Trump discussed using the military on “radical left lunatics.” Fox & Friends claims Kamala Harris sounding an alarm about it is “scare tactics.”

Trump made the comments in an interview on Fox News. Even his own former secretary of defense is speaking out about it.

Written by Media Matters Staff

Published

From the October 15, 2024, edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends

STEVE DOOCY (CO-HOST): It is a Tuesday. And we are exactly three weeks away from election day. And Kamala Harris and Democrats are switching up their messages. It was joy, joy, joy for a while. Well now, scare tactics. 

LAWRENCE JONES (CO-HOST): Meanwhile, former President Trump laying out his all-important energy agenda at his town hall in Pennsylvania last night. 

 AINSLEY EARHARDT (CO-HOST): Madeleine Rivera joins us now from Washington with a recap on it all. Hi Maddie. 

MADELEINE RIVERA (CORRESPONDENT): Hi, guys, good morning. Vice President Kamala Harris has framed this election as a choice between the past and the future — initially rolling out a campaign that generally ran on good vibes. But recently her tone has grown a lot darker. Yesterday in Erie, Pennsylvania she intensified her warnings about reelecting former President Trump. The campaign is seizing on his remarks about deploying against "an enemy within."

Trump made the comments in an interview with Fox anchor Maria Bartiromo that aired on October 13:

Former president Donald Trump said in an interview that aired Sunday that he is worried about the prospect of unspecified actions by what he dubbed “radical left lunatics” on Election Day, urging that the National Guard or U.S. military be deployed on American soil against those he labeled “the enemy from within.”

In the interview on Fox News’s “Sunday Morning Futures,” host Maria Bartiromo asked Trump whether he was “expecting chaos on Election Day,” then listed what she called “outside agitators,” such as people on the terrorist watch list or migrants who have committed crimes.

“I think the bigger problem is the enemy from within,” Trump replied. “We have some very bad people. We have some sick people, radical left lunatics.”

Trump added: “It should be very easily handled by, if necessary, by National Guard, or if really necessary, by the military, because they can’t let that happen.”

While Fox & Friends is focused on VP Kamala Harris calling out the remarks, it wasn't just her. Trump's own former Defense Secretary Mark Esper raised concerns in an interview on CNN, saying Trump's words must be taken seriously. He added, “It concerns me on many levels, not least of which is, you know, the impact it could have on American citizens. It's the impact on the institution of the military, the impact it could have on the professional ethic of our officers and NCOs and soldiers and sailors and airmen. So I'm concerned about, all these things, all the impacts on multiple levels.”