U.S. "in political war to the death" with American democracy hanging in balance: retired federal judge

WASHINGTON, Feb. 21 (Xinhua) -- The United States is locked "in a political war to the death" and "American democracy hangs in the balance," U.S. news website Business Insider has reported, citing a retired U.S. federal judge.

J. Michael Luttig, who retired from the federal judiciary in 2006 but remained an influential figure in the conservative legal world, said he is deeply troubled by the Republican Party's attacks on American democracy.

"This feels like a seminal moment in America when all of what the country has witnessed and endured for these years seems to be building to volcanic crescendo," Luttig told the Los Angles Times. "We are in political war to the death -- with each other," he was quoted by Business Insider on Saturday as saying.

On Jan. 5, 2021, Luttig, at an indirect request of former Vice President Mike Pence, presented "a Twitter thread of legal analysis" explaining why Pence could not unilaterally overturn the 2020 U.S. election, as former President Donald Trump was pushing him to do, said the report.

"We Americans are, figuratively, at angry war with each other," Luttig tweeted on Jan. 7, a day after the one-year anniversary of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol last year.

"Our leaders seem incapable or unwilling to lead us in this moment when we need leadership most. If our leaders refuse to lead us to where we want to go and need to be, then we must go there ourselves -- and leave them behind," the former judge was quoted as saying.