Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee ® on Wednesday said 2024 will be the last election “decided by ballots rather than bullets” if former President Trump doesn’t win the presidential race because of his various legal battles.

In the latest episode of his show on TBN, Huckabee argued the legal woes now facing Trump are part of a politically motivated scheme from the Biden administration, an argument touted by many in the former president’s orbit.

“If these tactics end up working to keep Trump from winning or even running in 2024, it is going to be the last American election that will be decided by ballots rather than bullets,” Huckabee warned in his opening monologue.

Huckabee accused President Biden and his team of trying “to make sure that Donald Trump is not his opponent in 2024″ and “to destroy Trump in the courthouse rather than at the ballot box.” He also alleged the Justice Department, the IRS and the FBI are “conspiring to hide the Biden family crimes, while all the time being obsessed with charging Donald Trump with crimes.”

    • Taleya@aussie.zone
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      Seriously. They’re just gonna keep doing this dancing on the edges bullshit until someone comes down on them fucking hard.

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        The Prison Boys leader who just got 22 years in prison admitted he knew all along that Convicted Sex Offender Treason Trump did not win the election. The media needs to point out the obvious. That the Prison Boys and Oathbreakers are Tory militia groups who were trying to destroy the Founding Father’s government and reestablish a dictatorship/monarchy.

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      Feels like pretty strong linkages to obstruction of justice if you’re trying to brazenly influence the outcome of a trial under the threat of violence.

    • BlanketsWithSmallpox@lemmy.world
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      The amount of Republicans that have no idea how strapped Democrats are is too damn high lol. While I’d love c/liberalgunowners to be as high as Republicans but, it’s not THAT much of a numbers difference. 6/10 of Republicans live in a gun household vs 1/4 Democrats. Republicans usually sit at 40% of the pop vs Democrats at 50%.

      Then they’ll be fighting against the damn US Military with only the really full on bat shit Republicans. Jan 6th already showed us how many actually wanted to nut up. Hey, turns out not that many! There’s a reason why there was a whopping 2, 3-star generals, RETIRED, that came out in favor of Trump. People think the military is filled with nothing but Republicans too, but Joe Biden beat Trump by 4 points in the military in 2020 lol.

      The crazy fucks had their chance on January 6th already lol. Sorry people, it’s not going to be a civil war. It’s going to be increasing amounts of Republican extremism like it already has been for the last decade and more.

      In the United States in 2022, 48 percent of Republicans reported that they owned at least one gun, and 66 percent said that they lived in a household with a gun. In comparison, only 20 percent of Democrats owned at least one gun, and 31 percent lived a gun household.

      https://www.statista.com/statistics/249775/percentage-of-population-in-the-us-owning-a-gun-by-party-affiliation/

      Pew Graph

      https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2017/06/22/the-demographics-of-gun-ownership/

      • BottleOfAlkahest@lemmy.world
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        The military is also really split along certain lines when it comes to D vs R. Higher ranks tend to have more education and some vote along their education lines. More junior people seem to follow point of entry political lines (which for many is admittedly the south but not all).

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          There’s the observation that younger people are much more likely to be liberal. Which explains why the military voted Democratic. And the more educated wing of the military are more Democratic. Essentially, the military is arguably increasingly liberal over time.

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            Veterans are also more likely to learn left. I’m not sure if that’s cause of what we saw, or because half the wannabe Rambo types got themselves killed, but the majority of people who survived tend to go left.

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          The senior officer corps of the US military despises Trump, for obvious reasons.

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        Liberals/democrats have better trigger discipline and training. I’d guarantee it. They could outnumber 10-1 but they also kill one another and themselves too often to not be a statistic to consider in this.

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      Luckily most Trumpers wouldn’t last more than a few minutes in a firefight before they run out of breath.

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      An extremely violent one at that. Now, let’s watch how quickly nothing continues to happen as a result of it.

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      Maybe the Trump case sets some kind of new precedent that means desperate politicians using violent rhetoric like this will face real consequences?

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    He also alleged the Justice Department, the IRS and the FBI are “conspiring to hide the Biden family crimes, while all the time being obsessed with charging Donald Trump with crimes.”

    Did all those supposed Biden crimes occur since 2020? No? Then why did the Trump administration let these supposed crimes go uninvestigated?

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      Anyone who says “Biden crime family” or a similar variant / transposition unironically, I have to ignore.

      For my own sanity.

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      Not to mention Hunter Biden is getting his in court? It’s just boring tax fraud and a gun charge and he’s taking his punishments without much fuss and working to rectify his transgressions, tho, so nobody cares. Also he never worked for the government in any capacity ever.

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      Well it would be the perfect Trump response to know of Biden’s crimes (not that there’s any evidence of the current President commiting any) and then ask (edit: blackmail…again messed up, extort) Ukraine to help him rather than asking why the legal system is not taking action. Like what you’d expect the D student in class thinking is the correct response to a situation.

      Of course then you have to forget that there were some people intelligent enough in the administration to figure it out.

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        Yeah, the gop has no principles.

        They just say whatever if this help them enact christian and regressive laws.

