Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said Wednesday she wants to “extinguish” former President Donald Trump “for good” — as the country is still reeling from two attempts on the Republican nominee’s life and ongoing plots against him.
“How did we get here? Let’s extinguish him for good,” the former Rhode Island governor said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” in response to Trump saying he would be a “protector” of women if he becomes the 47th president.
“We have an answer. We have a remarkably talented candidate who is sincere, who is pragmatic, who’s open. Let’s just get it done,” Raimondo, 53, said of Vice President Kamala Harris.
Co-host Mika Brzezinski, mindful of the implication of her guest’s comments, pushed back on what Raimondo meant by “extinguish.”
“Vote him out, banish him from American politics,” Raimondo answered. “Yes, just vote him out so he goes away.”
Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung blasted the secretary’s use of the word “extinguished,” due to increasing threats against the 78-year-old.
“SICK & TWISTED: Kamala surrogate and high-ranking U.S. [sic] government official @GinaRaimondo is demanding President Trump be… ‘EXTINGUISHED FOR GOOD.’ She just advertised a bounty to be put on him. She is no better than the Iranian terrorists,” Cheung wrote on X.
The former president has repeatedly warned Democrats against using violent language about him.
“Their rhetoric is causing me to be shot at, when I am the one who is going to save the country, and they are the ones that are destroying the country — both from the inside and out,” Trump told Fox News after a second assassination attempt at his West Palm Beach, Fla. golf club Sept. 15.
President Biden has condemned both attacks on Trump — but on Wednesday made a motion like he was squashing him.
The president, during an appearance on ABC’s “The View,” was listening to co-host Whoopi Goldberg liken Trump to an insect.
“He was like a bug. He just kept being there. He was like a bug right there — bzzzzzzzz,” Goldberg said.
Biden then moved his hands to imitate crushing a pest on the table.
Investigations are ongoing into both attempts on Trump’s life, but Ryan Wesley Routh, the 58-year-old Hawaiian discovered stalking Trump International Golf Club West Palm Beach with a SKS rifle, had previously made statements similar to those coming from top Democratic leadership about Trump.
Routh, who faces life in prison, wrote in April on social media that “DEMOCRACY is on the ballot and we cannot lose.”
Biden had used the same phrase frequently during his re-election run before dropping out of the race July 21.
Routh also wrote a letter addressed “To the World” months before he apparently tried to kill Trump on the golf course.
“Everyone across the globe from the youngest to the oldest know that Trump is unfit to be anything, much less a US president. US presidents must at bare minimum embody the moral fabric that is America and be kind, caring and selfless and always stand for humanity,” the letter read in part.
Biden has called for restoring the “moral fabric” of the country during his administration.
