Liberals Stoke Anti-Trump Hate, Then Blame Him for Violence | Opinion - Newsweek
By: Jonathan Tobin (Newsweek)
Threat to Democracy..............hahahaha
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
CLOSE X By Jonathan Tobin Editor in chief, JNS.orgFOLLOW
For the second time in nine weeks, former president Donald Trump was the target of an assassination attempt. In the latest incident, the would-be assassin, a fanatic supporter of Ukraine and bitter critic of Trump, reportedly got within 500 yards of Trump while the presidential candidate was playing golf at his West Palm Beach resort, but failed to get off a shot before the Secret Service took action.
After the July 13 attack on Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, when he was shot in the ear and one of his supporters was murdered with two others wounded, the nation was shocked by a presidential candidate's close brush with death. Even many on the Left, including some of his Democratic opponents, at least paid lip service to the notion that this outbreak of political violence ought to lead to a lowering of the volume of harsh partisan rhetoric.
But two months later, with a different and seemingly more viable candidate in Vice President Kamala Harris leading in the polls and with their campaign of demonization of Trump in full swing, liberals seem incapable of even uttering hypocritical rhetoric about national unity.
On the contrary, the reaction to the West Palm Beach attack from Democrats and their liberal cheering section in the media seems fairly uniform. As far as they are concerned, if anyone is to blame for people trying to kill a presidential candidate, it's the victim—not those who have spent the last eight years stoking hatred against him.
It is true that Trump's willingness to engage in hyperbolic speech and wild accusations that are either exaggerated or completely untethered to the truth was a shock to the American political system. From the moment he came down the escalator in Trump Tower in June 2015, Trump has never behaved like a typical politician or used measured speech. His tendency to continuously break the accepted rules of politics earned him the admiration of tens of millions of Americans, but the ire of many opponents. They have reacted to every flight of Trumpian rhetorical fancy with not just outrage but predictions that each incident would finally be the one that breaks him, only to always be disappointed. Rather than penalize Trump, his followers discounted the gaffes and cheered him precisely because he had not pulled his punches in denouncing a D.C. establishment that has done so much damage to the country.
Trump's ability to hold on to his base and the Republican Party has only increased the outrage on the Left. When their campaign of delegitimization—beginning with the effort to falsely portray him as a Russian agent in 2016—failed, they accused him of being an authoritarian and an enemy of democracy, up to and including accusations that he is another Adolf Hitler. Those accusations continue to this day. But rather than admit that most of the criticism of Trump is as hyperbolic and as disconnected from the truth about him and his four years as president as anything he has said, liberals claim that the overheated rhetoric from the Left is Trump's fault.
Indeed, rather than take a breath and give the "enemy of democracy" rhetoric a rest after the second assassination attempt, liberal pundits insist that the usual Democratic talking points are still all true and that it is the duty of good citizens to denounce Trump in this intemperate fashion.
Nor are they prepared to hold themselves to the same standards by which they judge Trump and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio). Vance was bashed for highlighting the complaints of some Springfield, Ohio, residents about Haitian immigrants. In a hostile interview, CNN's Dana Bash accused him of inciting bomb threats against schools and hospitals even though he had never called for violence.
But if Vance can be considered responsible for threats of violence against immigrants, why aren't those accusing Trump of being a second Hitler similarly held accountable for violence against him?
American society pays a high price for rhetoric that casts an election as one in which a wrong choice will bring democracy to an end. While Trump can be criticized for his over-the-top speeches, Democrats and the liberal media have gone much further. They have justified inappropriate Nazi analogies and undermined the democratic system, which is incompatible with efforts to brand one side of the political spectrum as beyond the pale. America's constitutional republic has flourished because we have a tradition of recognizing our political foes as mistaken but not as enemies. By engaging in campaigns to smear Trump and lawsuits whose purpose is to bankrupt and imprison a political foe, Democrats have crossed the line between partisan speech and banana republic tactics.
