'A very embittered man': Experts alarmed by 'menacing' Trump rhetoric

The New York Times has compiled a lengthy list of what it describes as "menacing" statements made by former President Donald Trump.

Among the many threatening or violent comments in the list include comparing his opponents to "vermin," declarations that Ret. Gen. Mark Milley deserved to be executed, and threats to prosecute President Joe Biden and his family.

Experts who spoke with the Times about this rhetoric said they were deeply alarmed.

“If he says what he means and means what he says, and someday is able to implement it, it’s an existential crisis that the U.S. would face,” Barbara Perry, a presidential historian at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center, told the paper.

"This is a very embittered man who I think very much wants to take these actions," former Rep. Barbara Comstock (R-VA), who has become a fierce critic of the former president, predicted to the Times.

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And Harvard political scientist Theda Skocpol made perhaps the most dire assessment of Trump's rhetoric and what it would mean for a second term.

"This rhetoric and all GOP plans announced for a second Trump term indicate clearly that retribution and institutional destruction outside the rule of law will prevail if he returns to the White House," she said.