In response to JD Vance defending Donald Trump’s attacks on Americans he called “the enemy from within” as “totally reasonable,” DNC Rapid Response Director Alex Floyd released the following statement: 

“Donald Trump chose JD Vance as his running mate because he will do what Trump’s last VP wouldn’t – throw the American people and our democracy under the bus at Trump’s whim. Trump’s alarming and vile attacks against American citizens are indefensible, and voters are not falling for Vance’s pathetic spin to cover for Trump’s unhinged rants about sending the military after his political opponents. The American people know there is nothing ‘totally reasonable’ about threatening your fellow Americans and calling them ‘the enemy from within’ – and they’ll make that clear to Vance and Trump in November.”

NEW: JD Vance defended Donald Trump’s “enemy from within” comments as “totally reasonable.”

Bill Hemmer, Fox News: “I’ve read all of it, I’ve listened to all of it, it’s hard for me to know what he really means about it. But, that’s not my question. My question is, why is it necessary?”

JD Vance: “Well, Bill, first of all, Donald Trump is unfiltered […] When people ask him questions, he speaks from the heart.” […]

Hemmer: “In this case– he mentioned Adam Schiff and Nancy Pelosi by name, in this case over the weekend.” […]

Vance: “I think it’s totally reasonable for the president to point out that yes, we’ve got the strongest country in the world, but we do have some broken leaders in Washington.”

Trump has threatened to weaponize the National Guard and military against American citizens to destroy the “enemy from within.”

Trump: “I think the bigger problem is the enemy from within… totally destroying our country… [I]n terms of Election Day, I think the bigger problem are the people from within. We have some very bad people. We have some sick people, radical left lunatics. And I think they’re the big – and it should be very easily handled by, if necessary, by [the] National Guard, or if really necessary, by the military, because they can’t let that happen.” 

Yesterday, Trump again said January 6 “was actually a beautiful thing,” and doubled down on calling Americans “the enemy within.”

Howard Kurtz, Fox News: “January 6, the other day you called it ‘a day of love,’ that sparked a lot of reaction given that many police officers were attacked and there were mobs shouting ‘hang Mike Pence.’ Can you understand why many Americans can view it as a dark and tragic day in our history?”

Donald Trump: “The crowd I spoke before, which you rarely see. I have pictures of it, massive but nobody wants to put it in. It was the biggest crowd I’ve ever spoken to and I’ve spoken to the biggest crowds. I’ve never seen that many people. A small group of them. And, you know, peacefully and patriotically, which nobody uses my words with peacefully and patriotically. A small group went down to the Capitol, but they came, they came because they thought it was a rigged election. This was a protest against a rigged election. And I can’t say exactly the number, but I’ve had massive crowds, and this was by far the biggest crowd — I’ve spoken to the crowd at the Washington Monument, and the Lincoln Memorial, on the Fourth of July, this crowd was bigger. And I’ll tell you, there was a beauty to it and there was a love to it that I’ve never seen before […] A small group of people went down to the Capitol, and then a lot of strange things happened […] I’m saying that when I saw that tremendous crowd, the largest group I’ve ever spoken to, in front of these beautiful monuments. I thought it was actually a beautiful thing.” 

Kurtz: “I want to drill down on this question of retribution against your political opponents, because you’ve had opportunities to walk that back. And my question is this: are you prepared to say now that you will not use law enforcement to punish or prosecute your political opponents?”

Trump: “Excuse me, that’s what they’re using on me.”

Kurtz: “You talk about the enemy within. There’s America’s enemies outside, ‘the enemy within’ is a pretty ominous phrase if you’re talking about other Americans.”

Trump: “I think it’s accurate. I mean, I think it’s accurate.”

Kurtz: “Who are you talking about because the enemy –”

Trump: “But what they’ve done is so terrible. Who’s ever heard of anything like this? Adam shifty Schiff. He’s a crooked guy. He’s a crooked politician. 100% he’s going to be a senator now, can you believe it?”

Kurtz: “But again, he’s a political opponent of yours, is he the enemy?”

Trump: “No, he’s a well, he’s, of course, he’s an enemy. He’s an enemy […] These are bad people. We have a lot of bad people, but when you look at shifty Schiff and some of the others, yeah, they are, to me, the enemy from within. I think Nancy Pelosi is an enemy from within.”