        State rights are only mentionned to enact conservative policies, otherwise ignored when comes time to push federal laws.

        Children are out of limit for sex ed, but it is perfectly fine to endoctrinate them with jesus.

        Trans kids should not be allowed the treatment recommended by doctors, but gay kids should be sent to conversion camps mandated by the church.

        I could go on. They just use whatever bullshit argument like “protect the kids” because they can’t say the real reasons out loud. They probably think that this is also what liberals do, that this whole debate thing is just a game. Just say whatever makes you “win” the argument, you’re on Jesus side anyway and they’re not.

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    His daughter is governor of a state. He was governor of a state. These are the kinds of people republicans are voting for office- do not let republicans get away with bastardizing the meaning of patriot. They are traitors at worst or traitor sympathizers at best.

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      Yep. I will die of old age before there is any chance of a Republican ever deserving my vote, or of the Republican party convincing me that they have moved on from fascism.

      It would be like science fiction.

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    These aren’t even veiled threats anymore. These are actual, out-in-the-open threats and they continue to happen because Democrats aren’t doing anything about them.

    Within hours of Huckabee making these threats, the FBI or Secret Service should be parading him in the streets with handcuffs on as they bring him in for questioning. Make an example of him, Palin and all the other right wing lunatics that are threatening our democracy.

    But as usual, we give right wing lunatics a free-pass and then wonder why they continue to escalate this issue.

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      And meanwhile, Trump is openly stating that his second term would be a revenge tour where he’ll arrest anyone who opposes him. He doesn’t care if there are any actual crimes committed because he thinks opposing him is a crime in itself.

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        Thus fascism. And a good 1/4 to 1/3 of the country agrees with him, and the remaining 3/4 to 2/3 of the country either have no idea what is happening or are too busy bickering amongst themselves.

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      We will look back on the Dems the same way we look at the socdems in Germany who put up almost no resistance to the Nazis coming to power. I’d love to be wrong.

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        I unfortunately have to agree to some extent.

        There are so few Dems out there who are willing to duke it out with the Right. I don’t blame Biden for not stooping down to the level of tweeting insults to the Right. He’s president and thus should appear presidential not like his clown of a predecessor. But for fucks sakes there should be someone in the Democratic party that instigates the Right and is willing to play dirty and call them out on their shit. AOC was a firecracker and even when I disagreed with her, I loved that she would duke it out with any Republican. But there are so few others.

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          Lawmaker Jasmine Crockett from Texas of all places also comes to mind! Her direct, no bullshit approach calling out MTG with the receipts along with her personality has me rooting for her every time

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            There aren’t many. There is an Asian Democrat from CA (Lieu or something like that) who throws out some jabs once in a while. Dems used to have more aggressive members, but in their infinite wisdom, they are quick to turn on their own for the flimsiest of reasons - Al Franken comes to mind. He wasn’t so much as agressive, as simply being great at connecting with voters. But he’s now gone. Slim pickings now.

            • grue@lemmy.world
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              Dems used to have more aggressive members, but in their infinite wisdom, they are quick to turn on their own for the flimsiest of reasons - Al Franken comes to mind.

              What you’re seeing is the neoliberal (i.e., moderately conservative) wing of the party systematically suppressing the actual leftist wing of the party. You say “in their infinite wisdom” as if it’s a mistake, but they don’t see it as one.

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                Spare me the nonsense. The left couldn’t win elections in the bluest cities in the bluest counties in the bluest states and yet somehow the Dems are supposed to fall over themselves to support far-left causes??? Why? Where is the incentive? The Left time and time and time again proves they can’t bring in the voters. And to be clear, I would like it if Dems had more liberal members, but I know what the reality is. Something that far too many people on the Left simply refuse to admit - the Left doesn’t have the numbers. So you can claim some conspiracy-level nonsense about “systematically suppressing” blah-blah-blah, but votes win elections, and if you don’t win elections, you as a political party have no power to enact laws.

                I am happy to vote and support more centrist politicians who I might agree with on 80+% of the issues out there and can actually WIN elections, than hold out for some unicorn candidate who I agree with on all issues, but has no chance in bloody hell of winning anything. Because ultimately the alternative is some far-right douchebag who I agree with probably less than 10% of the time on various issues.

      • Hazdaz@lemmy.world
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        Because Democrats are cowards and will do anything to stop confrontation. Democrats are the nerds in school who were endlessly picked on my the Republican bullies.

        When you step back and look at American politics in that perspective, a whole lot of things start to make sense.

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      I’m not sure that’s wise. Using authoritarian tactics on them is just going to amplify their persecution complex, and create an opportunity for martyrdom.

      The best we can do here is point out the dangerous language, and get these people under surveillance. If and when their followers do make a move, that’s when you build the case and bring them in.

      I can understand the problems of so many spouting these sorts of lies and calls to action, though. It is a serious threat to national security. The solution here is a quick, but well documented trial of Donald Trump and his cronies. Throw anyone in our government (R, D, etc.) that’s violated the law out, and if need be, imprison them.

