It has been a month of earthquakes.
June 27th: the astonishing debate between President Biden and former President Trump--which changed, immediately, the course of the presidential campaign.
July 13th: the attempted assassination of the former President, in Butler, Pennsylvania.
And, on July 21: the historic, and remarkable, decision by President Biden, to drop out of the presidential race--and his endorsement, shortly afterwards, of the candidacy of Vice President Harris.
About the assassination attempt:
It has been fifteen days since the terrible shootings in Butler. There was the injury to Mr. Trump. And, the tragic death of firefighter Corey Comperatore--and the serious injuries to the two other rally attendees.
News reports, in the week after the shootings, noted that the gunman had searched, online, for images of Mr. Trump, and for dates of Mr. Trump's public appearances. He had also searched for images of President Biden, and the dates of the August Democratic convention.
He had also made online searches about FBI Director Christopher Wray, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, and a British royal family member.
It was also reported that the gunman had looked up the subject of "major depressive disorder."
On Wednesday of this past week, FBI Director Christopher Wray revealed that a week before the attempted assassination, the gunman--chillingly--looked up the following, online: "How far away was Oswald from Kennedy?"
And yet: the motivations of the 20-year old gunman remain, at this writing, unknown.
A July 17th New York Times story (later updated) reported that
the absence of “any political or ideological information” at the [Bethel Park, Pennsylvania] house [the gunman] shared with his mother and father was “notable” because most people who carry out acts of political violence tend to leave a discernible trail of political views, a top [FBI] bureau official told lawmakers.
The Times also noted, on July 17th, that FBI Director Wray "went out of his way to caution that the investigation was still in its early stages."
A CNN report, on July 19th, said this:
"One emerging theory by investigators, based in part on the timing and subjects of his online searches, is that the shooter was looking to carry out a mass shooting and that the Trump event’s proximity and timing offered the most ready opportunity, according to a US official briefed on the matter."
So: if the above theory is ultimately proven correct (and it may not be), the shootings in Butler may not in fact have been driven by a particular fixation on or animus toward Mr. Trump--but may, in the end, have been opportunistic; the attack may have been carried out due to a terrible and shocking sense of convenience.
Nevertheless: soon after the tragic events in Butler, various Republicans blamed Democrats, and Mr. Biden himself, for the assassination attempt.
They charged that Democratic rhetoric--such as, asserting that Mr. Trump is a singular threat to American democracy--led to the attack.
Senator JD Vance--who on July 13th had not yet been chosen as Mr. Trump's running mate--wrote on social media, the night of the shootings:
Today is not just some isolated incident.
The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs.
That rhetoric led directly to President Trump's attempted assassination.
The "at all costs" comment from Mr. Vance was, I would suggest, insidious, in the reach of its implication.
On Wednesday of this past week, as reported by USA Today, Mr. Trump, at a campaign rally in North Carolina, spoke of the assassination attempt. The USA Today article said:
At one point, Trump suggested that the shooter was inspired by the rhetoric that he is a threat to democracy, although there is no evidence as to what exactly motivated the attack.
"It could be caused when they call you a 'threat to democracy,'" Trump said. "You never know what causes it."
That's right: sometimes you never know--despite Mr. Trump's suggestion, just prior, to the contrary.
The allegations about Democratic rhetoric are, to say the least, a bit rich.
What happened in Butler was ghastly. It remains true, however, that Mr. Trump's threats to democracy--to the American electoral and governmental systems, and to those he regards as his political and ideological opponents and enemies--are genuine.
It would be irresponsible, in the extreme, for Democrats to refrain from speaking of them.
They most certainly should speak, for example, of Mr. Trump's attraction to and affection for autocrats, strongmen, dictators--Viktor Orban, Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong Un.
Mr. Trump clearly has dictator envy.
The allegations by Republicans about Democratic rhetoric ignore, of course, the routinely inflammatory, incendiary rhetoric that Mr. Trump has employed for years.
