The precedent for Trump's violent rhetoric

0:00Let's look at the latest rhetoric from US President Donald Trump, it's such extraordinary language each day being escalated. How is it being received in the US? So Mel, just a quick reminder of what he has posted overnight. In reference to Iran, he says, quote, a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back. I don't want that to happen, but it probably will. So this is how American media grappling with those comments this morning. Perhaps the strongest words that we've heard from the president. This is an extreme threat. That is threatening a war crime. That is threatening something genocidal. A serious of a threat that I've ever heard from a head of state. He's using the language of war crimes in a way that no other American president, certainly in our lifetime, ever has. Perhaps, perhaps just a bluff, perhaps just a negotiating tactic, but even just issuing that threat from the Oval Office is a remarkable escalation and something we have never before

1:02seen. So that is the reaction and how media are reporting this over in the United States, but there has also been a strong reaction across the political spectrum. Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumiss says targeting civilian infrastructure would be a huge mistake and he has called on the president not to carry out that strike. He's called the president an extremely sick person and Republicans have also urged caution. He is Wisconsin Republican Senator Ron Johnson on a podcast a couple of hours ago. So you would oppose bombing the electrical grid? I don't want to see that. I'm hoping that's just bluster. Again, I would like to see the Iranian country and its infrastructure remain as much in place. I want to see the military destroy the infrastructure. I hope we can minimize the requirement for that. So hopes here from both sides that the president is just bluffing, but this language from the president, it has turned increasingly violent recently. We have heard this sort of language before, though, Mel. President Trump talks about annihilation last month, Israeli finance minister Betel-El-Smotrich

2:03talked about turning Southern Lebanon into Gaza. Then this week, President Trump also said this. Mr. President, how would it not be a war crime to strike Iran's bridges and power plants? Because they killed 45,000 people in the last month. More than that. If it could be as much as 60, they killed protesters, their animals. Now, that animal's comment is similar to language that we have previously heard from Israeli government ministers. The International Court of Justice specifically mentions the former Israeli defense minister Yov-Galantz comments that Israel is fighting human animals in Gaza, that from the ICJ's 2024 advisory opinion on genocide. So, Mel, this language does have precedent just outside of the United States.