#CivilWar2 Trends After Donald Trump Makes Twitter Impeachment Threat
#CivilWar2 trended on Twitter on Monday after President Donald Trump tweeted about civil war, drawing an outpouring of backlash.
Trump reposted a comment predicting civil war made by Robert Jeffress, a pastor at the First Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas, and Fox News Contributor on Sunday. The president has bristled at the Democrats' impeachment inquiry, but the comments were a dramatic escalation in his rhetoric.
"If the Democrats are successful in removing the President from office (which they will never be), it will cause a Civil War like fracture in this Nation from which our Country will never heal.' Pastor Robert Jeffress," Trump posted in one of his dozens of tweets written on Sunday.
The comment promptly took over Twitter discussion. Democratic lawmakers bristled at Trump's tweet. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has launched an impeachment inquiry into the president over an alleged quid pro quo between Trump and the Ukrainian president, but at least one legal expert said that the "civil war" tweet itself was grounds for impeachment.
"I have visited nations ravaged by civil war.@realDonaldTrump," Illinois Representative Adam Kinzinger, a Republican and Air Force veteran, tweeted. "I have never imagined such a quote to be repeated by a President. This is beyond repugnant."
Despite Kinzinger's condemnation of the president, Republicans largely remained silent, illustrating the partisan divide dominating Washington as the impeachment inquiry continues.
Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy voiced concern that Trump's comments would spur action from supporters.
"It's just so frightening. He is going to keep talking like this and some people are going to listen and do what he asks," Murphy wrote in an exchange with Hawaii Senator Brian Schatz.
At least one group identified by the Southern Poverty Law Center as an extremist organization issued support for Trump's comments.
The Oath Keepers, a large organization of law enforcement and military officials known for endorsing conspiracy theories that the government is seeking to destroy the freedom of Americans, tweeted that the "whole thread is important to read," and backed Trump's idea that an impeachment inquiry is an attempt to undo the results of the 2016 election.
"The term 'civil war' is increasingly on people's tongue. And not just 'cold civil war' - full-blown 'hot' civil war. Fact is patriots consider the left to be domestic enemies of the Constitution bent on the destruction of the Republic," the organization wrote. "And we consider all that they are doing to impeach the President to be be illegitimate pretexts to simply undo the 2016 election results that they don't like. They expected to win and see Trump as an interloper and impediment to their 'rightful' power."
