance International Group (@EnduranceIntl) of Burlington, Massachusetts. The site at that domain, registered anonymously with JustHost on July 21, went live on Aug. 7.
Fredericks repeated the domain name for the benefit of listeners. He said that Scheuer’s website had offered “insight and analysis that no one else has, and I value that.”
“We look forward to your getting your website back up, so your blogs can get going,” said Fredericks. “You should be able to post whatever you please.” However, the Freedom Forum Institute – the education and outreach partner of the Freedom Forum and the Newseum – has pointed out that the First Amendment does not protect some types of speech, such as plagiarism, false advertising, defamation, child pornography, blackmail, solicitation to commit crimes, incitement to imminent lawless action or true threats.
Scheuer told Fredericks that he was attempting to transfer all his previous blog posts to the new domain. These collectively represent years of his vision of “a collective, armed, and wide-ranging American rebellion” to eradicate “tyranny,” along with lists of people whom he casts as “tyrants,” “traitors,” “miscreants,” “maggots” and “expendables,” and whom he says Trump voters should prepare to shoot or hang, and soon. For example, in a July 2 blog post, Scheuer advised giving Trump time to act, and holding off the “reckoning” until at least Aug. 1. He wrote, “If this period passes, Americans are in the happy position of already being well-armed and in possession of an initial, partial list of miscreants who are in desperate need of attrition.”
Scheuer’s inaugural blog post
This is why CNN’s platforming of Fredericks matters. Fredericks amplifies Scheuer’s voice and promotes his website; this call to armed rebellion is what readers will find when they go there. Scheuer filed his inaugural blog post on his new site on Aug. 7. He protested that GoDaddy had taken down his previous site due to his argument “that if Trump cannot/will not enforce the law and arrest, try, incarcerate, and, if the law allows, execute those who believe and act as if they are above it, American citizens will have to do their duty by using their weapons to snuff out the authors of tyranny” along with “those who support them.”
“I stand not as an inciter,” Scheuer claimed, despite his advocacy of armed rebellion, “but rather as the incited and as a responder to the clear threats of civil war” which, he said, come from Democrats, the media, academics, the financial and tech industries, antifa and Black Lives Matter activists, teachers’ unions, “the minority groups,” feminists, immigrants, members of the LGBTQ community and advocates of the value of diversity. “Those are the sources that are solely responsible for the civil war that is nearing,” he wrote. “That they are ignorant, or feign ignorance, of that fact will add to their surprise if the time for Rob Reiner’s war comes and so many of them find themselves reaping the armed whirlwind they and ol’ Rob have sown.”
He also embraced Russian President Vladimir Putin as a champion for white people, adding that “it seemed ridiculous to worry about Russian meddling in U.S. elections.” Scheuer mused, “I have nattered on here longer than I intended.” He then excoriated the “tech giants” for removing content from “Alec Jones” [sic]. “In banning Jones,” he warned, “those on the left again have proven that they are the ones who are seeking to provoke a civil war. ... My own hunch is that if their provocations work, they will enjoy the reality of war with considerably less gusto than they did while so loudly calling for and provoking it.”
“The truth shall make you free”
Scheuer made clear to John Fredericks Radio listeners, in his July 31 interview, that he had no intention of tempering his violent visions or inflammatory rhetoric. Indeed, in defense of his recent blog posts, he said that the Declaration of Independence provides the American people “a duty to kill those who are trying to impose tyranny.” He said that “if you have a tyranny being imposed on you, it is your right, it’s your duty, to resist it.” When he added, “And that means using the Second Amendment,” Fredericks appeared to ratify this idea of gun violence, saying, “The truth, Dr. Scheuer, will set you free. No doubt.”
While any Christian listeners might have recognized “The truth shall make you free” as a quote from the Gospel of John, others who might have caught the broadcast, such as Scheuer’s wife, CIA senior official Alfreda Frances Bikowsky, would know it as the agency’s motto.
