Fringe-y Trump Delegate From Tennessee Says US Leaders Should Be ‘Killed’

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks at a press conference at Trump Tower on May 31, 2016 in New York City. | Verwendung weltweit/picture alliance/picture alliance Photo by: Dennis Van Tine/Geisler-F... Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks at a press conference at Trump Tower on May 31, 2016 in New York City. | Verwendung weltweit/picture alliance/picture alliance Photo by: Dennis Van Tine/Geisler-Fotopres/picture-alliance/dpa/AP Images MORE LESS
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A Donald Trump delegate from Tennessee who has ties to the anti-government Patriot movement has said that while he’s backed the people rising up to take back their government from tyranny, he believes some U.S. leaders need to be “eliminated.”

Mother Jones reported that David Riden, a retired engineer whom Tennessee voters chose to attend the Republican National Convention after the Trump campaign approved putting him on the ballot, attended the Continental Congress of 2009. The Continental Congress was a gathering of activists who advocated abolishing all gun laws, employing citizen militias to patrol the borders and mounting an insurrection if necessary.

Riden told the magazine that he explicitly disclosed his views to the Trump campaign during the delegate selection process. The Trump campaign did not respond to Mother Jones’ request for comment.

Now, Riden says he believes in a harsher punishment for leaders who violate the Constitution.

“The Constitution should remain, but the people that are abusing it should be, the polite word is, ‘eliminated,’” he told Mother Jones. “The harsh word is ‘killed.’ And they’re killed by American citizens with weapons.”

Riden told the magazine he believes all three branches of government have strayed “way off” the country’s founding principles and the time for citizens to take up arms to remove those in power was nearing.

“If people have tanks, assault weapons, if they have bombs—they need to have the weaponry necessary to be able to overthrow the federal government,” he continued.

Riden is just the latest of Trump’s delegates whose fringe right-wing views have surfaced. The billionaire’s RNC delegation once included an avowed white supremacist attorney and an anti-Muslim pastor, who have since been pulled as delegates. Another delegate from Maryland was pulled after being indicted on weapons and child pornography charges in March.

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Notable Replies

  1. Every day, we get more and more information proving Trump unqualified for dog catcher, let alone president. And yet his poll numbers never seem to drop. I’ve lived 61 years in the US and expected to die here, but now I’m not so sure. Every day, I wonder how it’s possible to live among people who would elect this evil man.

  2. ISIL: We have been advocating this for some time. Glad to see Trump breed is now following our line. We fully support Sir Trump. He has been a boon to our recruitment. Allah Blesses Sir Trump.

  3. And even though ‘after the Trump campaign approved putting him on the ballot’ (what does that MEAN?) The Donald is not responsible for these nimrods that support him? He has no responsibility to call them out? Got it.

  4. Psst, hey, Riden–I hear the RNC is trying to take away your 2d Amendment rights at the convention. Maybe you should be prepared to defend your Constitutional rights on the convention floor, huh?

  5. Trump Delegate: “If people have tanks, assault weapons, if they have bombs—they need to have the weaponry necessary to be able to overthrow the federal government.”

    As Josh Marshall put it a while back, “Genuine innovation in the emerging Trump delegate meltdown genre.”

    It’s a growth industry.

    Maybe a new category for the 2016 Golden Duke Awards?

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