As hundreds of North Carolina Republicans gathered over the Memorial Day weekend to elect delegates to the party\u2019s national convention in July, a coalition of military veterans showed up and asked party leaders for a simple pledge: renounce violence this election.<\/p>\n
The veterans were from different political parties and diverse backgrounds. They spoke about their combat experience in Iraq and Afghanistan. They recalled the sacrifice of those who died fighting terrorism. <\/p>\n
\u201cThreats of violence, voter intimidation, and violent rhetoric have no place in our democracy and go against the values that veterans have sworn and given their lives to defend,\u201d the group said in a one-page letter to GOP leaders, including Republican National Committee Co-Chair Lara Trump.<\/p>\n
The letter noted that national polls show that a majority of Americans are fearful that political violence could follow the Nov. 5 election. It urged party leaders to use their influence to persuade former President Donald Trump to \u201cpledge to support a peaceful and nonviolent election season.\u201d<\/p>\n
North Carolina GOP leaders instead had the group swiftly escorted out of the meeting at the Greensboro convention center, saying they had no right to be there.<\/p>\n
Matt Mercer, spokesman for the North Carolina Republican Party, called the vets\u2019 appearance a \u201cstunt.\u201d He said that a video of the exchange had appeared just hours later on the X feed of the left-leaning Cardinal and Pine website. \u201cThey barged in. They got what they wanted. It was done in bad faith,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
But sometimes stunts serve a purpose, and in this case it helped drive home that the Republican Party, despite its claim of allegiance to American values, has a candidate for president and a contingent of his supporters that condone and sometimes promote violence. How hard could it be to for them to say that they don\u2019t tolerate political violence and will admonish any campaign that threatens it during the election cycle? <\/p>\n
These vets all took an oath to defend the Constitution. They don\u2019t believe Trump will uphold it. They point to the former president\u2019s persistent denial of the legitimacy of the 2020 election and his refusal to say he will accept this year\u2019s results. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe have no problem going into harm\u2019s way,\u2019\u2019 said Bobby R. Jones, a former Navy commander from Georgia. \u201cBut integrity matters when you\u2019re talking about sacrificing your life for someone. [Trump] has never displayed that. He doesn\u2019t know what it\u2019s like for it not to be about him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dan Barkhuff, a former Navy SEAL who started the group Veterans for Responsible Leadership, said there isn\u2019t a single job in the military that Trump would be capable of doing well, \u201cfrom commander-in-chief, down to the first day of boot camp.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s selfish. He\u2019s narcissistic. He’s not a team player,\u201d said Barkhuff, whose organization started as a Facebook group and has grown to nearly 9,500 members and a super PAC. \u201cWe immediately see people like that do not last long in the military. Yet now we\u2019re talking about letting him run the whole thing. It’s insane.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Jan. 6 insurrection is the best proof that Trump incites violence. Even Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said the former president\u2019s inflammatory rhetoric led to the attack on the Capitol. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe mob was fed lies,\u201d McConnell declared that day in 2021. \u201cThey were provoked by the president and other powerful people. And they tried to use fear and violence to stop a specific proceeding of the first branch of the federal government, which they did not like.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since then, Trump\u2019s speeches and social media have been laced with threats of violence by his supporters if things don\u2019t go his way in November. Unfortunately, McConnell, like many other GOP leaders, has now endorsed Trump, sending the new message that his behavior is acceptable.<\/p>\n
Trump has his supporters in a trap. Party leaders have either succumbed to his loyalty test or fear him too much to admonish him. They ignore signs that he either wants his supporters to rise up and engage in violence, or he is so focused on himself that he is indifferent to the possibility it could happen. <\/p>\n
\u201cOur party is always opposed to violence,\u201d Dennis Bailey, a retired Air Force intelligence analyst who attended the convention told me. He said it was wrong to assume otherwise because his fellow Republicans \u201care good people.\u201d<\/p>\n
But if there is anyone urging Trump to stop inciting his supporters, it\u2019s not working. <\/p>\n
Last week, Trump falsely alleged on Truth Social that the Federal Bureau of Investigation \u201cwas locked and loaded to take me out and put my family in danger,\u201d distorting the boilerplate language included in the FBI document used to search his Mar-a-Lago estate.<\/p>\n
Special Counsel Jack Smith asked a judge to bar Trump from making any more false and inflammatory statements that would subject the FBI agents who are potential witnesses in the case to \u201cthe risk of threats, violence, and harassment.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cThe reality is we have people who are going to act on stochastic terrorism,\u201d Barkhuff said. \u201cWords matter.\u201d <\/p>\n
Naveed Shah, an Army veteran who is political director for Common Defense, a Washington-based grassroots organization for progressive veterans with 5,000 members in North Carolina, said they believe, the threat of violence would end \u201cif leadership does the right thing.\u201d <\/p>\n
The way for Trump to win the election, Shah said, isn\u2019t by issuing strongman threats; it\u2019s to \u201cmake a better argument to the American people.\u201d <\/p>\n
He\u2019s right. Free and fair elections happen because of the democracy for which these veterans were willing to risk their lives. It shouldn\u2019t take letters or protests from them for our politicians to renounce voter intimidation and violence. But they are a good reminder that all political leaders \u2014 no matter the party \u2014 should condemn such acts. For the GOP, it\u2019s not too late to start. <\/p>\n
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This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.<\/p>\n
Mary Ellen Klas is a politics and policy columnist for Bloomberg Opinion. A former capital bureau chief for the Miami Herald, she has covered politics and government for more than three decades.<\/p>\n
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