Former President Donald Trump responded to a second apparent assassination attempt that he blamed on incendiary political rhetoric, further inflaming the situation.
When a bullet grazed his ear in a horrific shooting that killed a rally attendee in July, Trump initially acted like a changed man, telling Salena Zito of the Washington Examiner that he had a chance to unite the country and the world — though that aspiration didn’t last beyond the opening paragraphs of his convention speech.
After the Secret Service foiled a gunman who was apparently waiting for the former president at one of his Florida golf courses on Sunday (15), Trump’s reaction was different. He accused President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris of inciting assassins to attack him when they warn that he is a threat to democracy.
He told Fox News Digital on Monday (16), without evidence, that the alleged shooter “believed the rhetoric of Biden and Harris and acted on it.” Trump continued: “Their rhetoric is causing me to be the target of gunfire, when I am the one who is going to save the country, and they are the ones who are destroying the country — both from within and without.”
“This is called the enemy within,” he said, using a metaphor familiar to totalitarian leaders. Trump warned that “dangerous fools” like the suspect in Sunday’s shooting were listening to what Democratic leaders were saying and reacting to what he had falsely claimed was a White House-orchestrated attempt to use the justice system to persecute him.
Vance says no one tried to kill Harris
Trump’s running mate made an even more direct argument. “The big difference between conservatives and liberals is that … no one has tried to kill Kamala Harris in the last few months, and two people have tried to kill Donald Trump in the last few months,” said Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance.
“I would say this is pretty strong evidence that the left needs to tone down the rhetoric and stop with this nonsense.”
The Republican vice presidential candidate recently pleaded guilty to incitement after perpetuating unfounded claims that Haitian refugees were eating pet cats and dogs in Springfield, Ohio, which was followed by bomb threats to hospitals and schools.
Democratic Rep. Nikema Williams condemned Vance’s comments about assassinations and the difference between liberals and conservatives.
“Would he want that? Why would he say that at a time when we’re talking about de-escalating and changing the rhetoric, bringing the country together — unity — moving forward?” the Georgia Democrat told CNN . “We may disagree on policies, but we don’t want anyone to suffer an assassination attempt.”
Williams said it’s “no secret” that she is not a Trump supporter, but that she does not want anyone to face a threat to their life. She added that she has had to take personal security measures since becoming a member of Congress to protect herself and her family after facing threats.
Fierce politics already unfolding after Sunday’s incident
The experience of being the target of two assassination attempts in two months would weigh heavily on anyone. Trump is also facing an election in less than 50 days, in which he and the vice president are tied, according to most polls.
Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, a Republican, told CNN on Monday that anyone who has been targeted for murder “could be quite sensitive, quite agitated, quite worried, so I think that’s understandable.”
And trying to decide an election by assassinating a presidential candidate should be repugnant to anyone who believes in democracy and the right of voters to choose their leaders.
The exact motives of the suspect, Ryan Wesley Routh, are also unclear, although he was a longtime advocate for aid to Ukraine — a position that conflicts with Trump’s pledge to end the war with Russia.
And the connection between a politician’s rhetoric and the actions taken by isolated individuals is often difficult to determine, although the fear is always that a small minority of people could be motivated by a leader’s comments to provoke violence.
But Trump’s claims that Biden and Harris are directly to blame underscore the extreme nature of his own political instincts.
His claim that his opponents’ warnings about his alleged threat to democracy are putting his life at risk is particularly damning. It implies that it is illegitimate for his opponents to point out the truth: that his past behavior — in trying to overturn the 2020 election and spreading false claims that this year’s vote will be corrupt — suggests that he poses a danger to the US democratic system.
His stance, which appears to be an attempt to suppress free speech, could also be a dark omen of how he would behave if he were to win a second term.
Trump played a similar political card in last week’s presidential debate, when Kamala Harris raised her threat to scrap the Constitution and use the Justice Department as a weapon against her political enemies.
She said that since the Supreme Court and Vance would not stop Trump if he returned to the White House, “it’s up to the American people to stop him.” The vice president was clearly speaking in a political context, but Trump responded, “I probably got shot in the head because of the things they say about me.”
