Donald Trump ‘Civil War’ Threat ‘Stinks Of Panic,’ Says ‘Washington Post’ Columnist, Trump Is ‘Cornered’

In a barrage of angry tweets over the weekend, in addition to hinting that one of the top Democrats leading the impeachment investigation should be executed for treason, as The Inquisitr reported, Donald Trump caused perhaps the greatest alarm with a tweet that appeared to threaten a second American Civil War if he were to be successfully impeached.

The tweet, quoting televangelist Robert Jeffress — an outspoken supporter of Trump and regular Fox News contributor — warned that Trump’s removal from office would “cause a Civil War-like fracture in this Nation.”

Harvard University Law Professor John Coates, via his own Twitter feed, said that Trump’s “Civil War” tweet on its own would be grounds for impeachment, as an attempt to intimidate Congress from exercising its Constitution authority to hold an impeachment proceeding.

But while Trump’s threat drew rare criticism from a Republican in Congress, who called it “beyond repugnant,” as The Inquisitr reported, and caused other commentators to observe that Trump may be moving toward full authoritarianism, a columnist for one of the nation’s top newspapers sees Trump’s reaction to the impeachment inquiry against him a little differently.

“Trump is cornered, and his ‘civil war’ threat stinks of panic,” said Washington Post opinion columnist Greg Sargent on Monday.

According to Sargent, Trump’s rapid-fire tweeting of his increasingly extreme viewpoints is less an indication that Trump is about to appoint himself dictator than “an expression of deep panic and self-incrimination.”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi made the impeachment inquiry against Trump official with an announcement last Tuesday. She said that the investigation will focus on Trump’s attempt to use the power of his office “to solicit interference from a foreign country in the 2020 U.S. election,” specifically, in a July 25 phone call with the president of Ukraine. Trump appeared to strong-arm his Ukrainian counterpart into “investigating” Democrat Joe Biden — who at the present time would be Trump’s chief rival in the 2020 presidential election, polls show.

But the impeachment inquiry also means, according to Sargent, that Democrats have brought about a “very fundamental change” in the way that they are “going about holding Trump accountable.”

Where previously Trump and his associates were able to stonewall Congress by blocking witnesses for giving testimony and refusing two hand over important documents, now that the impeachment process in underway, any more such refusal to cooperate “will be strengthening the case for an article of impeachment based on obstruction of the lawful functions of Congress,” according to House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff, as quoted by Sargent.

“Trump’s wannabe-autocrat ravings,” in Sargent’s words, now only strengthen the impeachment case against him. “And they could help build the public case for his impeachment as well.”