David A. Graham, staff writer at The Atlantic, wrote
on Dec. 7, 2023, of a speech given the month before by Mr. Trump in New
Hampshire. He quoted Mr. Trump's remarks (part of which were widely
noted, at the time):
"We pledge to you that we will root out the Communists, Marxists, fascists, and the radical-left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country, that lie and steal and cheat on elections,” Donald Trump said this past November, in a campaign speech that was ostensibly honoring Veterans Day. “The real threat is not from the radical right; the real threat is from the radical left … The threat from outside forces is far less sinister, dangerous, and grave than the threat from within. Our threat is from within.”
Mr. Graham then commented:
What immediately leaps out here is the word vermin, with its echoes of Hitler and Mussolini. But Trump’s inflammatory language can overshadow and distract from the substance of what he’s saying—in this case, appearing to promise a purge or repression of those who disagree with him politically.
On June 30th of this year, on his Truth Social platform, Trump shared posts by other Truth Social users.
One was about former Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney. The second shared post contained a list of political figures--including, notably, former Vice President Pence--who, the post proclaimed, should be jailed.
As CNN.com reported:
“ELIZABETH LYNNE CHENEY IS GUILTY OF TREASON,” one post created by [a Truth Social user] that Trump amplified...reads. “RETRUTH IF YOU WANT TELEVISED MILITARY TRIBUNALS.”
Cheney responded on X, “Donald - This is the type of thing that demonstrates yet again that you are not a stable adult—and are not fit for office.”
A separate post Trump [re-posted] on Truth Social Sunday includes photos of 15 former and current elected officials and says, “THEY SHOULD BE GOING TO JAIL ON MONDAY NOT STEVE BANNON!”
In addition to Biden and Harris, the post includes photos of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, former Vice President Mike Pence and members of the House select committee that investigated the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol.
Mr. Trump's months-long vitriolic falsehoods about the 2020 election certainly paved the way for the riot and assault on the U.S. Capitol in January of 2021--which was accompanied by his obvious lack of interest, in the hours after the rioting began, in stopping the violence.
He watched it all unfold on TV. And, according to various reports, he was glad to see it happen.
In February of 2021, Republican Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, of Washington, recounted an angry phone call on January 6th between Mr. Trump and then-House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy; Mr. McCarthy, news reports at the time indicated, later shared details of the phone call with certain members of the House Republican caucus.
“When McCarthy finally reached the president on Jan. 6 and asked him to publicly and forcefully call off the riot, the president initially repeated the falsehood that it was Antifa that had breached the Capitol,” Beutler said...“McCarthy refuted that and told the president that these were Trump supporters. That's when, according to McCarthy, the president said: ‘Well, Kevin, I guess these people are more upset about the election than you are.’”
CNN reported that multiple Republicans confirmed the contents of the phone call.
What is (at least to me) most striking about the phone call with Mr. McCarthy is
how quickly Mr. Trump turned on a dime, when challenged by Mr. McCarthy: he went from promoting a lie--that Antifa supporters were behind the insurrection--to immediately abandoning the lie, and then praising the rioters ("Well, Kevin, I guess these people are more upset about the election than you are").
Other still-startling and alarming remarks by Mr. Trump concerned those who were, during the insurrection, threatening his Vice President, Mike Pence; gallows, of course, had been built in conjunction with the threats.
In March 2021, Mr. Trump gave an interview to ABC journalist Jonathan Karl--details of which were released in November of that year, a few days in advance of the publication of a book by Mr. Karl, Betrayal: The Final Act of the Trump Show. During the 2021 interview, Mr. Trump was asked by Mr. Karl about the rioters' chants, on January 6th, threatening the Vice President.
Mr. Trump, in the interview--which Mr. Karl recorded--appeared to excuse, justify, the threats.
Jonathan Karl: Were you worried about [Vice President Pence] during that siege? Were you worried about his safety?
