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Secret Service Investigating Trump Delegate Who Called For Clinton To Be Shot For Treason

Secret Service Investigating Trump Delegate Who Called For Clinton To Be Shot For Treason

Published with permission from Alternet. 

When you build an entire campaign on hyperbole and regularly incite violence against your detractors, it’s only a matter of time before someone takes you seriously. Such is the reality currently facing Donald Trump adviser and New Hampshire House of Representatives member Al Baldasaro, who is being investigated by the U.S. Secret Service after telling multiple news outlets that frontrunner Hillary Clinton should be shot for “treason.”

“Anyone that commits treason should be shot,” Baldasaro told the Daily BeastWednesday. “I believe Hillary Clinton committed treason. She put people in danger. When people take confidential material off a server, you’re sharing information with the enemy. That’s treason.”

Baldasaro was expanding on comments he made Tuesday in an appearance on the Boston radio station WRKO. “This whole thing disgusts me,” Baldasaro said, referring to the 2012 terror attack in Benghazi, Libya. “Hillary Clinton should be put in the firing line and shot for treason.”

Throughout much of the next day, Baldasaro continued to suggest Clinton should face capital punishment for her role in Benghazi, despite eight congressional investigations that have concluded she has no culpability for the attack that claimed four American lives.

“I’m a military man first, and anyone who takes information about our CIA or Secret Service and people at our embassy and puts it out on a server where anyone can grab it, putting Americans in danger to be killed, should be held accountable,” Baldasaro said.

“As far as I’m concerned, it is treason and the penalty for treason is the firing squad—or maybe it’s the electric chair now,” he added.

According to multiple reports, the Secret Service has taken issue with Baldasaro’s repeated declarations. “The U.S. Secret Service is aware of this matter and will conduct the appropriate investigation,” spokesman Robert Hoback told the Daily Beast.

The Clinton campaign has repeatedly denied accusations that her email server was hacked; in his testimony to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, FBI director James Comey bolstered Clinton’s assurances, noting the FBI “did not find direct evidence that Secretary Clinton’s personal email domain, in its various configurations since 2009, was successfully hacked.” An investigation by the State Department Inspector General came to the same conclusion.

Baldasaro is not the only Trump delegate who has called for Clinton’s execution. Susan Reneau, an alternate delegate from Montana, said Clinton should be“swinging from the rafters.” And last week, West Virginia’s House of Delegates member Michael Folk tweeted Clinton should be “hung” on the National Mall.

For his part, Trump doesn’t necessarily share Baldasaro’s sentiments. According to Buzzfeed, Trump campaign spokesperson Hope Hicks told NH1 News, “we’re incredibly grateful for his support, but we don’t agree with his comments.”

 

Photo: Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton addresses the Planned Parenthood Action Fund in Washington, U.S. June 10, 2016.   REUTERS/Gary Cameron

Trump Adviser Says Hillary Clinton ‘Should Be Put In The Firing Line And Shot For Treason’

Trump Adviser Says Hillary Clinton ‘Should Be Put In The Firing Line And Shot For Treason’

Al Baldasaro, an advisor to Donald Trump on veterans affairs, said on Tuesday that presumptive democratic nominee Hillary Clinton should be put in a firing line and shot for treason.

“She is a disgrace for the lies that she told those mothers about their children that got killed over there in Benghazi. She dropped the ball on over 400 emails requesting back up security. Something’s wrong there.” Baldasaro said on the Jeff Kuhner Show.

“This whole thing disgusts me, Hillary Clinton should be put in the firing line and shot for treason,” he added.

Baldasaro, who is also a New Hampshire state representative and Trump delegate, also called Clinton a “piece of garbage,” and “the Jane Fonda of the Vietnam,” referring to the myth that Fonda turned over smuggled messages from POWs to their captors during a trip to North Vietnam.

He later expanded on his violent comments in an interview with The Daily Beast. “Anyone that commits treason should be shot,” he said. “I believe Hillary Clinton committed treason. She put people in danger. When people take confidential material off a server, you’re sharing information with the enemy. That’s treason.”

Trump has not denounced Baldasaro’s statements. It is a felony to threaten “a major candidate for the office of President or Vice President.” Representatives of the Secret Service told The Daily Beast that Mr. Baldasaro is under investigation for his remarks.

Statements like Baldasaro’s would have been deemed inappropriate in any other election cycle, but Trump’s campaign has turned the political arena into something scarily similar to that of authoritarian regimes, where verbal attacks and intimidation of political opponents are a part of everyday life.

Earlier this week, West Virginia delegate Michael Folk tweeted that Clinton should be “hung on the Mall in Washington, D.C.”

Tuesday was a showcase of this new dynamic. During the second night of the Republican National Convention, which was supposed to be about “jobs,” the real topic was “lock her [Clinton] up,” with Chris Christie holding a mock trial of Clinton and encouraging the crowd to convict her.

This reminds us of another charge of treason, passed out by an aide to General Edwin A. Walker in a flyer on the eve of President John F. Kennedy’s fateful trip to Dallas:

TreasonFlyer.jpg.CROP.original-original

 

Photo: Veterans advocate Al Baldasaro speaks to defend Republican U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump at Trump Tower in Manhattan, New York, U.S., May 31, 2016.  REUTERS/Lucas Jackson