Two days after former President Trump survived a second assassination attempt, a New York Times reporter called him an “instigator of political violence” and an “incitement” for the attack.
“Donald Trump has long been seen as an instigator of political violence,” said chief White House press secretary Peter Baker. In Video The Times posted this on Tuesday: “Of course, while Trump criticizes the words and actions of Democrats, he gives no thought to his own.”
Trump told Fox News Digital on Monday that the assassination attempt was prompted by “comments” made by President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris calling him a “threat to democracy.”
The suspect, Ryan Wesley Routh, was arrested on Sunday after he was seen pointing a rifle through a chain-link fence near where President Trump was playing golf at Trump International Golf Club.
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Trump has blamed the attack on his life on Democratic “rhetoric.” (Getty Images)
In July, Trump was shot at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, and narrowly survived another assassination attempt.
Baker criticized Trump for condemning Democrats for their inflammatory rhetoric, arguing that Trump has long “circulated around violent language.”
“At the center of today's outpouring of political violence is Trump, who appears to be inciting people to threaten and act in support of or against him. He has long favored violent rhetoric in political discourse, urging his supporters to punch random onlookers, threatening to shoot looters and illegal immigrants, mocking a deadly attack on the husband of a Democratic House speaker and suggesting the execution of generals he sees as disloyal,” Baker wrote. Accompanying Articles From The Times.
“Trump complained that Democrats had targeted him, calling him a threat to democracy, while repeating his own claim that 'these are people trying to destroy our country' and calling them the 'enemy from within,' which is certainly language no less provocative than that used against Trump,” Baker said of the attacks on Harris and Biden.
The reporter suggested that President Trump's attitude had not changed even after the first assassination attempt shocked the country.
“After our former president was actually shot and grazed by a bullet in July, we thought there would be a more sustained reaction and perhaps some soul-searching about what was going on in our politics. But in reality, campaigns and politics in this country went back to normal pretty quickly,” he said in a video post.
“I think this report suggests that while political violence may not be acceptable, it may become increasingly expected,” he concluded.
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Republican candidate Donald Trump, bleeding from the face, is seen being surrounded by Secret Service agents and escorted off stage during a campaign event at the Butler Farm Show Co. in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13, 2024. Donald Trump was shot in the ear in a near-assassination attempt by a gunman at a campaign rally. (Rebecca Droke/AFP via Getty Images)
On The New York Times' “The Daily” podcast, Baker and podcast host Michael Barbaro doubled down on comments about Trump encouraging violence.
“In some ways, Trump is the man through which this new era of political violence flows,” Barbaro said.
“We are aware of the idea that Trump can incite political violence through his words and actions,” he continued.
“Exactly,” Baker replied. “I think Trump has intensified tensions in our society to the point where politics has become an existential battle and debate is no longer enough.”
The suspect in the thwarted shooting, Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, had repeated anti-Trump rhetoric on his social media pages this year, saying Biden and Harris' “democracy is on the ballot” and that Democrats “cannot lose.”
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The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Fox News' Brooke Singman contributed to this report.
