In response to Donald Trump’s MAGA ally Kari Lake telling supporters to “strap on a Glock” ahead of this November’s election, DNC Rapid Response Director Alex Floyd released the following statement:

“Kari Lake followed Donald Trump’s losing MAGA playbook in 2022 and is doing the same thing in 2024 – including by echoing his dangerous and extreme threats of political violence on the campaign trail. Lake’s shameful comments have no place in our political discourse, but they sadly come as no surprise as Trump promises a ‘bloodbath’ if he loses in November, vows to be a ‘dictator on day one,’ and pledges to lock up his political opponents. This kind of horrifying and violent rhetoric makes the stakes of this November’s election crystal clear, and the American people will not allow MAGA extremists like Trump and Lake to threaten our democracy.”

NEW: Kari Lake told supporters to “strap on a Glock” ahead of this November’s election.

NBC News: “Kari Lake suggests supporters ‘strap on a Glock’ to be ready for 2024”

“Arizona GOP Senate hopeful Kari Lake told supporters they can ‘strap on a Glock’ to be prepared for the intensity of the 2024 campaign and urged military and law enforcement veterans to be ‘ready,’ as her race heats up in a key battleground state.”

Lake has repeatedly embraced dictators and far-right extremists, spouted white nationalist talking points, and seemingly encouraged political violence.

Business Insider: “Speaking at a convention of Georgia Republicans, Lake told hundreds of delegates that the ‘75 million Americans’ who voted for Trump are armed and ready to defend him.”

Jeremy Duda, Axios: “.@KariLake called for @SecretaryHobbs to be imprisoned over fictional election rigging claims. ‘Frankly, I think she should be locked up.’ Crowd starts ‘lock her up’ chant. Lake says, ‘I agree.’”

Media Matters: “Lake’s connections to political extremists in the media are not new. A longtime local TV newscaster who is endorsed by former President Donald Trump, she has appeared with a Nazi-sympathizing YouTuber, QAnon activists, and once endorsed a far-right, antisemitic streamer running for Oklahoma state Senate.”

Newsweek: “Lake added that U.S. media is going after what she called ‘the truth tellers and the peacemakers,’ which she said included Trump and Hungary’s populist prime minister, Viktor Orbán. ‘I hear those two men talking about peace, but I hear the saber-rattling and the drum beat of “let’s start a war” from a lot of these countries with globalist-type political leaders,’ Lake said.” 

Arizona Republic: “Kari Lake’s immigration remark plays into racist ‘Great Replacement Theory,’ scholar says”

Donald Trump is only ramping up his extreme and dangerous rhetoric, including promising a “bloodbath” if he loses in November and vowing to be a “dictator on day one.”

NBC News: “Trump says there will be a ‘bloodbath’ if he loses the election”

Rolling Stone: “Trump Says There Will Be a ‘Bloodbath’ and Elections Will End if He Isn’t Reelected”

New York Times: “Trump Defends His Warning of a ‘Blood Bath for the Country’”

The Atlantic: “Trump Says He’ll Be a Dictator on ‘Day One’”

Associated Press: “Trump declines to rule out abusing power to seek retribution if he returns to the White House”

Washington Post: “Trump calls political enemies ‘vermin,’ echoing dictators Hitler, Mussolini”

The Guardian: “Donald Trump says he will lock up his political enemies if he is president again.”

Forbes: “Trump said of his relationships with dictators, ‘the tougher and meaner they are, the better I get along with them,’ which he insisted is ‘not a bad thing.’ 

“‘The easy ones,’ Trump said, referring to America’s allies, ‘I maybe don’t like as much or don’t get along with as much.’”

The Atlantic: “Late Friday night, the former president of the United States—and a leading candidate to be the next president—insinuated that America’s top general deserves to be put to death. That extraordinary sentence would be unthinkable in any other rich democracy. But Donald Trump, on his social-media network, Truth Social, wrote that Mark Milley’s phone call to reassure China in the aftermath of the storming of the Capitol on January 6, 2021, was ‘an act so egregious that, in times gone by, the punishment would have been DEATH.’”

Trump continues to praise and embrace violent January 6 rioters – from calling them “hostages” and “patriots” to vowing to pardon “a large portion” of those who attacked our Capitol. 

Newsweek: “Donald Trump Salutes Jan. 6 ‘Hostages’ at Ohio Rally”

Business Insider: “Then-President Donald Trump didn’t want to specifically call for the Justice Department to prosecute January 6 rioters or forcefully condemn those who stormed the Capitol as unrepresentative of the MAGA movement.”

Washington Post: “No, Trump did not order 10,000 troops to secure the Capitol on Jan. 6”

The Hill: “Trump describes imprisoned Jan. 6 rioters as ‘hostages’”

Washington Post: “Trump vows pardons, government apology to Capitol rioters if elected”

NBC News: “Former President Donald Trump promised Wednesday night that if he is elected he will pardon a ‘large portion’ of the people convicted of federal offenses for their participation in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.”

​​Washington Post: ​​“Former president Donald Trump on Thursday praised and embraced a woman convicted of defying police orders on the U.S. Capitol grounds on Jan. 6, 2021. … Trump has steadily escalated his advocacy for people charged in the Capitol riot, including by pledging to pardon them if he returns to the White House, praising them as patriots, participating in a recording with Jan. 6 prisoners singing the national anthem, and playing it at his first rally of the 2024 campaign last month.”

Trump: “January 6, it was the largest crowd I’ve ever spoken to. And they were there proud, they were there with love in their heart. That was an unbelievable — and it was a beautiful day.”

NBC News: “Trump spoke at a fundraiser for Jan. 6 defendants”