Once you go down the rabbit hole of Hitler comparisons, in particular, discussions about the legitimacy of violence not only become more prevalent; they are rendered defensible.
That is the predicament in which the Democrats' unquenchable rage at Trump has landed us. With their hopes of defeating him greater than they were in July when a diminished President Joe Biden was still their candidate, they are even more determined to highlight extreme accusations against Trump than they were after the first assassination attempt.
Simply put, blaming the intended victim of multiple murder plots for the threatened violence against him is unconscionable. And to disavow the connection between their own rhetoric and the violence it incited and to instead say it's as much Trump's fault as his unhinged opponents' is the ultimate in "both sides" arguments that liberals and Democrats would reject out-of-hand if it were Harris that was the target of assassins.
Jonathan S. Tobin is editor-in-chief of JNS.org and a senior contributor to The Federalist. Follow him @jonathans_tobin.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
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And there you have it.............
Not sure who they think they are fooling but it’s FUBAR.
No doubt about it.
Incredible to watch play out in real time. Zero self awareness
Yep, it is fascinating observing the machinations of the deluded.
Hilarious. No point reading past the second sentence, where the author admits this nut is a bitter critic of Trump. Yeah, blame democrats!
What do you think constantly feeds his nutter status if not the continual bashing of Trump and the "Threat to Democracy" bullshit?
Donald Trump's words and behavior.
He couldn’t possibly have formed an opinion on his own. Somehow the evil Democrats whispered into this trumper’s ear while he was sleeping or something.
In addition to the left's rhetoric, probably so.
Do Democrats sit around and listen to Trump, if so why????????? Or are they getting fed nonstop he's Hitler, a threat to democracy, he's a racist, blah, blah blah.
It is pretty funny to watch these lying sycophants defend Trump when he's declaring the Democrats the enemies of America and that if his followers don't "fight like hell" that they "won't have a country anymore" and Vance falsely claiming Democrats are supposedly telling their base to "eliminate" Trump without a single actual quote of any Democratic leader saying that. Democrats want to defeat Trump at the ballot box, that's it. The most recent attempted shooter is not registered by either party, was a registered Republican and voted for Trump in 2016. Thomas Crooks was also a previously registered Republican and, according to the FBI wasn't a fan of either candidate and was likely wanting to assassinate either one and the Trump rally just happened to be closer.
" The FBI said that Crooks searched online for both Trump and President Joe Biden 's events and believe he may have seen the Pennsylvania rally scheduled for near his home as a "target of opportunity," according to a senior FBI official, rather as expressly politically motivated toward either candidate."
Comparing the Ryan Routh and Thomas Crooks Assassination Attempts - Newsweek
"Routh’s politics, meanwhile, don’t appear consistently aligned to one party or the other."
Trump apparent assassination attempt: What to know | AP News
But it's no surprise that Republicans would try and twist this into some cry of victimhood as they always do. They are desperate to find anything that would give their Dear Leader Trump an edge in the upcoming election and Harris clearly scares the shit out of them.
She should scare the hell out of any rational and patriotic person. Dems are in denial about how much of a threat she is to our democracy, freedoms, and national security.
By all means, enlighten me, I've met the lady and the only threat she poses is to men stupid enough to be misogynists.
This from a supporter of a candidate who said he wants to be a Dictator on day 1, lied about the last election claiming he won without a lick of evidence, incited an attempted insurrection, has been convicted of 34 felonies, kept top secret documents in an unsecured location at his golf club, been accused of sexual assault by two dozen women, is an accused rapist, ran half a dozen businesses into bankruptcy, said he was "in love" with foreign dictators, suggested revoking the licenses of media companies that didn't show him in a favorable light and lied about the seriousness of a pandemic that may have led to tens of thousands of Americans losing their lives.