“The vermin we see running around”
Scheuer went on to characterize Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., vice chair of the Select Committee on Intelligence, Justice Department special counsel Robert Mueller, prosecutor Andrew Weissmann of Mueller’s team, and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper as “maggots” who, he says, “have to be eradicated.”
“Weissmann, Mueller, Warner, these are not men, John,” he said. “These are maggots. And our system is loaded with these maggots. Whether it’s Clapper, or any of the rest of them that we’ve talked about this morning. And the system has to be cleaned. They have to be eradicated out of the system.”
Fredericks introduced the topic of what to do about illegal immigration on the Mexican border, and how to respond to people who call for the abolition of ICE.
“I think the vermin we see running around – ” Scheuer began, “without ICE, it would be up to the American people to stop immigration. And there’s only one way to do that, John. And that’s with weaponry. These people are playing with civil war, with fire, with horrible results.” He went on to suggest that without ICE, the situation would require “an armed citizenry” to take vigilante action.
In a series of essays, Neiwert has described eliminationist rhetoric as a shunning of “dialogue and the democratic exchange of ideas” by advocating the “outright elimination of the opposing side,” often exemplified by descriptions of the “enemy” as “vermin.”
Such rhetoric “always depicts its opposition as simply beyond the pale,” Neiwert has written, “and in the end the embodiment of evil itself – unfit for participation in their vision of society, and thus in need of elimination.”
“It often depicts its designated ‘enemy’ as vermin (especially rats and cockroaches) or diseases, and loves to incessantly suggest that its targets are themselves disease carriers,” Neiwert continued. “A close corollary – but not as nakedly eliminationist – are claims that the opponents are traitors or criminals, or gross liabilities for our national security, and thus inherently fit for elimination or at least incarceration.”
Such depictions are “often voiced as crude ‘jokes’,” Neiwert noted, “the humor of which, when analyzed, is inevitably predicated on a venomous hatred. But what we also know about this rhetoric is that, as surely as night follows day, this kind of talk eventually begets action, with inevitably tragic results.”
CNN commentator Ana Navarro has responded forcefully to this kind of dehumanizing talk. On CNN’s “New Day,” Navarro has accused President Trump of “dehumanizing people” by referring to “animals” during a discussion on immigration. “It’s what the Nazis did,” she said. “It’s what slave owners did. It’s not what Americans do.” She advised Trump to “measure his words.”
This week, Apple, Google and Facebook announced that they had removed content from conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and his Infowars show, which Facebook said violated its policy against “dehumanizing language.” Whether one agrees with their actions or not, they were within their First Amendment rights to do so. As Freedom Forum Institute president Gene Policinski has stated, “the amendment is designed to restrain the government, not private companies.” It remains to be seen whether these corporations will respond in a similar fashion to John Fredericks Radio, which has its own Facebook page, and is available on YouTube and as an iTunes podcast.
Fredericks, however, neither questioned nor challenged Scheuer’s visions of civil war and vigilantes shooting immigrants like “vermin,” and eradicating public servants he dehumanizes as “maggots.” Instead, Fredericks thanked him for his “intriguing insight” and wished him well on the relaunch of his website.
Two days later, Carol Costello hosted Fredericks on HLN to discuss characterizations of journalists as enemies of the people. No doubt everyone at CNN understands the seriousness of such violent rhetoric and the urgency of holding Trump’s administration and his campaign accountable for their silence, which might fairly be seen as complicity.
When CNN journalists have received threats, the network has taken them seriously. CNN media critic Brian Stelter recently aired a C-SPAN clip of a caller threatening to shoot him and Lemon. Stelter said such calls and emails are “coming in more often.” But the fact remains that CNN has continued to provide a platform for Fredericks while turning a blind eye towards his involvement with Scheuer, who has called for the “merciless annihilation” of numerous people, including reporters for CNN and its competitors. CNN’s confusion about how best to respond to the notion that they are the enemy of the people recalls the ironic phrase often associated with Walt Kelly’s cartoon possum Pogo: “We have met the enemy, and he is us.”