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'Reprehensible': Critics Explode After Trump Tweets Impeachment Could Lead to 'Civil War'

U.S. President Donald Trump is greeting by Pastor Robert Jeffress during the Celebrate Freedom Rally at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on July 1, 2017 in Washington, D.C. (Photo: Olivier Douliery-Pool via Getty Images)

'Reprehensible': Critics Explode After Trump Tweets Impeachment Could Lead to 'Civil War'

"This isn't about Civil War, it's about violence."

The hashtag #CivilWar2 was trending in the U.S. Monday morning after President Donald Trump promoted comments from a right-wing pastor who said that if Trump is successfully impeached, "it will cause a Civil War-like fracture in this nation."

Trump is facing an impeachment inquiry from the House over his asking Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden's son Hunter and days ago suggested the whistleblower who filed a complaint about his call with Zelensky be executed. On Sunday, the president went further in quoting a series of tweets remarks made that morning by Southern Baptist pastor Robert Jeffress on the latest Fox & Friends Sunday.

Jeffress told the hosts that "impeachment is the only tool [Democrats] have to get rid of Donald Trump and the Democrats don't care if they burn down and destroy this nation in the process."

Evangelical Christians, the megachurch pastor continued, "know that the only impeachable offense President Trump has committed was beating Hillary Clinton in 2016. That's the unpardonable sin for which the Democrats will never forgive him. And I do want to make this prediction this morning: If the Democrats are successful in removing the president from office, I'm afraid it will cause a Civil War-like fracture in this nation from which this country will never heal."

Trump's promotion of the comments came in for criticism from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle:

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), in a late Sunday tweet, suggested that Republicans must respond Monday by either denouncing the Civil War comments or backing impeachment.

Other observers accused Trump of again turning to stochastic terrorism:

Jeffress, for his part, has a history of making offensive comments, including that Islam "promotes pedophilia" and is "a heresy from the pit of Hell," that gay people are incapable of monogamy, and that Trump has the authority to assassinate people.

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