Senator Joe McCarthy was the first to make statements about the “enemy within” (Letters to a Republican)

Donald Trump recently warns his MAGA followers about the “enemy within.” Who remembers the early 1950s, when U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy repeatedly warned Congress, and indeed the entire country, about the communist enemy within?

“I have in my briefcase the names of federal employees…”

This was very convincing to many well-meaning people interested in preserving the ideals of the United States. That is until legendary reporter Edward R. Murrow called him out on Watch Now.