According to the FBI and other officials, another sick person tried to kill Donald Trump. We should all be thankful that no one was hurt and that the Secret Service and local law enforcement appear to have done their job well.
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 am the one who is going to save the country, and they are the ones destroying the country, both from within and without.”
Why am I grateful to Trump? For starters, he saved me an enormous amount of time. I planned to address this claim using examples from Trump supporters. “Democrats Still in Incitement Mode to Stop Hitler,” read one headline in Breitbart.com Before he was silenced, but collecting such quotes (often from second- or third-rate MAGA sycophants and apologists) is tedious and requires arguing with people you'd rather not elevate by taking them seriously.
But here we have the claim formulated succinctly by the presidential candidate himself and objectively. Better yet, it contains the fundamental cynicism and hypocrisy of much longer versions of this argument.
Trump believes the “threat to democracy” charge against him is inciting people to violence. This might be possible, though there is little evidence that the alleged killer in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July was politically motivated. The latest attacker, a former Trump supporter turned critic, certainly appears to have been highly political, whatever his specific motivation.
In a country of 337 million people, it will always be the case that a small fraction of sick people are motivated to violence by “extreme” claims. But here’s the problem with the argument as made by Trump and his defenders. They are not against the rhetorical extremism that supposedly incites violence, but against that kind of rhetoric used against Trump. Similar rhetoric directed against Biden and Harris is fine.
Read Trump’s complaint again: “They are the ones destroying the country,” he insists. Later he adds: “They are called the internal enemy. They are the real threat.”
In other words, Trump believes the problem isn’t apocalyptic rhetoric that incites violence. No, the problem is that people believe the rhetoric about him, when what they should believe is his similar rhetoric about his political opponents. Indeed, Trump routinely insists that if Harris, whom he calls a communist and a fascist, is elected, “the country will be finished.”
Few of the people, including Trump himself, who will blame the “hateful rhetoric constantly directed at Trump,” in the words of the New York Post’s Miranda Devine, for Sunday’s assassination attempt, have any problem with Trump’s hateful rhetoric. It’s a remarkable double standard. We can wax 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 nil.
There is, however, an objective divergence. People, even some deranged people, find the accusations against Trump plausible. That might have more to do with Trump's past behavior (e.g., on January 6) or his stated positions (his call for finish the Constitution to be able to regain power, perhaps) than with the persuasiveness of its critics or the power of the media.
Indeed, whether or not the claim that Trump is a threat to democracy is extreme depends largely on whether or not it is true. If he is a threat to democracy, then calling him that is simply an accurate description. It is irresponsible — or “extreme” in the colloquial jargon of current politics — to falsely shout “Fire!” in a crowded theater. If you actually see a fire, that is a defensible warning.
This assassination attempt came amid a heated controversy over Trump and JD Vance's unsubstantiated claims about Haitian immigrants feeding on domestic dogs and cats in Springfield, Ohio. These claims led to school closures for bomb threats and threats of shooting against Haitians in Springfield. Keep in mind that Trump routinely refers to immigrants as vermin that poison the blood. And yet, the complaints and concerns of those who lament the inciting rhetoric directed at Trump have not come through.
It's worth remembering that conservatives used to denounce attempts to blame politicians for the actions of lunatics. When then-Rep. Gabby Giffords was shot and killed in Arizona in 2011, many liberals ridiculously insisted that Sarah Palin was to blame, and conservatives, rightly, objectNow, many conservatives sound like those liberals, only in defense of Donald Trump.
If hypocrisy were helium, many people would have funny voices and some would just float away.
@JonahDispatch
