McCaskill: Trump Is Trying To “Disappear” People Like “His Buddy Putin”

Authored by Jonathan Turley,

MSNBC analyst and former Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill has long been criticized for unhinged rhetoric. 

That was evident on “Morning Joe” recently when McCaskill said that the deportation of alleged Venezuelan gang members was akin to Putin “disappearing” people. 

It is not the first such analogy by McCaskill, who has called those opposing the censorship under the Biden Administration “Putin lovers.” 

However, just for the record, Putin does not generally disappear people by putting them on flights back to their countries. He tends more toward nerve agents than immigration agents to remove people.

McCaskill’s comments have been echoed by others on the left, even before the election.

On ABC’s “The View,” Whoopi Goldberg told viewers how Trump is already committed to being a dictator who will “put you people away … take all the journalists … take all the gay folks … move you all around and disappear you.”

I have expressed concerns over the alleged failure to comply with the order of U.S. District Judge James “Jeb” Boasberg in his order to stop such flights and return those in transit. 

To the extent that the White House is arguing that this is a non-justiciable matter, that is an argument to raise on appeal.

I have criticized some judges for intrusion into areas of presidential discretion. However, the Trump Administration would only undermine such cases by defying court orders.

Trump struck the perfect tone after coming into office by pledging to comply with opposing court orders while appealing them. That is what he did in his first term with considerable success.

Nevertheless, the analogy of McCaskill is the latest example of the rising hysteria on the left. She stated on MSNBC:

“We’ve got to make sure that people cannot be picked up and disappeared like his buddy Putin does. Like his buddy. He does like his buddy Xi does, like his biddy Kim Jong Un does. They do this? 

They disappear people and many times murder them. 

So we’re not going to go down that road. I don’t care how much the president screams irresponsibly about impeachment, there’s no way.”

McCaskill tends to paint those with opposing views as Nazis or Putin sympathizers. After one hearing (where I also testified against the censorship system under the Biden Administration), McCaskill appeared on MSNBC to denounce the witnesses (Sen. Chuck Grassley, Sen. Ron Johnson, and former Rep. Gabbard) as “Putin apologists” and Putin lovers. She exclaimed, “I mean, look at this, I mean, all three of those politicians are Putin apologists. I mean, Tulsi Gabbard loves Putin.”

She has also said that Trump is “more dangerous than Hitler” — a person who committed the genocide of millions and triggered a war killing tens of millions. Yeah, that Hitler.

The problem with the escalating rhetoric is that there is nowhere to go from here. You jumped the shark. What is left after saying that Trump is more dangerous than Hitler and is disappearing people like Putin? That leaves only Ebola and cholera.

There is a danger to such “rage rhetoric” when it gives a license to others to take violent action, including attempting to assassinate a justice or a president. Indeed, once the left hit the maximal level of panic politics, you cannot ratchet down without being yourself subject to attack from the mob. You have to keep the rhetoric at a DEFCON 1 level.

There is another possibility worth considering. Every administration has come into power with sweeping changes. They are hashed out in the courts. If history is any guide, it is likely that Trump will win many but also lose some of these cases. That includes challenges to the authority of courts.

You can criticize these moves without reaching for the Hitler and Putin analogies. We have the most stable, most successful constitutional system in the history of the world. This is no constitutional crisis. We have this. Our constitution and courts will resolve any conflicts and we will continue as a free people. The only thing likely to “disappear” are the ratings and viewers of networks who traffic in rage rhetoric and panic politics.

Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro professor of public interest law at George Washington University and the author of “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage.”