Michael Beschloss, the presidential historian for NBC News, warned on Friday that the upcoming 2022 midterms will present Americans with a choice: go with Democrats and democracy or Republicans and tyranny.
Part of the "evidence" for his claim is due to only a small number of Republicans showing up for Thursday's remembrance events for the Capitol riot.
"Here is a case, you looked at that Republican side, and the only two to show up to honor those police and others who tried to defend the Capitol and the members of Congress who put their lives at risk were Dick Cheney and his daughter. It tells you a lot," Beschloss said.
"If we had a conversation like this, let's say Joe and Mika and Willie, ten years ago, about one of the most heated issues in American life, one of us may have said at least we all believe in democracy...Not everyone believes in democracy in this country, and the sad thing that is turning out to be the difference between the two parties," he continued.
"In 2022, Americans may well have to make the choice. Do we want democracy or do we want tyranny? This is the most major attack on the Capitol since August of 1814 and what we now have to find out is was that just a spontaneous gathering? It wasn't. Was it licensed by groups that we don't know enough about? Was it licensed by sitting members of Congress? Was it licensed by the sitting president of the United States, Donald Trump to overturn this democracy in a coup d'etat to disrupt the transfer of power and install a tyranny?"
Beschloss seemed to have forgotten about the 1971 Weather Underground bombing of the Capitol building, which was done in protest of the ongoing U.S.-supported Laos invasion. While no one was killed, the bomb caused $300,000 in damage.