In comparison, Harris is a former prosecutor, attorney general and current vice President who is intelligent, passionate and patriotic and has, unlike her opponent, said she would accept the outcome of the election and will gladly support the peaceful transfer of power should her opponent win. What scares the shit out of white right-wing conservatives is that she cares for all Americans, not just them, and she's acutely aware of the long history of racial and gender injustice and discrimination in our country. That's why the pitiful bigot base of Trump supporters despise her so much. The reality is she's about the furthest a candidate can get from being a threat to our democracy, freedoms and national security, that's just bullshit rhetoric repeated by sore losers.
Unhinged critics of Trump invariably turn out to be left wing loons.
When it comes to unhinged,Trump is the pace setter for his apologists.
Look no further than here for proof of that.
Yeah. That'd be like blaming Hamas when a terrorist becomes radicalized by watching Hamas videos.
You are so full of shit. DTJ does all the work himself. If Democrats could turn Trump voters into Democratic voters with only their words Trump wouldn’t have a single supporter. It’s Trump that is advocating for violence all the time.
your whole argument is even though Democrats demonize and criticize trump, the fact that he's a critic of Trump means Democrats aren't to blame.
It might be the most illogical argument ever made on this site. It's awe inspiring.
Trump invites everything he receives, and you think it’s logical for his opponents to just shut up and take it. Of course that will never happen. Of course that should never happen. He could choose to stop asking for criticism and demonization, he could choose to stop the egregious lying, but then how would you defend him?
Nothing Trump has or hasn’t done rises to level of “inviting” assassination. And thinking that it does is just crazy talk.
Nothing more.
I think its logical for Democrats to not shoot Trump.
In fact, it would be great if we could get to a point where the Democratic nominee sat down for a solo interview or held a press conference more frequently than an attempt is made to assassinate Trump,
This is one of the most incredible things I've ever seen printed in a mainstream news publication. (The author is from the far right The Federalist, but the seed comes from Newsweek)
What this means , of course, is that tens of millions of Americans approve of a lunatic lying to the American people as he long as he makes them feel good.
At the time, and perhaps even now after the last 4 years, it was deemed necessary...........
And the problem with that would beeeeeeeeeee?
tens of millions of Americans approve of a lunatic lying to the American people as he long as he makes them feel good.
What's your point? Do you think a PotUS should make people feel bad? Obama tried that. Constantly repeating "That's not who we are".
Yes, when the accepted rules of politics became Joe Biden can claim Mitt Romney will put black people in chains and kill seniors and Harry Reid laughed about spreading lies about Romney at the same time it became racist to offer just about any criticism of Obama, it's no wonder so many Americans chose the outsider.
The complete inability of Democrats to understand the reactions their actions will obviously provoke is baffling.
Stop peddling nonsense.
Your own beloved Federalist (writer) admits that Trump engages in "in hyperbolic speech and wild accusations that are either exaggerated or completely untethered to the truth", but then excuses such behavior because it has earned him "tens of millions" of admirers.
You are telling us that tens of millions admire a pathological liar because of something said about Mitt Romney? LOL.
You voted for that pathological liar. The more frequent and wilders the lies are, the better one does in politics is what Democrats like Clinton and Biden taught America. When caught just lie and double down on it. That's the lesson Trump learned and Americans have come to expect from politicians.
It's simply bizarre how Democrats have spent the last 30 years rewarding the most brazen liars and then pretend to be upset about Trump's lying.
Trump has been lying his entire life. Dont blame his mental illness on Democrats.
Well, he was a Democrat most of his life so there's that..............................
Politicians are experts at convincing themselves their lies aren’t lies.
Just watched Kamalies interview with the Black Journalist group. I’m paraphrasing a bit but first she said she was a gun owner and wasn’t going to take anyone’s gun. Right after that and I mean her next comment was, she said she is for a complete assault weapons ban.
You can’t make this shit up and our friends on the left blissfully ignore her lies while they hammer a lie Trump told 6 years ago …. amazing!