Trump: No, I thought he was well-protected, and I had heard that he was in good shape. No, because I had heard he was in very good shape. But, but--no, I think--
Karl: Because you heard those chants, that was terrible, I mean, you know, those--
Trump: He could have--well, the people were very angry.
In responding, "well, the people were very angry," Mr. Trump obviously knew what chants Mr. Karl was referring to. The conversation continued:
Karl: They were saying "Hang--
Crosstalk: Karl: --Mike Pence." Trump: Because it's--
Trump: --it's common sense, Jon, it's common sense, that you're supposed to protect--how can you--if you know a vote is fraudulent, right?, how can you pass on a fraudulent vote to Congress?
Mr. Trump, it is clear, cared nothing about the threats to the Vice President's life.
Mr. Trump had prepared his supporters, during the 2020 campaign, for what he claimed would be a fraudulent election--in part, no doubt, because many polls, during the course of the campaign--public polls, and, it has been reported, internal polls conducted by his campaign--suggested he was trailing Joe Biden.
On August 17, 2020--months before the election--Mr. Trump told a Wisconsin audience that "the only way we're going to lose this election is if the election is rigged."
He had made the same argument during his first presidential campaign: "I'm afraid the election's going to be rigged," he told an audience in Ohio, on August 1, 2016. The same day, he said this on Fox News: "I'm telling you, November 8, we'd better be careful, because that election is going to be rigged."
Two months later, in October of 2016, Chuck Todd of NBC News said the following, about Mr. Trump's predictions of a rigged outcome: "This is a way to not look like a loser, this is going to be Donald Trump defining victory in his own way." Mr. Todd said: "One thing he'll never admit [to is] losing or failing at anything."
One guesses that Mr. Trump will also never abandon his routinely incendiary rhetoric.
In May of 2024, during a private donor event in Florida, Mr. Trump said this, about the Biden administration, as reported on the NBC News website:
Donald Trump compared President Joe Biden’s administration to the secret police force of Nazi Germany in remarks at a private, closed-door donor retreat on Saturday afternoon.
The former president’s comments came as he was talking about his legal troubles, attacking the prosecutors in the cases and bemoaning the recent indictments in Arizona of several of his former top aides, along with 11 so-called fake electors from the 2020 election.
“These
people are running a Gestapo administration,” Trump said, according to
audio of the luncheon provided to NBC News. “And it’s the only thing
they have. And it’s the only way they’re going to win in their opinion.”
Mr. Trump posted the following--all of it in shouting-style caps, on his social media platform, on Memorial Day, May 29, 2023. Note that in this post--as in the November, 2023 speech in New Hampshire, cited above--he referred to the putative dangers to our country from within:
HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY TO ALL, BUT ESPECIALLY TO THOSE WHO GAVE THE ULTIMATE SACRIFICE FOR THE COUNTRY THEY LOVE, AND TO THOSE IN LINE OF A VERY DIFFERENT, BUT EQUALLY DANGEROUS FIRE, STOPPING THE THREATS OF THE TERRORISTS, MISFITS AND LUNATIC THUGS WHO ARE WORKING FEVERISHLY FROM WITHIN TO OVERTURN AND DESTROY OUR ONCE GREAT COUNTRY, WHICH HAS NEVER BEEN IN GREATER PERIL THAN IT IS RIGHT NOW. WE MUST STOP THE COMMUNISTS, MARXISTS AND FASCIST "PIGS" AT EVERY TURN AND, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!
There was also this, in April of this year, from CNN.com, regarding a lengthy interview Mr. Trump had given to Time magazine:
Former President Donald Trump wouldn’t dismiss the potential for political violence from his supporters if he isn’t elected in November, suggesting it would depend on the outcome of the presidential race.
“I don’t think we’re going to have that,” the presumptive GOP nominee told Time magazine. “I think we’re going to win. And if we don’t win, you know, it depends. It always depends on the fairness of an election.”
That's his anticipatory excuse--or, his threat: It depends.
