‘I’m going to be in your backyard': Trump sons threaten primaries for GOP lawmakers
Fox News, which had been carrying the remarks live, dropped its feed of the rally after the expletives uttered by the president’s son aired uncensored.
![Donald Trump Jr. speaks Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021, in Washington, at a rally in support of President Donald Trump called the "Save America Rally."](https://www.politico.com/dims4/default/ba109a9/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1160x773+0+0/resize/1260x840!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fstatic.politico.com%2Fe8%2Ff3%2F5c8552c5404bb2cd02a3152e4936%2F20210106-djt-ap-773.jpg "Donald Trump Jr. speaks Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021, in Washington, at a rally in support of President Donald Trump called the "Save America Rally."")
President Donald Trump’s eldest sons threatened Republican lawmakers at a large rally outside the White House on Wednesday, pledging that their family would continue to dispute the results of the 2020 election just hours before Congress was set to certify President-elect Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory.
“To those Republicans, many of which may be voting on things in the coming hours: You have an opportunity today,” Donald Trump Jr. told the crowd gathered for the “Save America March” on the White House Ellipse. “You can be a hero, or you can be a zero. And the choice is yours. But we are all watching. The whole world is watching, folks. Choose wisely.”
Several House Republicans and roughly a dozen senators have announced plans to object to individual states’ electoral vote counts when Congress meets for a joint session this afternoon. And though their effort to reverse the election’s outcome has virtually no chance of succeeding, the president had applied increasing public pressure on Vice President Mike Pence — who will preside over the proceedings — to attempt to thwart Biden’s win.
“These guys better fight for Trump. Because if they’re not, guess what? I’m going to be in your backyard in a couple of months!” Donald Trump Jr. said, suggesting he would support primary campaigns against Republicans who did not side with his father on Wednesday.
The rally itself “should be a message to all the Republicans who have not been willing to actually fight. The people who did nothing to stop the steal,” he said. “This gathering should send a message to them: This isn’t their Republican Party anymore! This is Donald Trump’s Republican Party!”
In a meandering, expletive-filled speech delivered almost entirely in shouts, Donald Trump Jr. thanked the “red-blooded, patriotic Americans” in the crowd “for standing up to the bulls---,” lamented that his personal Instagram account is “being censored to hell right now,” and complained that transgender women have a competitive advantage in all-female sporting events. “No s---!” he said.
Fox News, which had been carrying the remarks live, dropped its feed of the rally after the expletives uttered by the president’s son aired uncensored.
Donald Trump Jr.’s girlfriend, former Fox News personality Kimberly Guilfoyle, also appeared on stage, as did his brother and sister-in-law, Eric and Lara Trump. “We live in the greatest country in the world, and we will never, ever, ever stop fighting,” Eric Trump said, before egging on his wife to pursue a potential Senate bid in North Carolina.
“Our family didn’t get in this fight for just four years. We are in this fight to the bitter end,” added Lara Trump. She later led the crowd in singing “Happy Birthday” for her husband, who turned 37 on Wednesday, and asked him whether there was “any birthday present you would like from the United States of America?”
Eric Trump replied that there was indeed “one birthday present that I want from all the senators and all the congressmen: Have some backbone. Show some fight. Learn from Donald Trump!” His father, he said, “has more fight in him than every other one combined. And they need to stand up. And we need to march on the Capitol today. And we need to stand up for this country. And we need to stand up for what’s right.”
The remarks from the president’s sons come after Eric Trump tweeted on Tuesday night that he would “personally work to defeat every single Republican Senator / Congressman who doesn’t stand up against this fraud — they will be primaried in their next election and they will lose.”
In November, Donald Trump Jr. similarly criticized the “total lack of action from virtually all of the ‘2024 GOP hopefuls’” in the days following the presidential election — prompting several of the president’s allies to issue tweets and statements championing him.