Pete Santilli鈥檚 Violent Rant about a 'Fight to the Death' in Nevada
The rhetoric from right-wing pundits concerning Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy鈥檚 over cattle grazing rights has quickly grown overheated. But talk show host Pete Santilli 鈥� who has a 鈥� has reached an entirely new level of hysteria.
Santilli devoted on Monday to interviewing Bundy. As the interview progressed, Santilli became increasingly incendiary, calling on members of militias in the region to show up and defend the ranchers. At the end of the exchange, Santilli concluded with a rant that veered close to suggesting that federal law enforcement officers at the scene should be treated like enemy terrorists waging 鈥渏ihad鈥� against ordinary Americans:
We talk of, ladies and gentlemen, the American Dream. We talk of it. We talk of the pride that we have in what our Founding Fathers put forth for us, our U.S. Constitution. The flag 鈥� all the men and women that have given their lives to defend what this man is standing and defending. Right now. And it鈥檚 now a matter of determining: Are our domestic enemies, right now, more of a detriment to the survival of our nation than these foreign enemies that we get so energized to go and kill?
Do we need to dress these federal agents up as a bunch of brown people and say that they came from the desert and they want to wage jihad against us, or are we going to call it jihad, just about, against the American people at this point?
The federal government, ladies and gentlemen, has become so out of control, so tyrannical, to the point where they do it swiftly, silently, to the point where the American people don鈥檛 even recognize what tyranny is.
As he wrapped up the rant, Santilli became even more explicitly violent, characterizing the Nevada showdown as a 鈥渇ight to the death鈥�:
Is it time now, at this point in time 鈥� if this is not THE issue, right now! Where we stand and fight to the absolute, and I say, death! There is no other option! The federal government must get out of the state of Nevada, with respect to that 600,000-acre ranch 鈥� they must leave. We want that to be done peacefully. If they don鈥檛 want it to happen peacefully, it is gonna be by their choice.
Santilli鈥檚 solution: Militiamen and 鈥溾�� need to bring their guns:
Ladies and gentlemen, when I say, I鈥檓 calling upon every single American anywhere in the vicinity of Clark County, pool your money together, fill up your gas cans, get your cameras. If you鈥檙e in Nevada and you can legally carry, get weapons out there, OK? We鈥檙e going to stand and fight in Clark County, Nevada! They will leave or else!
Of course, if gunfire actually does break out, one can rest assured that he will almost certainly be nowhere in the vicinity himself.
