Law enforcement agencies face a surge in threats from searches of Trump's estate, and public opinion fears that the United States is on the verge of civil war

Source: Global Times

[Global Times Special Correspondent in the United States Yingchen Global Times Special Correspondent Chen Xin Liu Yupeng] The FBI agents, who are often portrayed as brave in Hollywood blockbusters, are now facing an "unprecedented" threat in reality. According to a number of US media disclosed on the 14th, the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security issued a joint intelligence announcement warning that due to the raid on former President Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate, the threats faced by US judicial and law enforcement personnel have surged - both online exposure of relevant law enforcement personnel's family information, and offline Trump supporters gathered outside the FBI office with weapons. The atmosphere of violence is frightening, and it's easy to think of what stunned the world during the riots on Capitol Hill in the United States. Different analysts use "rebellion" and "another catastrophic event" to predict the outlook for American society. However, the US Democratic Party and the Republican Party are still obsessed with making political articles around the "home raid incident". Trump's Political Action Committee has used the incident to send at least 17 fundraising text messages to supporters. "Can the United States save itself?" Israel's "Jerusalem Post" said on the 15th that the condition of the United States has deteriorated to the extent of relying on the life support system. Civil strife, once dividing a country, usually leads to civil war, and the United States may already be on the brink of such danger.

The judge who granted the search warrant was targeted for assassination

The National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) first disclosed the matter on the 14th, citing the news of 3 senior law enforcement officials. In a joint five-page intelligence bulletin dated Aug. 12, the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security warned of a surge in threats to law enforcement officers following a search of Mar-a-Lago. The officials said the announcement was issued out of "great caution" because such threats appear on multiple platforms such as social media, online forums and video-sharing sites.

Subsequently, the US Capitol Hill, CBS and other media confirmed the authenticity of the announcement and disclosed more details. CBS reported that concerns mentioned in the joint intelligence bulletin included the threat of placing so-called "dirty bombs" outside the FBI headquarters, calling for a "civil war" and an "armed insurgency." Authorities have identified a number of explicit threats and assassination targets, and judicial, law enforcement and government officials associated with the search of Mar-a-Lago Estate, including the judge who granted the search warrant, have been targeted. In addition, personal information of persons who may have been targeted for violence, such as home addresses and family members' identities, was also exposed online.

The British "Times" reported that on the 14th, Trump supporters gathered outside the FBI office in Phoenix, Arizona, some of them carrying weapons. Mr. Trump's self-created social media platforms are littered with posts urging his loyalists to "bullet up" in preparation for a violent uprising to defend him. The FBI received "an unprecedented number of threats" as the search of Mar-a-Lago spurred violent words and deeds by Trump supporters, which were amplified by conservative U.S. media. The Guardian commented that whatever their motives, the inflammatory and reckless rhetoric of Republicans carried a dark and dangerous side. "Civil War" has become a hot topic on Twitter.

The New York Times said some Republicans in Congress called for "stopping funding" or "destroying" the FBI, and others accused it of using words like "Gestapo" and "brutal forces" to describe the Nazi secret police. At about 4 a.m. on the 14th, a gunman drove a car into a barricade outside the Parliament Building, which aggravated the panic. Police said the man got out of the car and the car was engulfed in flames, and he fired several shots into the air before committing suicide. The Capitol Hill newspaper reported that the joint intelligence announcement alerted that extremists in the United States could see the Midterm Congressional elections in November as an opportunity to escalate the threat.

Asked about the announcement, the FBI said the department would continue to work closely with other law enforcement to address any type of threat. A Department of Homeland Security spokesman said: "The Department of Homeland Security regularly shares relevant information with federal, state, local and other officials to ensure the safety of all communities across the United States." ”

"The 21st Century Version of civil war"

On the evening of the 14th local time, Trump spoke out again, angrily denouncing the FBI's search of his home as "like a sneak attack on democracy", claiming that the entire country felt "angry, hurt and very embarrassed" about it. He posted on his own social media platform calling out that the FBI immediately return the documents they had taken and accusing FBI agents of rummaging through the closets of former First Lady Melania during a search of Mar-a-Lago.

