The Trump campaign is not sitting idly by after a second attempt was made on the former president’s life. As RedState reported, a would-be assassin named Ryan Wesley Routh was fired on and then arrested on Sunday after he was spotted setting up in a tree line. Routh’s background showed someone who had been radicalized by continued allegations of Trump being a “threat to democracy.”
READ: Disturbing Details About Ryan Routh, Arrest Footage, and That Bumper Sticker on His Truck
As my colleague Teri Cristopher chronicled, Kamala Harris has repeatedly used that phrase to describe the former president, presenting him as a dictator-in-waiting ready to end the republic. According to the Trump campaign, that kind of rhetoric has consequences, and they sought to prove that on Monday by dropping a laundry list of statements made by Democrat politicians and media figures.
There are some head-turners there, including a Harris comment asking, “Does one of us have to come out alive?” and Joe Biden stating, “It’s time to put Trump in a bullseye.” The number of other Democrats who have made similar statements is hard to keep up with. For example, Rep. Jason Crow (CO) said, “Trump is an extreme danger to our democracy,” and Rep. Stacey Plaskett (VI) blurted out, “He needs to be shot” while appearing on MSNBC back in 2023.
I won’t rehash the entire list, which can be found here with respective links, because I think the broader point here is what’s important. When you continually tell people that one man is not just bad for the country, but that he’s akin to Adolf Hitler and will put “LGBTQ” people in prisons, that is an invitation for the less mentally stable among us to act. Think about it. If Trump really is the second coming of one of the most murderous figures in world history, then why wouldn’t someone try to eliminate him before the election?
Of course, we all know Trump is not that. Someone can dislike him personally or not prefer his policies without resorting to such absurd hyperbole. Democrats are so convinced they are righteous among the few, though, that they will say anything at this point. Does that mean that every person quoted above was explicitly calling for Trump to be assassinated? No, but it does mean that they are purposely feeding into something very dangerous. This is the second, not the first attempt on Trump’s life. If ignorance was an excuse prior, it’s not anymore.
Lastly, let me say this. At some level in politics, making the other side play by their own rules becomes an important task. Democrats have spent decades claiming that every utterance by a Republican is an incitement to violence. They even tried to say that Trump standing up and saying “fight” after he was shot was inciteful. Given that, it is absolutely fair game to point out when Democrats use inflammatory language leading up to one of their own trying to kill Donald Trump.
