When the Republican National Convention takes place in Cleveland this summer, approximately 2,470 delegates will gather to cast their votes, including GOP leaders. The majority of those delegates will vote for the presumptive nominee, Donald Trump.
Mother Jones recently interviewed one of them in an effort to see what kind of people fall into the Trump camp.
David Riden of Tennessee was approved last December as a Trump delegate, and he appeared on the Tennessee ballot. He won that seat and will be at the Convention to cast his vote for Trump.
As it turns out, this will not be Riden’s first political gathering.
As he told Mother Jones, he was among hundreds of members of the Patriot Movement who went to the “Continental Congress of 2009.” At that little known and largely secretive gathering, delegates from 48 states wrote and published a document called the “Articles of Freedom.”
Schaeffer Cox: Articles of Freedom, Obama not Natural Born https://t.co/5wml4k33i9 via @YouTube
— joseph price (@joeyyeo13) June 1, 2016
At first glance, both the “Congress” and the “Articles” seem to be the work of overly enthusiastic American history buffs who regret that they were born too late to engage in the exciting events of 1775. They clearly based the whole exercise on the documents from the American Revolution.
The text is full of “God given rights” and “cast off tyranny.” Even the font looks like 18th century script.
Trump delegate says current US leaders may need to be "killed." https://t.co/uE2aL8ekIi pic.twitter.com/ZaPxvnsn5S
— Mother Jones (@MotherJones) June 2, 2016
Unfortunately, the would-be rebels appeared to be quite unclear about the Constitution, and even confused it with the Declaration of Independence. For example, the “Articles” claim the government entered into treaties “in violation of the sovereignty clauses of the Declaration of Independence.”
They called for an end to taxes, federal gun laws, and the Federal Reserve. They demanded the reinstatement of local militias. They jumped on the birther bandwagon, too.
David Riden didn’t let his anti-government sentiments end there, though. He went on to tell Mother Jones that U.S. leaders who violate the Constitution may need to be removed. Or to be more clear:
“The polite word is ‘eliminated.’ The harsh word is ‘killed.'”
That’s right. A man who was accepted by the Trump campaign as a delegate called for the murder of any U.S. leader who he and his misinformed pals believe has violated the Constitution.
This is what we will get if we allow Donald Trump to win the upcoming election.
Watch this video to learn about the “Patriot Movement,” by Vice.
Featured Image: Screenshot Of Mother Jones Tweet Via Twitter.