Republicans continue to defend Trump, but the growing propensity for violence has also frightened some of them. Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan criticized the attacks by party members as both "ridiculous" and "dangerous." "We've seen dangerous incidents." The Washington Post said Hogan was referring to a man who had declared "going to kill FBI agents" last week who tried to break into the FBI's office in Cincinnati, Ohio, and was killed after exchanging gunfire with FBI personnel. Hogan told the ABC that there are threats everywhere and that losing confidence in law enforcement agencies and the justice system is a very serious problem facing the country.

Phil Mader was a former analyst at the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) on South Asia and the Middle East, and later served as the FBI's first deputy director of national security. He, who is now a CNN counterterrorism analyst, said on the 14th that the FBI's search of Mar-a-Lago manor was similar to the situation before the Capitol Hill riots, and predicted that there could be another "catastrophic event." "When I was tracking extremists overseas, it never occurred to me that we would see this in the United States." Business Insider quoted Mader as saying that extremists in the United States today are similar to those he once monitored.

CNN commented that the FBI's astonishing search of Trump's residence sparked a legal and political earthquake that was widening a week later, with key issues affecting the future of the United States still shrouded in mystery. The outburst of republican outrage and the frenzied rhetoric about Biden manipulating a police state reaffirm that the horrors of the Capitol Hill riots have done nothing to silence Trump supporters, including some mainstream Republican leaders. Threats to the judiciary and law enforcement officials show that violence is still brewing beneath the surface of this deeply divided and dangerous country.

"Is there going to be a second civil war in the United States?" The Website of the Russian Foundation for Strategic Culture reported that before the search, researchers at the University of California, Davis, surveyed 8,620 Americans and found that more than 50 percent of respondents agreed with the claim that there would be a civil war in the United States in the next few years. 18% of respondents said they may have "picked up a gun" during a political conflict.

Fiona Hill, a former national security council expert, told Business Insider that trust between different groups in the country and trust in the government has been severely eroded to the point of popular militancy, and the United States could eventually usher in a "civil war." "We are moving towards a rebellion, which is a form of civil war." Barbara Walter, a professor of political science at the University of California, called it a 21st-century version of civil war.

Raise money like crazy with the "raiding incident"

Although the country faces an increasingly realistic risk of violence, the two parties in the United States are still most concerned about how to use the "home raiding incident" to hit each other. British Reuters reported on the 15th that Republicans stepped up their call for the disclosure of the FBI's affidavit when executing the search warrant on the 14th, which will expose the specific reasons for the FBI to detain mar-a-Lago documents. But the publication of such an affidavit is highly unusual and requires the approval of a federal judge. Several veteran Republicans have also pioneered a new model of defending the former president, questioning whether the material inside Mar-a-Lago is really highly sensitive, citing the president's authority to declassify top-secret information, CNN reported.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman and Democratic Rep. Schiff told CBS on the 14th that he requested an intelligence briefing to assess the potential damage caused to US national security by confidential documents in Trump's possession. He also countered the possibility that the document has been declassified, saying: "We should determine whether there are any declassification efforts during the presidency, and I have not seen any evidence." ”

In the end, the two parties in the United States are still aiming at the election. The Guardian said that there is still some time to go before the 2024 election, and most commentators believe that although both face a number of unknowable factors, including being older than any U.S. president in history, another biden vs. Trump is still the most likely scenario. The New York Times reported that Trump's Political Action Committee has been using the FBI search to raise money like crazy, sending at least 17 fundraising text messages to supporters since the 9th. Trump's son Trump Jr. wrote in a fundraising email on the 14th: "Political persecution continues ... The FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago is a disgrace. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green, Republican of Georgia, began selling merchandise with the slogan "Stop Funding the FBI."