      We desperately need to make examples of those who are creating instability with their crimes and lies. But they have to break the law in a very clear way, and we need evidence.

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        Gimme a break. That’s such a pedestrian view of law enforcement. They had no problem raiding Mar A Lago.

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          They had no problem raiding Mar A Lago.

          Two years late, after having given Trump myriad undeserved opportunities to get out of it despite him thumbing his nose at them every time instead, and only because the offenses were so egregious that they had no other choice?

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      I’m sorry, but I have to disagree here. We cannot allow ourselves to be dragged down to the level of accusing anyone who says something inflammatory with making terroristic threats. What he said was remarkably stupid, but not threatening.

      Huckabee said two things. He parrotted the right-wing talking points alleging a huge Biden conspiracy, and he said that if Trump doesn’t win, there will be violence.

      Parrotting Trump’s talking points isn’t illegal. Profoundly stupid, but not illegal. If that were allowed, 95% of the GOP would be locked up behind bars.

      And take a look at January 6th. Take a look at all the political violence over the past couple of years. Atlanta went into pseudo-lockdown a couple of weeks ago when Trump was arrested because the threat of violence was (and continues to be) very real. MAGA nuts have been attacking everything from FBI offices to libraries. The “bullets instead of ballots” bit wasn’t a terroristic threat – it’s the reality of the situation: If Trump loses, for any reason, or is kept off the ballot through the 14th amendment, there is the very real likelihood that rioting will follow. Acknowledging reality isn’t necessarily acknowledging support for that reality, or advocating it. It’s simply acknowledging the reality of the situation.

      There was no implied threat by Huckabee. He doesn’t have the following Trump has. People are not going to be willing to follow him right into a jail cell. He wasn’t saying that he’d be leading the charge or anything. He just said that if Trump loses, there will be violence in the streets. And strictly on that point alone, I agree with him. I do believe that Trump either being disqualified from the election or losing it will cause violence. Saying that doesn’t make either of us terrorists, even if the rest of what he said was abhorrent.

      • ReluctantMuskrat@lemmy.world
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        If that were allowed, 95% of the GOP would be locked up behind bars.

        I’m a registered Republican and at this point, that sounds like an improvement. Fuck all the spineless Republicans that have refused to call Trump out, and I have worse thoughts about Trump and his congressional supporters.

    • aidan@lemmy.worldM
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      This is about as threatening as people advocating “eat the rich” or destroying American imperialism. Threatening a system is not and should not be illegal, only a person.

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        Not really. Eat the rich comes from the saying “when there’s nothing left to eat, the poor eat the rich”. Huckabee is advocating for actual violence in the name of a conspiracy theory. That’s a false equivalency.

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    Lets play a game. How many elected republican officials can threaten civil war before they are barred from office?

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        Hey now if you can’t smear shit on the capitol and try to hang the VP then according to sarah palin ‘What’s The Use In Being A Good Guy?’

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    “If Democracy doesn’t give me the result I want, I’ll turn to Fascism!”

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    America. Are you ok? Blink twice if you need international help.

    Or about just a friend from the north?

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        That’s kind of just up to what you assume he means.

        I honestly don’t think he personally intends on shooting liberal voters, and he doesn’t really have enough of a following to lead into the fray even if he did.

        Then I guess there’s how you interpret the meaning of threat, whether it has to be believable to count.

        Also, the difference between the two is pretty much non-existent the more likely it becomes.

        So depending on how big of an audience he has or how likely you think conservatives are in general to do anything, which version of terrorism you consider this to be becomes debatable.

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    So… trying to make sure a traitor to America pays for his crimes is somehow wrong?

    Wasn’t the Conservative Party in favor or patriotism?

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      They’re the Law and Order Party - as long as the law is imposing their order on people that they don’t like.

      Just like they’re the Personal Responsibility Party - as long as it’s other people who need to be personally responsible.

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      The Republican idea of patriotism is just another flavor of Christianity - blind faith in a power you believe to be bigger than yourself. It used to be faith in America as a concept, unerring and omnipotent - under God, but when things started shifting leftward with the civil rights movement, it became faith in a president to bring things back to their halcyon days. It started with Reagan, and now it’s Trump, who gave them new hope with his slogan of making America great again.

      The Republican idea of patriotism was never about making your country great, it was about believing your country is already great despite all evidence to the contrary - essentially just another religion.

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    Let them try. Trump & his fellow republicans already attempted to violently overthrow our democracy once. Surrendering and allowing them their fever dream of a fascist dictator for life (however much time he’s got left) will not improve our situation.

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      Republicans, particularly of the Gravy Seals bent, always seem to think they’re the only ones that can own guns or know how to use them. Just because everyone else is sane enough not to be waiving them around or so insecure about themselves that they need to show them off like they’re some kind of security blanket doesn’t mean nobody else is armed. I think if they ever pluck up the courage to try a full scale civil war they’ll quickly realize the tables aren’t going to be anywhere near as one sided as they seem to think.

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        I like how they put their dumb political bullshit all over their vehicles. Someone should set up a database of license plates of vehicles with maga bullshit all over the car. First stop for weapons caches if shit really pops off.