Despite the intense political debates, there was one moment on Monday that recalled the lost political normalcy. Biden and Trump had a phone conversation, and the president expressed relief that his former rival was safe. The Republican candidate said in a statement to the CNN which was “a very pleasant call”.
Republicans say Democrats are guilty of incitement
Incitement and inflammatory rhetoric often get interpreted in different ways. Republicans were outraged, for example, by Biden’s August 2022 claim that the philosophical underpinnings of the MAGA (Make America Great Again) movement were “quasi-fascism.” (The accusation has not become a common element of the president’s rhetoric.)
New York Democratic Rep. Daniel Goldman said last year in an interview that Trump needed to be “eliminated” — a comment Vance cited on Monday. Goldman quickly apologized for his “poor choice of words” and said he wished Trump no harm.
But if Democrats sometimes overstep the mark, Trump has built a political brand on the most outlandish claims ever made by a president or former president in modern American history.
The scale and intensity of his verbal attacks far surpass anything Democrats have ever said against him. He calls Harris a “fascist” in nearly every public appearance — for example, he said on August 26 in Virginia that “we have a fascist person running who is incompetent.” He used similar rhetoric on August 23, August 17 and August 3 at campaign events.
Earlier this year, he claimed that Biden was running a “Gestapo administration,” referring to the Nazi secret police. He echoed the language of some of history’s worst tyrants by calling his political opponents “vermin” and warning that immigrants were “poisoning the blood” of the United States.
And when he refused to admit he lost the 2020 election, Trump summoned his supporters to Washington, D.C., and told them to “fight like hell” or they would lose the country. His supporters then stormed the U.S. Capitol, trying to stop the certification of Biden’s victory.
Trump has since called those arrested in connection with the events of January 6, 2021, political prisoners and said he would consider pardoning them if he returns to the White House in November. Even now, Trump has warned that he will only accept the results of this year’s election if he considers them fair and has warned that he will seek to jail officials and political opponents if he returns to power.
“He preys on people’s fear and anxiety. He defines us with hate and fear,” Michigan Democratic Rep. Debbie Dingell said at a campaign event for Harris. “This violence needs to stop, but we also need to understand who and what he is and how much he is contributing to this,” she said, adding: “He has not said he will accept the results of the election.”
Social media has often helped Trump inject toxicity into political life. After Sunday’s incident, one of his most prominent supporters — Elon Musk, who owns X — questioned why Trump has faced two apparent assassination attempts and none of his rivals.
“And no one is even trying to assassinate Biden/Kamala,” Musk wrote in a post he later deleted. He later argued that the post was a joke, though given the violent political history of the US and the assassination of four American presidents, it’s hard to see how anyone could find such comments funny.
The rhetoric of Trump and his allies has also made life dangerous for others. Dr. Anthony Fauci, a former government infectious disease expert, told CNN this year, that when he is attacked, for example, by Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, during congressional hearings, the number of death threats against him increases. “There is a segment of the population that believes this kind of nonsense,” Fauci said.
Media organizations and election officials have also faced threats as they have been targeted by Trump’s baseless attacks. Prosecutors and judges need extra security while handling Trump’s cases, as they are the targets of his daily criticism.
And even as the shocking aftermath of another apparent assassination attempt on Trump continues to unfold, the impact of his and Vance’s rhetoric is evident in Springfield, Ohio.
After Trump amplified false claims at the debate, Ohio’s Republican governor, Mike DeWine, deployed the state highway patrol to monitor schools in the city, which had received bomb threats.
Elsewhere in Springfield, classes at Wittenberg University were held remotely on Monday as campus police and local authorities assessed emailed threats of a bombing and shooting on campus that targeted “members of the Haitian community,” according to the university.
In his interview with CNN Vance said any suggestion that he or Trump acted in a way that would cause such threats was “disgusting.”
It is also disgusting that anyone would consider assassinating a former president running in a democratic election. Yet the historical record shows that while Trump has become a victim of a toxic political culture, he is also one of its chief instigators.
This content was originally published in Analysis: Trump assumes incendiary rhetoric after new assassination attempt on the CNN Brasil website.
Source: CNN Brasil
Bruce Belcher is a seasoned author with over 5 years of experience in world news. He writes for online news websites and provides in-depth analysis on the world stock market. Bruce is known for his insightful perspectives and commitment to keeping the public informed.
