BY JACK PHILLIPS(EPOCH TIMES)

A former CIA officer wrote that he left the Democratic Party due to the second impeachment of former President Donald Trump, saying that it only serves to exacerbate the political divide.

“For years, Democrats like me have watched with increasing alarm as our own political leaders and activists … have used an endless stream of hateful, violent and ultimately un-American rhetoric that has resulted in billions of dollars in economic damage and given birth to a violent national movement,” wrote Bryan Dean Wright, the former intelligence officer, for the Daily Caller.

Wright said the “modern Left” is infused with “systemic hatred” that has “inflamed profound political divisions and the predictable outcomes that come with them, most especially violence and destruction.”

“The most egregious example came in the summer of 2020, with Leftist race riots that cost upwards of $2 billion in damages,” he said, adding that Democratic leaders didn’t offer condemnations when “fires raged,” property was vandalized, and lives were destroyed.

Wright pointed out that democratically elected officials incited violence in 2020.

“A woman in New York City threw a Molotov cocktail at four police officers sitting in their vehicle during a riot” and “were unharmed only because the gas bomb failed to ignite,” he said.

“Next, a group of rioters in Seattle tried to seal up the doors of a police precinct and ignite the building on fire, burning cops alive.

“In all, over 700 federal, state, and local law enforcement officers sustained injuries in violence perpetrated by Leftist rioters. That includes retired St. Louis police Captain David Dorn, who died defending the city he loved from those encouraged by the Democrat Party’s incitement.”

Wright went on to cite rhetoric from mainstream media pundits such as CNN’s Chris Cuomo, who told viewers last year, “Show me where it says protesters are supposed to be polite and peaceful,” and NPR’s statement that “looting is a powerful tool to bring about real, lasting change in society.”

Such statements, he argued, served to gaslight people into committing acts of violence. At the same time, he suggested that it’s hypocritical to impeach Trump for allegedly inciting an insurrection when Democratic leaders and left-leaning media outlets emboldened rioters and anarchists last year.

House Democrats have argued that Trump’s speech incited supporters on Jan. 6 to carry out the Capitol breach, which left several people—including an officer—dead.

“For Democrats like me, we have no choice: we have to leave. But where do we go, politically, now that our party can no longer be salvaged? The answer is to be found in the exit data from the 2020 election: We’re already leaving, it turns out, and joining the new, populist Republican Party,” he said.