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PODCAST

“Huge Mistake”: GOP Senator’s Surprise Takedown of Trump Draws Blood

As a lone GOP senator dares to question Trump’s threat to use the military for potentially illegal aims, writer Tom Nichols explains how he sees these scenarios playing out when the going gets rough.

Donald Trump looks bewildered
Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
President-elect Donald Trump in Washington, D.C., on November 13

This week, Donald Trump confirmed that he will use the military to carry out mass deportations. This prompted a surprisingly sharp response from GOP Senator Rand Paul, who denounced the idea as a “huge mistake” that will send a “terrible image” to the world and likely be “illegal” to boot. But why is it left to a fringe figure in the GOP to denounce Trump’s vile threats? Where are the rest of Republicans on this? We talked to Tom Nichols, a writer for The Atlantic and a sharp observer of the MAGA-fication of the GOP, about what will really happen within the military and beyond once these threats get put into actionand why it poses such a menace to the country. Listen to this episode here. A transcript is here.

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