Democrats boycotted Trump's State of the Union Tuesday night – the one where a CNN instant poll found broad viewer approval of the president's address.
While Trump was making that case to the country, a senior Democratic senator was on cable television announcing what his party intends to do to you the moment they take power back.
What he said isn't political bluster – it's a direct promise that every Trump voter in America needs to hear before November.
Chris Murphy's Jail Threat Came the Night of Trump's State of the Union
Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut told MSNBC that Trump Republicans are "going to get their clocks cleaned this November, and a bunch of people are probably gonna end up going to jail."
No hedging. No qualifications. No "pending investigation" or "if crimes are found."
Constitutional law professor Jonathan Turley immediately flagged the legal problem: even if Democrats retake the House and Senate, Congress does not have the power to put people in jail. Murphy either doesn't know this – or the threat was never really about law to begin with.
This wasn't Murphy operating alone. He was joining a coordinated Democratic chorus that had been building for weeks.
Susan Rice and the Democrat Revenge Tour Already Had Momentum
Susan Rice – Obama's National Security Adviser and Biden's top domestic policy aide – said just days earlier that corporations, law firms, universities, and media companies that worked with Trump should expect consequences when Democrats return to power.
Her exact framing: "It's not going to end well for them."
Rice wasn't talking about lawbreakers. She was targeting anyone who had done business with or declined to openly oppose a legitimately elected president. Netflix refused to fire her from its board after those comments. Its stock dropped 3.37% the next trading day.
Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner – funded by George Soros – promised to "hunt down" ICE officers he compared to Nazis.
Democratic strategist James Carville threatened that Trump "collaborators" might be treated the way Nazi collaborators were treated after World War II.
Gov. Tim Walz, who had been calling ICE agents "Gestapo," said this moment could be America's "Fort Sumter" – the trigger event for a new civil war that killed more than 600,000 Americans.
These aren't fringe voices. Murphy, Rice, Krasner, and Carville are sitting officials and senior Democratic operatives – and in Krasner's case, a prosecutor with the actual power to bring charges.
What History Says About People Who Start This Fire
There's a pattern here that constitutional scholar Turley has studied at length, and it doesn't end well for the people lighting the match.
During the French Revolution, Maximilien Robespierre built the Reign of Terror – a systematic campaign of arrest, trial, and execution by guillotine aimed at political opponents. He was so effective at channeling mob rage that the mob eventually turned on him. Robespierre was arrested, tried, and guillotined in 1794 by the same movement he created.
The dynamic he discovered is identical to what Murphy and Rice are playing with now: once you tell a rage-fueled political movement that opponents deserve punishment rather than defeat, you cannot control where that punishment ends. The people making the threats never do.
Turley calls these figures the "new Jacobins" – establishment politicians who believe they can ride mob rage into power while staying above it. History says they're always wrong about that last part.
The Real Target Is Trump Voters and Anyone Who Supported Him
Murphy wasn't talking about Trump himself on MSNBC. He said "Trump people" – all 77 million Americans who voted for an elected president, supported his agenda, and exercised their constitutional rights.
Rice's threat wasn't aimed at criminals. It was aimed at corporations, law firms, and universities that declined to openly oppose the sitting president.
The Soros-backed Philadelphia DA isn't threatening MS-13. He's threatening the federal immigration agents enforcing laws passed by bipartisan congressional majorities.
This is a targeted political purge dressed in legal language, and a sitting senator went on national television – on the night the president addressed the nation – to announce it publicly.
Democrats are counting on you not paying attention until it's too late. They miscalculated.
Sources:
- Jonathan Turley, "Sen. Chris Murphy Joins Pledge to Throw Trump Figures in Jail After Taking Power," JonathanTurley.org, February 25, 2026.
- Jonathan Turley, "'It's Not Going to End Well for Them': Susan Rice Joins Calls for a Revenge Purge After Democrats Re-Take Power," JonathanTurley.org, February 21, 2026.
- Pam Key, "Murphy: After Dems Win in November People Are Probably 'Going to Jail,'" Breitbart, February 24, 2026.
- Bryan S. Jung, "Netflix's Stock Plunges After Refusing to Fire Susan Rice for Threatening Trump Officials," PJ Media, February 23, 2026.
- Fox News Staff, "Soros-Backed Philadelphia DA Vows to 'Hunt Down' ICE Agents," Fox News, February 2026.
