Another sick person tried to kill Donald Trump, the FBI and other officials said. We should all be thankful that no one was hurt and that the Secret Service and local law enforcement appear to have done their jobs properly.
I am also grateful to former President Trump for blaming the foiled assassination attempt on Democratic rhetoric, specifically that of “Biden and Harris.” On Monday, he told Fox News Digital, “Their rhetoric is getting me shot, when I’m the one who’s going to save the country, and they’re the ones who are destroying the country — both inside and out.”
Why am I grateful to Trump? For starters, he saved me a tremendous amount of time. I planned to address this claim using examples from Trump supporters. “Dems Still in ‘Stop Hitler’ Incitement Mode” read a headline on Breitbart before it was edited to tone it down a bit. But collecting such quotes—often from second- or third-rate MAGA sycophants and apologists—is tedious and requires me to engage with people I’d rather not elevate by taking them seriously.
But here we have the claim succinctly formulated by the presidential candidate – and target – himself. And even better, it contains the fundamental cynicism and hypocrisy of much longer versions of this talking point.
Trump believes the charge of “threatening democracy” incites people to violence. That may be the case, though there is little evidence that the would-be assassin in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July was motivated by politics; the latest attacker, a former Trump supporter turned critic, certainly seems strongly politically motivated, whatever his specific motivation.
Yet in a country of 337 million people, it will always be the case that a small portion of sick people will be motivated to violence by ‘extreme’ claims.
And here’s the problem with the argument as it’s being advanced by Trump and his defenders. They’re not against supposedly violence-inciting, rhetorical extremism, they’re against such rhetoric being deployed against Trump. Similar rhetoric targeting Biden and Harris is fine.
Go back and watch Trump’s complaint. “They’re the ones destroying the country,” he insists. Later he adds, “It’s called the enemy within. They’re the real threat.”
In other words, Trump believes the problem isn’t apocalyptic rhetoric that incites violence. Rather, the problem is that people believe the rhetoric about him when they should believe his similar rhetoric about his political opponents. Indeed, Trump routinely insists that if Harris — whom he calls a communist and fascist — is elected, “the country will be over.”
Few, including Trump himself, would blame the “hateful rhetoric constantly directed at Trump,” in the words of the New York PostMiranda Devine, before Sunday’s assassination attempt, has no problem with Trump’s hateful rhetoric. It’s a remarkable double standard. We can get Jesuitical about the differences between saying Harris will “destroy” the country and saying Trump is a “threat to democracy.” But logically and empirically, the differences between the claims are meaningless.
There is, however, an objective divergence. People, some of them deranged, find the allegations against Trump plausible. This may have more to do with Trump’s past behavior (on January 6, for example) or his outspokenness (his call to end the Constitution so he can regain power, perhaps) than with the persuasiveness of his critics or the power of the media.
Whether the claim that Trump is a threat to democracy is extreme indeed depends largely on whether it is true. If he is a threat to democracy, then calling him that is merely an accurate description. It is irresponsible – or “extreme” in the colloquial jargon of politics these days – to false Yell “Fire!” in a crowded theater. If you actually see fire, that’s a defensible warning.
This assassination attempt came amid a simmering controversy over unsubstantiated claims by Trump and J.D. Vance about Haitian immigrants feasting on pets like cats and dogs in Springfield, Ohio. These claims have resulted in school closures due to bomb threats and shooting threats against Haitians in Springfield. Keep in mind that Trump routinely describes immigrants as blood-poisoning vermin. And yet, there have been no complaints or hand-wringers about inflammatory rhetoric aimed at Trump.
It’s worth remembering that conservatives used to condemn attempts to blame politicians for the actions of lunatics. When then-Democratic Rep. Gabby Giffords was gunned down in Arizona in 2011, many liberals ridiculously insisted that Sarah Palin was to blame, and conservatives rightly objected. Now many conservatives sound like those liberals, only in defense of Donald Trump.
If hypocrisy were helium, a lot of people would have funny voices and some would just float away.
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