Filling in for Joy Reid on MSNBC’s "The ReidOut," Tiffany Cross suggested that a civil war is already happening in America on Thursday.
Former NSC senior director for counterterrorism Javed Ali appeared in a segment discussing the growing criticism against the FBI following their raid on former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home on Aug. 8. Since then, the FBI has said the organization has faced several death threats including a gunman attempting to breach their Ohio office.
While Ali called for political rhetoric to temper down, Cross pushed back, claiming it may already be too late.
"You are saying that we have to deal with the rhetoric. I agree with you, but there is not really rhetoric that we can deal with," Cross said.
She added, "The train has left the station. There is no dealing with the rhetoric. At this point, we need to have serious conversations around preparing for actual violence. People keep saying a Civil War is coming. I would say the Civil War is here. And I don’t mean to be hyperbolic. We can look at what has happened in the past week alone since all this has happened. We’ve had two people try to declare war with FBI field offices. At this point, I don’t think we’re going to pack up our bags and go home and sing kumbaya."
In the days following the raid, the FBI and Department of Homeland Security put out a bulletin warning about "violent threats" against law enforcement agencies including a threat to "place a so-called Dirty Bomb in front of FBI headquarters." The bulletin also claimed that "general calls" for "civil war" have increased on social media.
"Within my former world, folks know there is a heightened threat environment out there. I would have to believe that DHS and the FBI – I happened to work for both – that the right steps are going forward both in terms of physical security of people and also ramping up efforts to make sure that if there are active plots or threats out there, they can be disrupted in advance. That’s probably how it’s going to be handled on the government side," Ali said.
CNN, MSNBC, ABC FIGURES RAMP UP RHETORIC ON ‘DANGEROUS’ GOP FOLLOWING TRUMP MAR-A-LAGO RAID
He added, "On the average everyday American side, it’s just trying to be a responsible citizen. If you’re hearing this rhetoric from a neighbor or a friend or somebody like that, engaging in a conversation to try to cool things down. Right now, yes, the atmosphere in the U.S. is very heated. Hopefully, we can deescalate things. But in the meantime, I do believe there will be these attempts and more lone offender type of attacks that we have seen over the past couple of weeks, where people try to act out violently. I don’t think we will see large-scale acts of violence. Hopefully, I am right on that."
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
Other mainstream media members have attacked the Republican Party as "extreme" and "dangerous" for criticizing the FBI raid. Democrat adviser Kurt Bardella went as far as to call the GOP a "domestic terrorist cell" while appearing on "The ReidOut" Tuesday.